Work on your reading comprehension skills. Unless you consider 1/2/3 to be lower categories.

No course is a poor course for a break away to work.
Especially Winters.

You can't tell me that all 50 of those riders can all climb at the same pace.

As a matter of fact, I know that not to be the case. I had teammates in that race and he got away in a small group and nobody would work.

If you are not going to work, then why did you get into the break?

In years past that race has broken up. Our race, the 35 + 1/2/3 broke up into numerous groups because of the hill.

SWoo wrote:Winters is a poor course to do that (because of whatever logistical reasons) the finish is on the flats after a long run in on flat roads. The only people that can pull away from the pack on a course like that in the lower categories are sandbagging.

When I race at the track I can attack all day in every event and the number of people that will actually work with you in a race is tiny and the number that will give up their chances for a top finish by spending energy to chase you down is pretty much almost everyone else.

Winters is a poor course to do that (because of whatever logistical reasons) the finish is on the flats after a long run in on flat roads. The only people that can pull away from the pack on a course like that in the lower categories are sandbagging.

When I race at the track I can attack all day in every event and the number of people that will actually work with you in a race is tiny and the number that will give up their chances for a top finish by spending energy to chase you down is pretty much almost everyone else.

There is another way to fix that problem.
RIDE!
Quit trying to bring every race down to a pack sprint. After all, there is a pretty fair hill in that race to separate everything out.

If you find yourself in a break, WORK! Make it stick. Nothing gambled, nothing gained.

If a hilly road race comes down to a massive field sprint, something has gone terribly, terribly WRONG.

I was nearly pushed into a ditch by this guy as he literally held my jersey for about five seconds as he passed on the first hill. I filed a complaint with the organizers following the race, which was very gratifying. Later I found out that this particular rider has a long rep in the peloton for such misconduct.
How do I found out whether this guy was sanctioned, or whether we (the fun-lovers and safety-minders) will have to deal with him again?

I don't race Masters, but considering how many Masters 4/5s are out there these days, it sure does make a lot of sense to separate these fields for really big races like Winters. It seems the history is there so that you know ahead of time which races are likely to have full categories.

I'm also curious about the 30+ category. Is the purpose just for overflow? I suppose it makes sense in that context. However, an extra 3/4/5 overflow field makes even more sense. The Pro 1/2s aren't going to fill up and the 30+ Cat2s should be designated for this field so that you don't have Cat5s jousting with Cat1s. Plus, an extra 3/4/5 field would take care of everyone else and not just those who are over 30 and couldn't get in. No one would get turned away and the races would be better. The only folks "punished" really would be the Cat3s who didn't pre-reg. You could still award upgrade points to 3s as long as enough 3s had entered the race.

It did not effect our team's results as the folks in question did not know how to postion for the sprint at the end of the race.

Thanks for clarifying the center line rule - good to know.

guest wrote:There were a lot of center line violations in the 4/5 A race and some serious unsportsmanlike conduct from a certain rider who actually grabbed the jersey of two different riders who ended up screaming at eachoth. Fortunately no crashes. I don't necessarily want to be a tattle tale, but do like to be going back to work on Monday without scars and broken bones. What is the best way to address this? Send you the race numbers/rider names or team names so you can warn them? Two teams did this quite a bit and it is not only unfair but dangerous as there was a fair amount of oncoming traffic and tight roads. There was also another team where three of the four guys just had awful pack skills and almost caused a few crashes - have you consider splitting the 35+ 4/5s into a 4 and a 5 race instead of A/B mixed?

Also, are you allowed to pass on the center line - seems like your bars would be over the center line if you were on it. One rider in particular has done this in serveral races. I know there were some DQs recently in the 1/2 - maybe you can make more of example of some folks in the lower ranks when there is a motorcyle there.

You need to bring conduct problems to the attention of the officials on the day of the race. Otherwise there really isn't much that can by done. We need more motorcycle officials in the region so we could cover more fields in races like Winters. Crossing the centerline is really in the eye of the official following the race but in general as long as the wheels are in contact with the centerline it generally isn't considered a violation

There were a lot of center line violations in the 4/5 A race and some serious unsportsmanlike conduct from a certain rider who actually grabbed the jersey of two different riders who ended up screaming at eachoth. Fortunately no crashes. I don't necessarily want to be a tattle tale, but do like to be going back to work on Monday without scars and broken bones. What is the best way to address this? Send you the race numbers/rider names or team names so you can warn them? Two teams did this quite a bit and it is not only unfair but dangerous as there was a fair amount of oncoming traffic and tight roads. There was also another team where three of the four guys just had awful pack skills and almost caused a few crashes - have you consider splitting the 35+ 4/5s into a 4 and a 5 race instead of A/B mixed?

Also, are you allowed to pass on the center line - seems like your bars would be over the center line if you were on it. One rider in particular has done this in serveral races. I know there were some DQs recently in the 1/2 - maybe you can make more of example of some folks in the lower ranks when there is a motorcyle there.