Posts Tagged ‘Upgrade’

It was a fun ride. Time to say good bye.

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

I talked last night on the phone with my coach. We’ve both been pretty busy and this was the first chance we had to get together to talk about the weekend races. I was pleased that he was happy both with my physical and mental performances.

Then he asked the question that has been eating away at me for sometime now. “So, does this change your view on the idea of moving up to Category 3?” He asked the question in one of those ways where you know he is fishing for a particular reply.

I paused. In a few seconds my mind went through the battle all over again. I knew the answer was, “Yes, I have changed my view on upgrading.” However, just because I had changed my view didn’t necessarily mean I was ready to take action.

The last Category 4 race?

Could this have been my last Category 4 race? - Photo by Jimmy Helms

Once again in Spartanburg I was on the podium. That means out of the eleven Category 4 races I have competed in this season, I have finished 3rd or better in seven of them. The other four finishes were 5th, 7th, 19th, and 36th. Those kinds of finishes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series would have the Sprint Cup teams coming and knocking on your door.

However, I have never won a race as a Category 4 racer. I struggle with that because I want to win in the worst way. I know that if I stayed as a four, I would get that win someday. If I upgrade, the chances of winning diminish. Not only that, if I upgrade I’ll be moved into the Masters races where it will not be my job to try to win. Even the bottom level of the podium will be hard to come by.

I’m 42 and this year was the year that I devoted to training. It was my push to accomplish something in racing. I don’t know if I will be able to devote the time necessary to improve within the Masters and Category 3 ranks. My dream for the year was to get a win, upgrade to 3, and then “just race for fun” in 2011.

On the other hand, I am getting embarrassed pulling up to the start line of the Category 4 races. I know the guys around me are thinking, “What on earth is he still doing here?” Ironically (please don’t take this as conceit), I’m tired of 2nd and 3rd place finishes. I can knock off a top five finish anytime I toe the line in a Category 4 race. It isn’t conceit, it is just a fact. These guys are my friends and I don’t want to cause resentment.

It makes not getting that win just that much more miserable. Winning is not easy! But when you are sooooo close time and again, finishing 2nd and 3rd just dosen’t cut it.

I really do find myself drawn back to that challenge that I first felt going into this season. There was the unknown of where I would finish in my first race. That first one was a confidence shaker! However, for the rest of the time till now I raced in that sweet spot of knowing I had the ability to finish well, but never quite convinced of the true level of that ability.

Now, I’m not racing to see how well I can do. I’m racing to meet expectations. I guess you could call that “negative racing.” The sweet spot is gone.

So, last night, I submitted my upgrade request. I imagine that by the next time I race, I’ll have to put down that I’m a Category 3. Wow! Back in February, I would have never thought that by May I would have already accomplished that goal.

I guess I’ll have to reassess my remaining goals. Two of them unchanged — 1) 11:15 up Paris Mountain, and 2) 700 miles in 7 days. The one that will be affected was my goal to finish top five in the French Broad River Classic. I had my heart set on doing the Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium with the goal of a top five in the Omnium. Now, what seemed very doable suddenly appears out of my reach.

That is the frustration and that is the joy… the unknown.

Coach says I have the numbers to race Category 3. He says I have flashes of the ability to race Category 2. The numbers are there. The question is whether the heart and head will be.

Goodbye, Category 4. It was fun while it lasted. I’ll miss the guys I grew used to having around me. Mostly, I’ll miss Matt and Billy. Come on, guys, it is time to upgrade!

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Points is points – not really

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Part of the focus of Low Cadence is the reporting of my attempts of “learning the ropes racing on the POA Cycling club team.” I’m hoping that as I learn a few things other people will also get some information they may not have known. Well, I learned something just the other day that might be obvious to people who have been in the racing scene. It was new to me!

Earlier I wrote about my decision whether or not to request an upgrade from Category 4 to Category 3. There was a formula that was used to determine the number of points I had toward the upgrade. My team manager tells me I now have 33 of those points.

Of course, I was wanting to find some official listing of this. I figured I would be able to go to USACycling.org and find out officially what points I had toward an upgrade. Searching around in the site, I happened upon the rankings. Sure enough, there was a list of racers with points out to the side. Those points determined their ranks.

When I discovered this, the races I had participated in this spring had not yet been added. So, I kept coming back every couple of days to find out what I could. Sure enough, I showed up. At that time I was ranked 3rd in the country (not hard to do when there isn’t much data to pull from). That was kind of cool for however long that would last. However, then I noticed the points beside my name…

15 points. What’s this? That didn’t seem right. I wouldn’t mind if I had that many points because that would solve my problem of deciding whether to upgrade or not. Then I also noticed that some of the people ranked ahead of me had not even raced as many races as I had. For instance at the time I write this I am ranked 25th and have more top 5 finishes than many of the riders ranked higher than myself.

So, what is the answer? The answer is that the rankings on USACycling.org is not where you go get your official upgrade points. These are rankings not simply of who has the best finishes but also in what races those finishes came. A Greenville Spring Training Series race isn’t going to rank as high as the 2010 Perry Roubiax.

Funny thing is, looking at the finishes made me wish I had raced the Perry Roubiax. The winner was the guy to whom I finished 2nd to at River Falls. I would have liked to have had a rematch — and may have picked up some good ranking points to boot!

For winning that race in Perry, GA, he got 60 points! Winning any race in the Spring Series earned you 10. Guess if you want to have a high ranking you have to determine what race you plan to race before you start considering how well you finish.

What did I learn? 1) Rankings on USACycling.org are not going to tell you how many points you have for an upgrade. You have to calculate it yourself based on the charts available on the site. 2) I’m not going to be very highly ranked this year! I’m not going to be able to be so discriminating in my choices of where and when I race.

I am getting the itch though… I’m ready to start finding a race to let off some of this steam. Only, it is going to have to wait a week before I’ll be freed up to consider it. Starting to look like Rock Hill in April will be the earliest I will be able to go back into battle.

Hmmmmm, wonder how many ranking points that one is worth? :-)

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A victim of my own success

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I’ve always tried to be open with my thoughts here on Low Cadence. That’s what this site is — “Thoughts of a cyclist.” So, I am going to lay out what I’m thinking right now and hopefully my motives won’t be judged too harshly.

Going into this season (which has hardly even started) I envisioned how the year would go. I would have a good Spring Series and come out of it with a few points toward an upgrade to Category 3. There was reason to believe that by the end of the season there would be points enough to complete the upgrade.

Moving up to Category 3 was simply not in my goals. If I thought about it at all it was something like, “Yeah, I’ll get my goals this year and then retire at the end with an upgrade.” Once I got there I would become a sacrificial lamb for my 35+ Masters teammates. Mostly, I just didn’t think about it.

Here is how it works. You get points for each race in which you place. These races are divided into two types: Road Races and Criterium/Circuit Races. The races in which you compete must meet minimum distance standards. The amount of points you get is also determined by the size of the field participating.

The points you earn from placing in these races are compiled by USA Cycling. For a guy, to upgrade from Category 4 to 3 he must have 20 points within a 12 month period. He submits his resume to the regional officials and they decide whether to issue the upgrade. There are some other options for upgrading that are a little more complicated.

However, the upgrade guideline that got my attention was, “30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.” If I’ve calculated correctly, I’m sitting on 28 points. Two more points and I’ll be at 30 points.

People assume you are all set to upgrade when you get the chance. I’ve heard, “Good, now you can upgrade to 3 and join us in the 35+ Masters.” “Welcome to the 3′s!” “Guess you’ll be moving on up now.”

Whoah! I’m not ready for that! Mentally, I have my season planned out and I have goals that as a Category 4 racer I just MIGHT accomplish. As a Category 3 racer… those goals become very slim. Upgrading now would cause me to reassess all of my goals for the year.

I simply did not expect to be at this level this soon in the season! Plus, I am learning a lot. I’m now at a point where I am actually competitive in the 4′s. Rather than just trying to survive, I’m learning to race. With only six races at this level, I don’t think I’ve come close to learning all I would like to learn.

I asked my coach about it and he said, “It’s up to you unless you reach 30 points, then an official may (I stress ‘may’) push you up automatically.” He then went on to say that we would discuss this further. Wonder what that discussion will be about?

Steve Sperry keeps telling me it is time to move up from high school to college. Yeah, I remember that transition! It was quite the change. He goes on to say that the day would then come when it would be time for me to move from college to grad school — meaning Category 2.

I appreciate the confidence — though sometimes I think he is just teasing me. Watching those guys fly around in the 1/2′s makes me feel like I am in kindergarten! Me? I’ll be Peter Pan. I don’t want to grow up — not yet. What would you do?

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