Dale
Posts:1767
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| 10/26/2014 11:38 PM |
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Sure, I can race Cat 3 and sometimes do. While I’m never at the pointy end of the race there are always a handful of stragglers I can pick off; you know, the guys who catted up but then missed a couple of seasons due to having a kid or a job promotion or they just lost interest for a bit. Now they’re back with a number pinned on their jersey, not quite as fast as a few years or a few pounds ago.
Yeah, it’s fun finishing ahead of guys younger than my kids but the old bastages…. gol dang!
I mean I hate ‘em! Fast, ruthless, unphased by cold, mud, heat, pain or terrain. You know why? They’re like d-Con tolerant rats or Roundup resistant weeds. The weak ones were killed off years or decades ago. They were the Cat 2's, 3’s, 4's that succumbed to golf, RV’s, a TV remote or were picked off by a mistress. The ones left after the thinning are the ones mean as jackals and just as fast…. and twice as vicious.
I need to find a hobby that doesn’t try to kill me via a 45-minute heart attack trying not to get lapped by these hyenas. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 10/26/2014 11:44 PM |
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Come to the dark side. We have cookies!
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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jacques_anquetil
Posts:245
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| 10/27/2014 10:13 AM |
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| wow. you've obviously been stewing in vat of existential angst for some time, Dale. I commend you for voicing the pain and discontent all of us masters cyclocross racers are feeling towards those old fast fookers. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 10/27/2014 11:27 AM |
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| HA! My self esteem is not being helped by the fact that two of my age category teammates went 2 and 3 at the Worlds in Louisville. And wasn't it your team mate who took 1st? |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 10/27/2014 01:56 PM |
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Dale, I used to race Tasar class sailboats in the '90s in Seattle. (Small, very light and quick boats. A lot of fun.) I bought my boat from the world champion to help him fund his Olympic campaign. (He came home with a bronze.) Well, he came back and bought another boat. And his brother showed up. (With a gold from the previous Olympics. So did a few other sailors of the abilities guys like that attract. So it was a decade of middle of the fleet when my small boats skills would have had me regularly near the top most anywhere else.
Those guys were fun to watch - when I wasn't racing against them! The younger brother, the one I bought the boat from, was/is the most gifted boat handler I have ever seen. He could work magic to get boats to jump up and plane, especially when going upwind. And his ability to sneak through tight spots without fouling anybody was mind boggling. Older brother was the guy you wanted to campaign your boat. Organized, cool, ran a boat with no loud words. Those two teamed up with a third to campaign an Australian 18, flying down under and stepping on a boat they had never seen before. Won their first race. Went on to win nearly every race and easily win the season series. (They did practice the summer before in Seattle on a last-year's-boat they had shipped up from Australia. But they had never compared their speed to another boat before they won that first race. Kinda mind boggling!)
Ben |
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jmdirt
Posts:775
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| 10/27/2014 04:27 PM |
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| I had a similar situation the last few years. I don't train enough to stay in the pro class so I dropped down and did cat. I age group racing. It was the same five of us geezers beating the crap out of each other (and all of the younger cat. Is) every race. I know this is a sh*tty attitude but I don't see the point of training 300+ days a year to race the same five guys every race, because of that '14 was the first year since 1990 that I didn't do any races. I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would though. |
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Master50
Posts:340
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| 10/27/2014 07:54 PM |
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I actually won a Vet A B.A.R. (best all-round rider) in the years when Masters started at 30 and most good racers stayed in elite racing. Most masters did not elect to race masters until 35 as the rules eventually affirmed. At the time Master B was 40 to 50.
Since then? Masters has gotten far too fast for me but I might try again after I turn 60  |
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LouM
Posts:28
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| 10/27/2014 10:53 PM |
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Used to race mtbs (stopped at age 55) when they had age groups and Beg, Sport, Expert, etc. When I would first move into a new age group I would be pretty competitive winning a few races in my class. As I aged up the new "kids" would come in and show me their back wheel or dust until I moved into the next group.
"I know what I'll do." sez me. I'll keep racing and as I get older there won't be as many racers and they'll be slow. That's when I realized that your hyenas were here too.
Only the strong survive...
Lou... |
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Inferno7
Posts:344
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| 10/28/2014 09:32 AM |
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| Planning on racing cross next year. As I don't really start riding until mid May I am not riding well (within the context of my ability) until August. I went from 190 14% to 170 8.5% this year so ya I feel and am faster now than in June. Point being ill suck the least later in the year....lol. I'll make sure to enter the 5 race which the series here has. |
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dkri
Posts:95
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| 10/28/2014 01:21 PM |
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Ben you forgot to mention that Jonathan and Charlie went back to the Games in 49ers and won medals in Sydney in 2000 (silver iirc) 20 years after J's gold and 16 after C's bronze. They are BAD ASS.
Masters CX is a cruel thing. I've started to turn a heinous season around but of course as soon as I settled into the high rent group for a couple laps on Saturday, I got overconfident in an easy turn and crashed out of said group. Oh well. |
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| formerly dkri |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 10/28/2014 02:08 PM |
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This is the funniest thread in awhile.
I gave up the racing/competetiveness thing when I crawled out of a pool and onto a bike at age 16; the training requirements just got too repetitive. That makes me one of the weak ones.
These days I prefer slamming myself into a wall in slow motion and alone; plus I live vicariously through my kids when it comes to competing, our boy in soccer, and our daughter in swimming ironically. I told her that by the time she gets sick of swimming maybe we'll finally get a junior cycling enthusiast in the family  |
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jacques_anquetil
Posts:245
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| 10/28/2014 04:09 PM |
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dale, yes, Jim is a local rider and masters 60+ world champion who regularly eviscerates youngsters 20-30 years his junior (including me). I know it's a good year if i beat him once or twice a season. equal parts respect, envy, and hatred.
gonna sträva-name my next race "45-minute heart attack" in honour of you, k? |
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Nick A
Posts:625
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| 11/07/2014 02:18 PM |
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I've been riding off and on forever. I only raced a few years. The "problem" with bike racing, is that if you aren't good enough to stay in the pack, you may as well just be riding alone...which is all I do now.
Runners can just run their own pace, and there's usually someone around, then there's softball, etc. The thing is, the only sport I like participating in at all is cycling, and road riding at that...for as little as I've been doing lately that is.
N |
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Keith Richards
Posts:781
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| 11/07/2014 11:37 PM |
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| In my area the 45+ event is as fast as the P/1/2 race, just shorter. The 35+ race is SLOWER. |
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| -----
It is his word versus ours. We like our word. We like where we stand and we like our credibility."--Lance Armstrong. |
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Hoshie
Posts:134
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| 11/09/2014 05:43 PM |
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Ha ha - perfect description Dale.
Don't race Masters cross in SoCal; just don't. Unless you like training like a mofo, getting into great fitness and then have some othe dudes who are 45+ kick your backside.
Now, if you just like riding in the dirt and mixing it up without expectations, then it's a blast.
J |
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