Ken Morton
Your right on one thing Luciano, I'm getting schooled in circuit bike
racing! :-)
Learning new skills is good - I've got LOTS to learn yet about bike
riding much less bike racing. I DO apreciate Steve and the Nomads for
putting on these races. On the other hand, there is a lot of
frustration in knowing that without the entire group working together
there is no way your going to finish in the top 15.
Put another way, in the "normal" PIR races if I did not finish in the
top 15, I could pretty much say it was because *I* was not strong
enough on that day. In the handicap races, it depends on everyone
racing my cat. I'm not saying it's BAD, I'm saying it's different, and
to this new-ish racer, a little frustrating. In last nights race for
instance, the person riding with me in rotation consistantly went 3-4
bike lengths in front of the receding line on his pull. Do I follow his
wheel, causing a surge, or do I let him go and maintain speed? (for the
most part, I chose the latter). He never yelled "clear" or "last", and
in general really caused everyone else to work harder for less results.
But I cannot affect that. He's not a team mate, he's not a friend
(although he is friendly) and I'm not an upper cat rider, so I don't
feel I can "coach" him either.
My other option is to move to the cat 4,3,1-2 race. Then I get to be
chased, and have some chance of staying with the pack. My moving would
not help the cat 4,5 race though.
Like I said, this was just morning after whining. It wasn't meant as a
rant against the format or the promotors, just a whine that I'm not
doing as well as I'd like. I'll be back next week for more punishment
... errr fun.
Ken
--- Luciano bailey <ride-@hotmail.com> wrote:
You called it size of the groups might have had something to do with
it. A
larger smooth working group is sharing a lighter rotation load, and
this
happened in both the womens and the 4-5. Candi made some size
adjustments
which helped. I think everyone getting an opportunity to race the
handicap
is getting a first class education in curcuit bike racing. Thanxs to
nomads
and Steve Mullen for putting this on. I would like to see this format
kept
if not full time, but a night out of the PIRS from the beginning of
the
season.
From: scmu-@aol.com
Reply-To: scmu-@aol.com
To: k7f-@yahoo.com, ob-@topica.com
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] PIR Handicap splits
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 15:01:30 -0400
Ken,
You make a valid point. In fact, I suspect some of the category 5
riders
are not only stronger than many of the category 4 riders, but may
also be
stronger than many of the category 2 and 3 riders.
The theory with handicap racing, however, is with more experience,
the
group should be more efficient. If a group works well together, it
will
easily overtake a group of stronger riders that are not working well
together. What I saw last night, was a group of cat 5 riders
working very
well together. Their pace line was smooth. They were calling
"clear!" at
the front, and seemed to be filling gaps at the back. They also had
more
riders. But that frequently only makes it more difficult to keep
the lines
tight.
I would like to stay with the same handicap next week. Candi will
make the
final decision, at the starting line, but I believe 1:30 is a
reasonable
handicap between the cat 4's and 5's. John Bravard coached the cat
5 group
this week, and has already asked if he can focus on working with the
cat
4's next week. If necessary, a few more cat 5 riders will be pulled
into
the cat 4 group to keep the numbers even. But I expect to see an
entirely
different chase next week!
Looking forward to seeing everyone next week! Remember, next week
is the
final race of the series. Prizes will be awarded immediately after
each
race, so be sure to stick around!
Steven Mullen.
PIR Handicap Race Promoter.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Morton <k7f-@yahoo.com>
To: scmu-@aol.com; ob-@topica.com
Sent: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:05:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] PIR Handicap splits
The cat 5 men returned to the same form they exhibited two weeks
ago,
easily holding off the cat 4 men.
The cat 4 men had no chance, IMHO. Depite great coaching by Casey
Deck
(thank you!) we lost time on the first two laps. The cat 5 field was
huge, compared to the (original) 8 cat 4 riders. Candy had some cat
5's
come back to help, and shortened the split to 1:05 (I think) but it
was
still to long of a split, again IMHO. I dropped off after 3 laps
(I'm
using Saturdays race as an excuse; no legs) and rode the last 3 by
myself; I think I heard the final cat 4 group was down to 5 or 6
riders. Ouch.
My understanding is that the only real difference between a cat 5
and a
cat 4 is the number of starts you have made; there is _no_
performance
criteria to become (or move up to) a Cat 4. Theoretically, and in
fact,
many of the Cat 5 riders are as strong as Cat 4 riders; they have
just
not done 10 mass starts.
Just my whiny next-morning ramblings. I'd like to see the gap kept
at
45 seconds or less, so we at least _feel_ like we have a chance of
catching the 5's.
Ken
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