Dave Burnard
Shame on all those fast but short hour working, bad parenting racers
out there in OBRA land, training long and hard while their children
and careers suffer, and then going crazy in the open category sprints!
I say make them re-stain Chris Horner's deck. ;)
On Apr 1, 2008, at 6:29 PM, Karsten Hagen wrote:
> OK
>
> Theres a lot of racing out there for masters 40+, but very little
> for 30-39. When I raced in Wisconsin, the masters 30-39 fields were
> consistently full, fast and fun. The races were shorter to
> accommodate the fact that many in the field worked long hours, tried
> to be good parents and thus found extended training sessions
> impossible. Plus, most importantly, we were getting older and
> slower. I dont think Im the only guy in his 30s in Oregon trying
> to balance work, family and his addic....um....racing.
>
> I understand adding yet another category to local crits, road races,
> etc. is a major headache, but consider this example: Banana Belts
> final cat 3 sprint craziness would have been a lot less crowded,
> slow and dangerous if the field was much smaller. Id guess half
> that field could have raced a masters 30-39 category. The danger
> is, of course, that we could soon have separate masters 32-34 right
> handed vs. left handed fields further divided into astrological
> signs and eye color, etc....but I dont think thats ultimately
> necessary.
>
> Im just saying that, in general, a large group of masters men could
> have their own viable racing field pretty consistently all season
> long.
>
> Karsten Hagen
>
>
> On 4/1/08 5:09 PM, "Greg Bruce" wrote:
>
>> Since OBRA land is such a grace filled, open, accepting and
>> tolerant society of cycling enthusiasts, I thought I would offer up
>> an observation. NOTE, I am making an observation only and will
>> leave it to others to offer up their take on why it might be so.
>>
>> Here it is: Taking a look at the bigger early season road races so
>> far this year (Cherry Pie, Banana Belt Series, Piece of Cake), I
>> have noticed that the inclusion of a Masters 40+ cat 4,5 field has
>> resulted in huge fields for that category. In contrast, the Masters
>> 1,2,3 fields have been pretty sparse by comparison.
>>
>> I then look at a race like Willamette Valley SR, where the Masters
>> category is open to all 40+ racers regardless of category. In other
>> words, there is no break out of category. If you are a Cat 5
>> Masters racer, you will be fighting it out with Cat 1 Masters
>> racers and vice versa. Now, I am unable to look up the most recent
>> count, but at last count a couple days ago, there were like 13
>> people pre-registered to race Masters 40+ at Willamette. Clearly,
>> more people will show up and race, but there probably wont be the
>> 60-80 participants that there could be.
>>
>> So, what to make of all of this. Maybe nothing at all. A few things
>> are clear though. There are a lot of Masters 4,5 racers out there
>> and they clearly enjoy racing their bikes. OK, I am going beyond
>> observation here and inferring some thingsactually, I may be
>> opining a bit---
>>
>> These Masters 4,5 racers might even enjoy racing their bikes with
>> other people of their category and fitness level and when that
>> opportunity presents itself, they show up. When lumped together
>> with people who are so much faster, they might tend to decide to
>> take that week off from racing. Maybe? Or Maybe it is just a
>> coincidence?
>> Two years ago at the Willamette Valley SR, they broke the Masters
>> up into 2 different races: a 1,2,3 and a 3,4,5There were 49 people
>> who registered for the 3,4,5 Masters race that year. Interesting, I
>> think.
>>
>> Frankly, I am not sure what to make of it all. Some of the folks on
>> my team who are Cat 3 Masters are kind of stuck in the middle. We
>> have been opting to race with the open Cat 3s of late, in order to
>> be a part of a bigger field of racers, as opposed to feeling like
>> we are traveling great distances to participate in a race field
>> that is more like a glorified group ride (in terms of size).
>>
>> I am not suggesting any change to anything, because I am not sure
>> there is anything that needs fixing. I am just sharing an
>> observation. But, if I were a race promoter/organizer, I might find
>> this data interesting and worth considering.
>>
>> With the April Fools and Sprint dialogue dissipating, I thought we
>> might all enjoy another potential topic of discussion.
>>
>> Lastly, at Cherry Pie and the Banana Belts, there have been an
>> additional 20-23 racers in the Masters 50+ category. So, we seem to
>> be getting 80-100 participants showing up for all of the different
>> Masters Categories at the early season races.
>>
>> Has there been any consideration to standardizing the Masters
>> Categories for all the races? Some races have Masters 40+ open;
>> some have 3 different categories (1,2,34,5 and 50+), some like
>> Kings Valley only have Masters 3,4,5; 2 years ago, Willamette had
>> a 1,2,3 and a 3,4,5. Silverton has done a Masters 35+ cat 3,4
>> (2005) and a Masters 40+ Cat 3,4 (2006) of late. Others opt to lump
>> everyone together, but score them separately. It is all over the
>> place: JUST AN OBSERVATION.
>>
>> Anyway
..
>>
>>
>>
>> Event: 2008 Masters 4,5 # of Participant finishers Masters
>> 1,2,3 # of Participant finishers
>> Cherry Pie 61 23
>> Banana Belt 48 28
>> Banana Belt 2 42 20
>> Banana Belt 3 41 25
>> Piece of Cake 55 25
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Greg Bruce
>>
>> Hutchs- Bend, OR
>>
>>
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