Tuesday, October 19, 2010

BloomingCross

Stop #6 of the OVCX series stopped into Bloomington, IN for BloomingCross. BloomingCross kicked off with a FREE Saturday Barry Wicks cyclocross clinic followed by a great bonfire. What's greater than learning tips from one of the best, then setting things on fire eating S'Mores!

As expected, Barry took the win but more interesting was Sherer over Knapp. I would have bet Ryan over Mike, but Mike has had an excellent season with a huge win at Glencoe Grand Prix earlier this season (sorry thats not cyclocross but huge none-the-less.)

 I'll first start out by saying congrats to Elizabeth Cobb. I called her out and she has done the right thing and move up to the Elite Women.

Seems like we had a new winner in the Cat 3 race. Always good to see a new face up on the podium. We also have a new sandbagger alert with Jason Monk getting up on the second step on the podium. With that second place, he's also sitting pretty second in overall points behind Ray Smith. Ray didn't crashed but managed to recover to finish 8th and now sits on top of the points.

But do the math, Ray has done 6 races with 334 points and Jason 5 races with 282. Average it out and Ray has 55.7 and Jason 56.4. Very close. Third place isn't too far off either at 56 points.

Now lets move onto the Masters categories.

This came though the OVCX mailing list today from Fred Rose and I have to say it's great that he's saying it.

Speaking as someone poised to take advantage of this curious practice myself as of next season, I would simply like to say that (IMHO) the practice of having a separate (read additional) pay out for the Masters 45+ is needless, silly and should end.

It makes no sense and is needless extra work for Barb and other race officials. One race. One pay out. Separate points for OVCX standing.

Cheers,
Fred

My major beef with the series is do we really need Cat 4 35+, Cat 4 45+, Cat 3 35+, Cat 3 45+, Womens 3/4 35+, Elite Masters 35+ and Elite Masters 45+??? Seems like a nightmare for the officials and scorers just so people can feel good at the water cooler talk at work on Monday. "Yeah I won my race on Sunday!"

How about Cat 4 Open, Cat 4 Masters, Cat 3 Open, Cat 3 Masters etc...

Now Corey Green. 2nd in the Single Speed race, then you got 3rd in the Cat 3 35+ race. Its hard enough to double up, but to double up podiums? On top of that, the top 4 Cat 3 35+ (Corey Green, Shane Nalley, Peter Hills, Brian Collier) and top 3 Cat 3 45+ seem to be running away from the rest of the riders.

Cap City Report Tomorrow so bookmark this site and check back.

8 comments:

  1. Corey Was gone before you called him out, check the confirmed riders for USGP.
    Stacy is just fine where she is. She's done 6 races for her points and # 2 has only done 4.

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  2. Yep, the comment above made me curious about Staci Mandrola since I handn't noticed any sandbagger-worthy domination (not that I get much of a view of the domination from my place in the pack). According to crossresults.com, she is still 4 upgrade points short of her 4>3 upgrade. AND since we don't have seperate classes for women's 3's and women's 4's (yet), you can't really call a Cat 3 woman a sandbagger for racing the 3/4's unless she's earned enough points for her 3>2 upgrade. Sure, the Elite Women's class is technically 1/2/3's, but so is the Elite Men's. I'm pretty sure that a Cat 3 man moving up to Elites before he's earned his Cat 2 upgrade is a rare occasion, so why should it be expected of the women?

    I know a lot of Cat 4 women like to complain about the Cat 3's in the Women's 3/4 class, but we shouldn't blame the Cat 3 women. We should blame the fact that the current OVCX race schedule does not offer an appropriate place for them, and urge the race promoters to offer a Cat 3 women's class next year. Now that we have two time slot's worth of juniors, as well as the men's singlespeed, the Cat 4 women could go with the younger juniors and the Cat 3 women could go with the older juniors and singlespeed men.

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  3. Thanks for the fact checking. I guess I should have done the points/race calculation like I did for the men

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  4. The year started with a plan. If you look at past results you will notice a multi-year middle of the pack philosophy to racing. This year started different and the future registrations are being adjusted to account for it.

    Don't hate on people for actually executing a plan and finally getting success. Trust me it was unexpected and history proves that out pretty well.

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  5. If you're gonna bag on Peter Hills and bag on Corey Green then why aren't you bagging on the racer in between them? 5 races, 5 podiums and 3 "top steps". More than Peter OR Corey. Equal hate for all!

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  6. Great point made by Lindsay. Cat 3 women have no where to go. They get hammered by the front end of the 1/2/3 field or people want to cry about them on here if they race the 3/4.

    And really if you aren't winning the elite race does it really matter where you finish? If you win the women's 3/4 masters or the men's Cat 3 open you are still behind all the elite level riders. So if someone wants to hang out in the Cat 3 masters and win every race without challenging themselves to move up then let them. It doesn't keep you from getting better as a rider and moving on past them if you work hard enough.

    It just seems like some people don't want anyone to beat them. So it is that person's fault for sandbagging and not their own fault for not being fast enough.

    Maybe we can make the OVCX like a 5yr old's soccer league where everyone gets a trophy just for showing up.

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  7. Jeff, I hate everyone. Just cause I didn't call out someone in one post, doesn't mean I won't later. In fact, I even hate myself and wish every night before I go to bed that I don't wake up in the morning

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  8. Make Masters start at 40 and only have one Masters class per category. If 39 year olds can race the TdF they can race Cat 3 open.

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