echappist

Completely guilty as charged, and ditto for not doing much core work despite being flexible. I was actually pretty shocked by how atrocious i looked in race photos.
yeah, i'm forcing myself to do these now. Anything less than a 3% hill, i'm in my drops and bending my elbows (though they probably aren't 90 degrees) or riding the hoods with everything parallel or perpendicular to the ground.

RacerOne

Photo credit - Michael Dawson

Leading the pack up the final climb at Hillsboro - Roubaix, one guy is already 30 seconds off the front and the two guys on the right out do me after the climb.. ended up fourth.

Blackdays

Not too many cat 5's with that great of a position on the bike. Grats on the win.

waterrockets 

+1 very aero. 'Grats!

TMonk

'

Way to go!

Please tell me you're not a D. If so, time to start racing Cs.

zitter

I did upgrade to C's, but after talking to my coach and higher category teammates, I decided to downgrade back to D's. It was reasoned that it's so close to conference and the end of the season that I wouldn't be able to adapt quickly enough to C's to do any real good and that I would be better off staying in the D's to help out teammates and try to put others on the podium or for me to win more. Right after conference, though, I'm upgrading to C's.

TMonk

^
oh please.

Who is your coach? Perhaps he/she is taking collegiate racing a little bit too seriously, especially in the lower cats...
If you are performing like that there is no reason you shouldn't race C's.
Just have some more confidence in your self is all im sayin and relax.

EDIT: In a sentence, your team people are basically encouraging you to sandbag.

Creatre

I wish I was in Cali or the NE for Collegiate cycling. We don't even had Collegiate D races. They usually combine the Collegiate A/B in races too because the fields are so small.

echappist

agreed. Collegiate D's is a crashfest. Don't over stay the party and leave while you are still in one piece

shovelhd

Sandbagging is part of racing. Get used to it.

badhat

doesnt mean you shouldnt call people on it

shovelhd

Of course. At your own risk.

badhat

yeah and im not sure id even call this scenario "sadbagging". its reasonable to want to finish out a series or season in the same field youve been in.

Brian Ratliff

The only object of a D/5/4 rider should be to upgrade into the next higher category. It makes absolutely no sense to stop your race development just to win some Cat D/5/4 series. Nobody cares and it's not really that much of an accomplishment.

badhat

i think people who think like that forget about the fact that the 4/5 is usually the biggest field and that plenty of people never get past there, and whats more, it has a sentimental stronghold for a lot of people as the field where they started out, where the had a lot of thier racing "firsts" and feel a strong bond with the people they came up with.

so while you look down your nose at it, saying "nobody cares" i know a lot of people who do care. they dont think it makes them great atheletes, but they're proud of themselves for pinning a number and making it one more lap before getting dropped, or for taking 10 seconds off of a TT PR.

if a guy starts there, and makes a lot of friends and has a lot of fondness for his field, theres nothing unsporting about finishing out a series there before moving up, even if it doesnt fit your expectations or prioirties for amateur bike racing.

TMonk

kind of like how doping is a part of racing?
doesn't mean it should just be written off as good sportsmanship imho.
It's behavior that shouldn't be encouraged.

I'm just writing for the sake of Zitter's competitors, not on my own behalf.
I've graduated and while I'm not nearly as experienced as you, I'm thoroughly accustomed to sandbaggers with 4 years and ~40 races under my belt, about half of them collegiate.

TMonk

BTW Zitter we should ride sometime. Do you do any group rides like Swami's Sat or Pendleton Wed?
I'd love to join you and your teammates for some training rides but it would never be routine because I'm in Vista and it's kind of a drive/ride to meet up.

echappist

not even remotely comparable.

TMonk

k nvm

I was using it just to illustrate the attitude of how he (as human beings) tend to accept things that are detrimental to a cause because of their abundance, not as a direct comparison.

Brian Ratliff

Sorry... sorry... forgot that the new generation is a bit more touchy feely than the old school. I wonder if a guy who is winning lots of D races is really at all worried about being dropped in the first lap of a crit .

My take: moving up a category has a greater honor than some placement in a lower cat race.

badhat

dont be smug about it.

i catted up as fast as i could cuz i knew i was up for it.

im just saying people have a lot of different motivations for racing. and some of them arent as caught up in honor and ego as ours.

SalsaPodio

+1

I'd rather place top 10 in a higher category any day than win in a lower category.

zitter

I have a bunch of teammates that do Swami's, but I have yet to do it myself. I'm doing Cyclovets this Sunday as a cat 5 if you're doing it. I'm going to try to get up to Encinitas for the Swami's Saturday ride sometime.

As regard to the advice on upgrading, I had some of the exact same thoughts. When I started cycling in January, I was told to get out of the D's as quickly as possible and I wanted to try and help out my teammates in the upper cats. At this point, from the advice from teammates and my coach, I would be better off finishing the season as a D and upgrading with the rest of my freshman friends so I won't leave them behind and possibly discourage them. Not my words, but they seem rather reasonable since our team is recovering from a couple bad years and we want everybody to stay motivated and excited for racing.

TMonk

Agreed.
"It's better to be the pawn of the kings than the king of the pawns"

Or however that went.

kleinboogie

I'm doing the 45+ then the first Cat 5 race, maybe the second to grab a start, at Cyclovets to. Roll to the back of the Cat 5 if you want to chat.