Last year I competed at the US National MTB championships as a "pro". In the Super D competition, I practiced with and raced against John Tomac and Greg Herbold. In the XC, I lined up against Ned Overend. All of these guys have been an inspiration to me since I picked up my first Mounatin Bike Action and fell in love with cycling when I was only 9 years old!

However, more impressive was the fact that Oregon's own Jeff Burnard also lined up for the XC race riding what appeared to be one of his old race bikes from several season's ago. I am not sure how Jeff did, but he expressed his love for the sport and how happy he was to come race with all of us. That kind of atitude makes him a winner in my opinion and he is welcome to come race with me no matter how much training he does.

So, I suppose what I am trying to say is that every "pro" is always a "pro" to their competition. I am honored to ride with Jeff or Steve or Paul any day. They were great competitors and and provided me with a standard to measure up to. They've earned their right to race at the front of the group and they've earned my respect for the good use of their heart and legs.

If they decide that they shouldn't be there then that is their call. Only Steve knows his rationale for racing the expert class and I am going to assume that it isn't simply to "sandbag" and beat-up on those guys. Give him a break and try to appreciate him for who he is--one of the greatest american cyclists. If you can't do that, kick him back up to the "pro" class--he is always welcome here!

As I realize my days near the top may be getting short I can't help to wonder what it will be like to slow down. How will I handle not having the legs and lungs I do now? I hope that I will have the guts to line up and ride with the young guys even when I am long-in-the-tooth like Jeff, Greg, Ned and Johnny T.

Cheers!

Evan Plews
www.evanplews.com

---

From: "Mike Murray" <mike.murray@obra.org>
Reply-To: mike.murray@obra.org
To: <obra@list.obra.org>
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] negativity and Race Categories
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 17:33:57 -0700
Master's racing can be a place for such riders, depending on how the race
organizer designs the fields. In most cases this is left up to the
individual race organizer. If the Masters fields are simply age graded then
anyone in that age may compete regardless of ability. Obviously this tends
to make a field of more varied ability. For example, a 40+ field would
likely have some of the fastest riders in the state as well as some guys
that just started riding last week. Some race organizers will also limit
the Masters field by ability; say 40+ Cat 3/4/5. This may exclude that
fastest guys but be more appealing to a
larger market.

As I have said before, age is an inaccurate predictor of ability. Keeping
this in mind and looking from a system point of view it is pretty clear that
Masters racing is generally not really about trying to get the fastest guys
in the age group together but more about decompressing the over populated
Cat 3, 4 and 5 fields.

As for ability grading; on the road there are fairly specific rules
regarding categorization. They are posted at
http://www.obra.org/upgrade_rules.html. These rules require a rider to not
place for a year before they drop down in category and to move back up in
category if they place well in the lower categories. Ability grading in
mountain bike racing is more nebulous. Clearly this allows a rider to
downgrade by just not competing and to avoid upgrading by competing few
times. It is far from a perfect system
and this does happen but not very
often which is what makes the current thread noteworthy.

Mike Murray

-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Monty Hill
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 16:42 PM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: *****SPAM***** Re: [OBRA Chat] negativity and Race Categories


Not trying to add to the 'negativity', but purely for curiosity.

Is the Master's Categories, In road racing anyway, the place for these
'retirees'?

I would be frustrated to race in my lower category and find myself
constantly racing against ex-Olympians who might only race sporadically, but
with the years of riding on their legs, blow me away every time whether or
not they are training. If this were to happen I could conceivable stay in a
lower category indefinitely
racing against ex-pro's and never get a chance
to move up and race against riders who may be my equivalent in terms of
performance.

Does OBRA have an official say on this matter?

Montgomery J. Hill
Associate

TVA Architects Inc.
920 SW Sixth Avenue, Suite 1500
Portland Oregon 97204

phone. 503.220.0668

www.tvapdx.com

>>> "Brad Cockman, DC" <brad21@gmail.com> 5/16/2006 3:30 pm >>>
Whoops, posted this to OBRArace by accident...

I thought this was an astute observation by Dr. Ted here in Bend:



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