RacerMike

Alright, let's hear your stories!

Congrats to Lithuania for posting a top-10 in the B race; awesome job, man!

Course was great: technical in spots, fast in spots, deceiving in spots. Course was on the short side (2.5km) and the C race ended up being 6 laps. I heard, but have not confirmed, that the guy who won is is a Cat 2 road racer He only won by 14 seconds, but I'm positive he let up the last lap because he passed me just after he started the last lap and the 2nd place guy didn't go by me for about 3 minutes after that. Lots of sandbaggers in MABRA Cat 4 me thinks, which is why I'm definitely moving to Masters next year, not that I'll do anything there either

Most disappointing thing about this race was the scoring. There were ~100 starters for the Cat 4 race; at the start they told us that they were going to enforce the lapped rule and that if we were lapped we should pull ourselves from the race and report a DNF to the officials; this was done under the guise of being able to have more accurate results. IMHO, its a load of crap; this is the second race in MABRA this year that a bunch of people that finished were scored as DNFs. I know we are lowly bottom feeders, but many of us in Cat 4 use our finish spots (as far back as they might be) to judge how we are progressing and to be scored a DNF when you finished is horrible. The top 5 guys got by me on the last lap; only 57 people finished on the lead lap and were scored. Its a shame, really, and as cyclocross is only getting bigger and bigger in this area they need to find a solution. My personal solution is to go Masters, but not everyone who rides at the back of Cat4 has that option.

Other than that, I loved the course; the venue was awesome; good music, food and beer; and as always the camaraderie was fantastic.

So, how was your Tacchino?

gfactor

My idea? next time they do the call ups and the front sixteen get their places in the starting grid the refs just say 'ok, you guys in the lead.... you're now in the B race, move over and let the C noobs race.'

The sandbagging doesn't bother me since i'm so far back. What was annoying was to have a sandbagger off in front be rude while lapping me. Just warn me the leaders are coming through and you'll get by.

availpunk9

Terrible day. The guy ahead of me crashed; while jumping on his bike, somehow managed to kick my front wheel. Broken spokes ended my day of racing

Crack Monkey

Yeah, good course, good location, good people, good beer, good sausage.

But the officials inability to score damn near half the field is totally inexcusable. And the "pull yourself for safety's sake" is a total cop out. Maybe in a crit, where the speeds are higher and the lead pack stays bunched up, but in a Cat4 'cross race? Gimme a break. And the first person that responds "ride faster; don't get lapped" gets a virtual dick-punch.

And the winner of the Cat4 being surly when passing lapped traffic was icing on the cake - a simple "on your left/right" or "leaders coming up" works much better than screaming "MOVE OVER!"

Crack Monkey

Sounds like a plan.

Really, I don't care if people sandbag in the CAT4 race, it's not like we're racing for rent money. I just want to be scored, so I know how badly RacerMike beat me.

kennykaos

wow im glad i didnt go down for that, i usually end up getting lapped in the last lap and getting a DNF even after finishing would really bother me, just let everyone finish on the leaders last lap like it says in the UCI rules, no big deal.

SpongeDad

Bummed I missed it even with the scoring BS.

I really hope the putz attitude doesn't infect cyclocross. So far, I haven't had a problem with the guys lapping me. In fact, some of them have been encouraging as they motor by or at least said thank you when I moved over to give them a clear shot. Basically, it's more gentlemanly (is that a word?).

Lithuania

my tent went through over $100 in beer, we had the grill out, and i spent $40 in chocolate alone for the cookies I made. ill just leave it at that

awesome day

dc.cyclocross

a real nice course and a beautiful day. Tacchino really did a nice job making it fun and promoting it.

too bad about the scoring, again. that's really something that should be improved.

marc

bitterken

I had a crappy cat 4 race with a hard crash on the 1st lap that cost me a ton of places and my sunglasses, but overall, I thought it was a great day. It's always nice to see everyone and having teammates do well makes it even better. Way to go Lith!

And as one of the last ones scored in the cat 4 race, yeah, I agree that half the field pretty much got screwed...but with those short laps, I can totally see why the officials did it (and no, I don't think it was a safety issue, but more of making the officials lives easier.)

Anyways, I'll see everyone at HoCo! It's B masters for me for the rest of the season.

Crack Monkey

So, what are officials in other regions doing that officials in the mid-atlantic are not?

A quick glance at www.crossresults.com shows quite a few events with 100+ finishers scored in a category. The Cross Crusades appear to have had 150+ in several events.

Crack Monkey

They're paid to be there, just like refs at other club sports. That's not an excuse.

[edit-toned down language]

bitterken

I think there were two factors in play:

1. Short and fast laps meant more then the usual share of racers will get lapped which would make keeping track of places much harder then normal.

2. Being a new course and venue made for some early chaos resolution (including a last minute course redesign) that resulted in a late start. So in order to get things back on track, the officials got ready for the next race rather then keeping track of the lapped riders.

bitterken

I'm just pointing out my opinion that they did it to make their lives easier. I'm not saying that I agreed with it. Like I said, half the field got screwed.

*new*guy

good time. had a blast on the singlespeed.

Lithuania

maybe some of you guys should become officials

SpongeDad

If they're the black and blonde cookies - those were darn fine at DCCX.

Having happily mooched off you guys at Kelley Acres and DCCX, I'll have to bring something to one of the HoCo races.

Lithuania

im glad you enjoyed them and had a good time hanging out.

unfortunately tacchino may have been my last race of the year so im not sure what type of setup you will see from us the rest of the season.

RacerMike

your last race of the season? ending it on a high note?

As far as the officials go, its not a job I would want and I thank them at every event I participate in for their efforts. Having said that, its not really rocket science. Once the field is spread out, which is usually by the time the first lap is done, its a matter of writing down numbers as they go by then when the race is over figuring out the order based on position and number of laps. I agree that they need to get results posted in a timely manner for podiums and protest periods, but I see no reason why a "next day" version cannot include every racer who started. Masters B race has 75 starters (vs 94 in C Race), many of who were lapped and were scored; didn't seem to cause a problem there.

Lithuania

life took an unexpected turn in the last two weeks leaving me with much more important stuff to worry about than racing unfortunately. its a shame too because i was just starting to find the form i lost last year.

RacerMike

Steve, very sorry to hear that. Hope things turn around; if there's a chance that I can do anything to help, please don't hesitate to ask.

JBinDC

This was my second CX race (first was DCCX) and I had a great time. Thanks to everyone who put this together and made it happen.

I'll echo what has already been said about the scoring. I don't know much about this sport but what's with this sandbagging? I recognized the top finishers in the DCCX Cat4 were on podium at Tacchino. At both races the separation of the front riders to the rest was huge. Aren't they embarrassed? Are they being held back from entering the Cat3?

RacerMike

Ken, I saw you stopped with your helmet off as I passed you on the first lap but forgot to ask you about it after the race. When you passed me a few laps later, I could not hold your wheel.

Well, looks like you will remain my nemesis then! I've given serious consideration to moving to B Masters for my remaining races as well but am undecided.

gfactor

racermike were you caught in that crash in the first piece of grass off the start? Someone's front wheel scraped my rear -- I think they went down and I just cleared it.

RacerMike

Nope, I came to a complete stop, but was not hit and did not fall. Once again, you demolished me at the start even though we lined up next to each other and I had to reel you in again. I guess I need to work on my start