I appreciate the commentary, Dave. (At this point hearing from Jed and Donny is like hearing your older and younger brothers' opinions at the dinner table. I just want to cover my ears and go "La La La La La ...").

I don't think that Casey or I want any more retooling of the schedule for Cherry Pie. This has been a marvelously educational experience for my first directorship, and hopefully others' will take heed of the comments.

The juniors should be happy with the status quo, and their master parents too. The women (and the recumbents of course) have gotten the short end because we decided to commit to the juniors series and please the masters (of which we have many on ERT), thus leaving no room for the W4, and I hope that other races will make different choices -- especially those run by teams with strong womens' contingents (EMC, Alto Velo, Metromint, etc...)

I reviewed the schedule at length to try to: 1. Have mentors for the 5's race, 2. Allow people to race 2/days, 3. Please the spectators. I honestly didn't consider the junior/master connection. Sorry. The juniors had to be first. Yours will be (by far) the smallest field, and I couldn't continue to have the 5's first and expect to get mentors to help.

The good news? We're starting at 8:00 this year instead of 7:30.

Cheers. Zebraman

I know it is way too late to make a push for this so close to the race, but it would be great to see juniors crits A) get real prizes B) get good start times C) get longer races. Now, I can deffinatly see promoters saying, "We let them race with cheaper race entry fees!!!" I see their point, so I am deffinatly not up in arms over these issues, but at the same time it would be nice to do a juniors race and feel like it was more than a warm-up. Also, quite a few or even possibly most 15-16 and 17-18's race the Cat 3's and Juniors races on the same day, and last year those races were back to back. Thanks for changing that around this year.
I have always enjoyed the Cherry Pie crit and I love the pies (though every time I win one I get a lecture on not eating the whole thing) but as long as people were talking about scheduling I thought I would put in my two cents.

For several reasons it would be good to have the 45+ race earlier in the day, and before the 35+ 1,2,3's. Isn't it more likely that a junior racer would have a Dad in the 45's than in the 35's-not just George and co. ?

Too early in the year for me to race but I finally looked at the flyer and guestimate the course to be less than one kilometer with four turns in the last 250 or so meters.

Those poor juniors have to freeze their socks off again. We were looking forward to a later start. Alas, the dilemna is can Daddy race now at 2:10 am? Brrrrrrr!!!! If you meant 2:10 pm, that still means hanging around all day Sunday--something we don't typically do.

The Meilahn Clan (Two juniors and a 45+ 3) :?

Jesster writes:
Quote:Really, shouldn't we all be holding hands and singing Kumbaya for the poor recumbents?
How come no one is showing them the love?

cuz them suckas is FREAKS!

just like 'dem single-speeders.

- - -

you best save one a them beers for me, Jess.
And can't wait to hear you hollerin' crazy-talk at Albany again this year.

good stuff.

Well, lets' just use a fictional guy -- MH lets' call him -- as an example:

Lets' say MH is a 36 yr old uber-meister Cat 1. Basically he gets to keep his lazy behind in the sack most of the morning, then cruise leisurely up the 80 to the golden winter sun of the Napa Valley for a post-noon race. Tough one.
Then he gets two hours of relaxation, lunch and optional pitchers in the sun along the course with his Boyz n Black while he decides if he wants to challenge the Euro-ubers in their Tour training race -- the pro/1/2's.

Lets' say MH suddenly awoke in a Dickens story and he was an ancient (45+) Cat 1. Then he could race the 35+ 1/2/3's and still have the talent and experience advantage over all those poor disadvantaged 2/3's. (And I'm sure he'd still have that marvy sense of humor, Donny Osmond smile, and all his teeth.)

But I must agree with you Mike. It's not optimal to have the W4's mixed in with the 1/2/3's, even with seperate prizes. We have a new team (ERT) with a new womens' category and several novice W4's who will be equally disadvantaged.

But then again, they'll have come off four straight weeks of Early Bird races, they can race on Saturday at Apple Pie in their own field, and they can race again on Sunday at Cherry Pie in the mixed field with their own prizes.

Really, shouldn't we all be holding hands and singing Kumbaya for the poor recumbents? How come no one is showing them the love?

Zebraman

whew, Jess ...

i need to break out my abacus to figure out which races to enter.

-

question: is that a 35+ cat 4 race? no 5's allowed?

interesting race, that.

-

loves me some cherry pie, see you guys there.

oh, and i disagree with running W4's with W1/2/3.

but, you already knew that. i've heard so many guys talk about how 46 year old cat 4's shouldn't have to race against the Nolan/Caldwell thresher of death.

and here you go n' do the same bit o' to the femmes.

shame on you, big daddy. But, i know how much you love the sport and can do nothing but admire that.

see you at all them races.

We've decided to present the Master Elite 4 category in lieu of the recumbents.

Our reasons were several:

1. As Tom instructed above, we can't combine WM3 and W4 (which invalidated my poll). The W4 category would have had limited attendance. And I would have insisted on mentors, and we know from Albany '06 what a kettle of fish that would have been for some of the riders.

2. We are already offering a discrete set of W4 prizes for the combined Open W field, so we felt the W4's are already covered better than the M4's are, with no separate prizes and having to race against the M123's.

3. M4 is one of the, or the, biggest demographic of racers in the region. It doesn't make sense to not have a category for the masses.

Our apologies to the recumbent racers, who are the only ones left without a category to race.

CHERRY PIE CRIT - FEBRUARY 11, 2007

Start time Category Length Field limit
8:00 am Junior 10-12, 13-14 20 min 50
8:30 am Junior 15-16, 17-18 30 min 50
9:10 am Elite 5 (mentored) 30 min 50
9:50 am Elite 4 40 min 100
10:40 am Elite 3 40 min 100
11:30 am Masters 35+ Cat. 4 40 min 100
12:20 pm Masters 35+ Cat. 1/2/3 45 min 100
1:15 pm Women 45 min 100
2:10 am M 45+/55+ Cat. 3/4 40 min 100
3:00 pm Elite 1, 2, Pro 60 min 100

[/]

I just want to point out that it is not permitted under USCF rules to run an event that combines cat.4 women and cat.3 master women -

1H3. Mixing of Classes. An organizer may offer races for combined classifications and categories but the categories in a given race must be the same for all age groups.

It's not a new rule, but not everybody is aware of it.

Yeah, Supervisor. I'm with you on that! But how do we know aforehand that it would attract them (the women pros)?

We're trying to work out a couple of significant sponsorships to increase the prize money, especially for the pro fields, hoping to make Cherry Pie a natural warm-up event for the Amgen Tour racers. Of course that increase would flow proportionately to the women as well.

I'd like to keep the poll limited to riders in those fields who would like to compete at Cherry Pie in those fields (so we get an idea of numbers).

Thanks!

go for woman since I am tired of seeing so many 35+ races and no 30+ races. I especially will vote for the woman if it will bring more of the womans pro teams to this race.

Are you limiting the poll respondents to those who would be affected by the choices, or is this a chance for people to decide what other people can do?