Monday, September 27, 2010

Michael Chewning!

Congratulations on getting your Category 2 upgrade in Cyclocross!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Devou Park Festival

This was posted in the comments so I thought it would be nice to pass it along.

"We are having an open house/fund raiser for the Devou Permanent Cyclocross Course on October 2nd starting at 12:30pm. Cyclocross spectacle goes off at 2pm. Festival and Grill Fires up at 3:30pm. Email devouparktrails@gmail.com for more info. "

Of course Joe and Scot H are going to comment I'm bad for the sport, I'm a piece of shit, and I should die a slow and painful death

Friday, September 24, 2010

Rebuttal Friday

To play fair with my readers, I am going to dedicate Fridays to defend yourself or one of your friends who I have called out. Fridays will be the day to redeem yourself before going into the weekend of racing. It would only seem fair to you all.

I would also like to point out that this blog is mainly going to be satire. Many of you have taken and interpreted my writings as written and have been very offended. Yes I know all the protocols and rules regarding upgrading but if this were a cut and dry, to the rules blog, it really wouldn't be funny now would it. It would just be some boring news. I do admit I did take it a bit far a few days ago, but it was simply to stir shit up. I wrongly assumed that it would be so over the top that no one would really believe it. But it really shows that the OVCX community is very tight and supportive of anyone racing. Again I am sorry for my stupidity there. So please, if you are going to continue to read, take my words lightly.

And when the day comes when I reveal my identity, I'll let all you haters get back at me. At a big race, I'll tie myself up on a tree, put a sock in my mouth, sack over my head and become a human pinata. I'll let you all beat me with a baseball bat with no legal consequences (short of death.)

Now lets get to the point and rebuttals.

I called out Ray Smith in a previous post and he quickly emailed me defending himself. If you look back at his results, he actually was racing Cat 4's last year. So definitely he was racing the correct category for the first races of the season. Ray has been racing lots of 100 milers and has definitely has gotten very fast and will be a person to watch out for this season. Again, I was quick to judge, but that is the point of this blog, to stir up controversy. Ray will do well in the 3's or if he so chooses, the 1/2/3's. I hope Ray will come back and start reading this blog again.

An emailer who chooses to remain anonymous, told me that many times people get turned down for their upgrades. Obviously, they have no choice than to remain in their category, rack up a few more wins and reapply for an upgrade. On the flip side, I think upgrade coordinators need to do a better job being proactive about upgrades. Sure the upgrade guy/girl might not do cross, but doesn't mean they need to turn the blind eye.

Another good point is the said rider may have been the bottom of the barrel last year, trained their ass off, and now is ripping legs off of their competitors. To them I raise my glass and say cheers as their hard work has paid off. Now rack up those points and quickly upgrade. Remember 2 wins gives you an auto upgrade (assuming correct field size.) Racing with faster people will only make you faster.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Sandbagger Origins

Now I'm sure many of you know who a sandbagger is by now. It's someone who races a category too low for their ability. More often than not, many of these sandbaggers have no desire to upgrade and have to race at a higher, more difficult category.

Reasons may be because they A: do not have the time to train to compete at a higher level, B: they like to just pummel other guys around, C: easy prize money or D: like in A:, they are too lazy to train and just reaping the benefits of their talents.

So I was wondering, what does sandbags have anything to do with a racer racing down a category?

So a quick search on Google yielded some good results.

First stop was the dictionary definition on www.merriam-webster.com. The first definition was "to bank, stop up or weight with sandbags." Well that is definitely not the definition we are looking for. But wait, 2a: to hit or stun with or as if with a sandbag
b: to treat unfairly or harshly
c: to coerce by crude means
d: to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent especially in order to take advantage of

Now definition 2D is more along the lines of a sandbagger in cycling. With a few more mouse clicks I was able to find that back in the 19th century, gangs and gang members would simply use a sock or small bag, fill it with sand and beat people with it! Brilliant! A cheap but effective weapon! With these sandbags, they intimidated the population and went along with their gang business.

So I couldn't possibly go without trying out this new piece of information so I headed over to my dryer, took that lone tube sock whose other half has been missing for years and filled it some sand from my backyard. I put in enough sand to make about a baseball and tied it off. I swung it around a few times and could definitely feel the heft and while I was thinking I could really hurt something, I accidentally hit myself in the leg... OUCH! Now onward to the pesky neighbor dog that keeps barking through the night... (ok now you really think I would beat the poor helpless dog with a sock full of sand?)

Now the next evolution of the sandbag term came from the game we all lose our money at in Vegas, Poker! In poker, a sandbagger is someone who has a good hand, but holds off on betting to give his opponents a false sense of security. If you get pocket aces and go all in, most likely everyone else will fold. But instead you slow play it and then bam! You throw out your good (sandbag) hang and clobber them all.

Wikipedia also has a bunch of other sandbagging definitions but they all are pretty much the same thing. Racing: dialing in a slower ET and braking at the end to not break out; Finance: forecasting low so your profits look better; Golf: play poorly to get a good handicap then actually playing your potential, etc.

Well there you have it, coming from the mouth of the sandbagger of all sandbaggers. You can also go over to The Best Bike Blog Ever and read Joe's version.

Now time to go sandbag those raccoons who keep knocking over my trash cans

Public Apology

I am sorry to all of you fellow viewers for my racist comments toward Katsu Tanda in my last post. I have removed the snippet in the last post.

I have emailed Katsu and apologized to him as well. I am good friends with him and it was all a big joke. To clear things up, he is Japanese and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

And to make thinks not so anonymous, I have invited him to write on his blog. I will need other writers or reporters as well since I cannont be at every race, especially when there is a Cap City and OVCX race on the same day.

Again, I am deeply sorry for my previous comments.

Cross Vegas

We sure won't see any Sandbaggers at Cross Vegas tonight! Too bad Interbike is moving to Anaheim next year and we will no longer see Cross Vegas for at least 3 years. NOTHING beats the 10,000 people drunk and rowdy cheering on the best in cross racing.

***Edited***

Anyway, with no OVCX or Cap City for two weeks, I may not have much to write about. Or maybe I will.

Until next time

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

McShane and Rose

Since angry commenter Dan pointed out Mike McShane and Fred Rose were sandbagging the Elite Masters race, I decided to take a look.

I guess everyone who has been to an OVCX race for the past few years and watched the Elite Masters, there is a similar theme, McShane and Rose. Who will win? Seems like everyone is racing for third place.

Last year, both McShane and Rose won their Elite masters category, 45+ for McShane and 35+ for Rose. Unfortunately, the results don't show the raw finishes so I have no idea who topped who at which race since they both have 100 points for just about every race.

Both Mike and Fred are more than capable of racing an extra 15 minutes and racing the normal non-masters Elite race. Example is Mike did the Elite men's race at the Promotion Cross since he had the series locked up. I remember him either rolling a tire or crashing and losing a lot of time. Then a few laps later, he blew by me and settled in for 4th place. If he did not have that mechanical/crash, he would have definitely would have finished podium.

Another point is Kings CX day two. Andy Messer did the Masters race and could not top those two. Andy is a very good cross rider and consistently finishes high in the Elite race.

Though they do have once little bit of defence. They race the Elite masters category at the UCI3 and USGP. McShane, if I recall correctly, travelled to Jersey and maybe Portland to get in on the USGP action and did very well.

But ultimately, the point of this blog is to call out the sandbaggers. So Mike McShane and Fred Rose, race the Elite race. An extra 15 minutes isn't going to hurt you. On the plus side, you'll get an extra hour of sleep

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sandbagger Submissions

A quick update on sending me emails on Sandbagging accusations.

1: Please try to give some explanation. Past results will be nice. I will try to do research on my own, but it would help if you did some leg work for me.

2: I WILL NOT CALL OUT JUNIOR RIDERS. NO EXCEPTIONS! You can send me Junior rider accusations but I will not post them. Please kindly ask them or their parents to consider moving up.

3: If you happen to be the accused, you can send me a rebuttal email. Obviously this won't be an anonymous posting otherwise we won't know who is defending themselves. If you are defending a fellow accused sandbagger, your comments can be either anonymous or with your name. By default it will be anonymous.

4: Lets also praise those people who move up a category either from last year or mid year. There will be a props post every once in a while.

5: Lets keep this somewhat civil. If the submissions or comments get too unruly, I will shut this blog down. We don't need people going to races angry. I will try not to post anything too offensive and I will delete comments which I may deem too insensitive or other commentators deem it so. And please, if I start to get out of line, send me an email to keep me in check.

Kings Cross Day Two

I wasn't at the second day of Kings cross but I got the scoop from people.

GOOD JOB and Congrats to Michael Chewning for moving up and racing with the big boys. He pulled off a nice 16th place in the Mens 1/2/3.

I will also like to explain some things as well. Some comments have said along the lines of "Well if you are at the front, that makes you a sandbagger?" or "So you get lucky and in the break, you are a sandbagger?"

If we were road racing, this would not really hold true. It's very easy to take a free ride in the break or sit in at the front. This is NOT the case in cross. There is so much more rolling resistance that you can't just go on for a free ride. Plus there is the bike handling aspect of cross. You also are going a lot slower so there is less draft benefit. That said, if you are in the field lapping Cat 3 break in cross, you are still working your ASS off to stay there.

As for the "I hope these "sandbaggers" move up to the 1/2/3 field and take your money. Did you think about that one? " comment, I welcome that. More competition is better. If I get beat and don't make money, I just need to go back and train harder for the next week. We're all not in this to make a living so who gives a Fuck if you don't make money. I spend thousand of dollars each year and hundreds of hours on the bike to go out and race and GET MY ASS KICKED. I go home feeling good about myself that I gave it my all and I turned myself inside out.

Want your favorite sandbagger featured on this site? Send and email to ohiosandbagger@gmail.com. All emails will be confidential and your name WILL NOT be revealed.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Kings Cross Clarification

Ok, I don't have any beef with Chewning. I just called him out since he was the most notable one who stuck in my head. I'll also call out Dan Lach and Ray Smith who were also in that mix. Can't remember who else was in there.

I'll also give props to Josh Johnson (Cat 1/2/3 winner) and Adam Rodkey who moved up to the big boys this year.

Nope I'm not revealing my name. I'll keep it Bike Snob NYC style and keep it anonymous.

The only thing I'm going to tell you is I race with the big boys and suffer like a dog for 1 hour. So I'm not sandbagging

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Kings Cross

Witnessed some major sandbagging in the Mens Cat 3 race today at Kings Cross. Top six broke away from the rest of the field and put a HUGE gap on the rest. Included in that mix was Michael Chewning, who is the current Ohio State Cat 3 CX champ.

Do the right thing and upgrade you sandbaggers. Or at least race the 1/2/3's