mattm

I'm becoming my cat 1 father lol.

UmneyDurak

Yeah they don't open it until less then an hour before the first CAT4 race it seems.

UmneyDurak

Wait mattm you are 35+?

shovelhd

Only ten Masters points count for a Cat1 upgrade.

save10

its probably not a big deal for the later races (i.e. you), but for us regular guys cat 4, masters 3...the first races.....its so disorganised and understaffed its almost comical. it opens 1 hr before the first race. they check everyone in with an iphone (they have one phone). the waiver sheet is not attached to the number which means some hipster chick has to search through one pile, then go to another pile. And by i'm serious about pile...the papers werent in a orgnanized folder it was just in a big stack that all went to hell within 5 minutes. it got to the point where guys were reaching over, ignoring the event brite people finding there numbers and lining up. guys were getting pinned on at the starting line because it took so long to get numbers. and i'm pretty sure no cat 4s even warmed up. and because they're so f'd they had to do all the cat 4s first so that meant the second race (me) didnt start getting #'s until the 35 min cat 4 race had started. My warm up was me running to my car to pin my number on jersey (which was in my car), rushing to swap my rear warm up wheel for my racing wheel, putting a few pumps of air in wheels, swearing alot, sprinting to a porta-potty, then lining up at the back of the field. The people working the reg i'm pretty sure have never done this before or only do registration for things like boozy brunches or speed dating. And the person 'in charge' of registration is also more concerned about why some vendor tent isnt set up yet. its a complete cluster.

So as a tip - if you are doing the cat 4 or 35 +3/4....get there early and warm up fully before reg opens. go to reg ready to race....i.e. dont have anything you need to put back in your car. dont expect to warm up after you get your number...it aint happening.

mattm

just turned 36 last week! I'm old.

shovelhd

But save10, was she a hipster hottie?

mattm

Ouch, that is painful.

A tip for the p/1/2's, once you guys get there: line up EARLY. 20 minutes isn't early enough, everyone else will already be there!!

Last year I lined up 15 minutes early, figuring I wanted to start up front, and was on the back.. then they did like 20 call ups of a bunch of big dogs and I felt really tiny! Moving up took like 30 minutes, ugh..

save10

probably. I would say that that race gets a big crowd because its on a saturday night in a busy downtown and there are various beer vendors. And there usually a starling amount of attractive women watching to proceedings. so if you can get past the eventbrite part it is a good time

i knew i had gone to a different level when the idea of wine bars became appealing

Hermes

Maybe eff the racing and just kit up and show up and the chicks will not know the difference.

shovelhd

Flashes cause crashes. Let's hope that's not the kind of entertainment they're interested in.

UmneyDurak

Damn, you give me hope for my racing career.

tetonrider

gotta admit...i thought you were closer to 21 than 50!

hack

happy belated birthday, hopefully you won a race or a sprint or something on your birthday

mattm

Ha sweet.

Awesome - guess I'm just young at heart!

Thanks - no sprints on bday, I was flying, but it was still all good. Gf made me a cake the day after (we got home late) - all vanilla! Vanilla cake, vanilla frosting. Love me some vanilla!!

aaronmcd

Thinking of joining iRT-Reactor.
Probably mostly due to the fact that they asked yesterday, and I think I've gotten all the solo experience I needed by now.
Is the choice of first team a big decision or just go with whoever and see how I like it? Just go with the guys actually messaging me and making it easy?

shovelhd

Yup. Unless you have choices.

Ygduf

You might want to ask @mattm why he just left that team. Maybe not pertinent in the 4s/3s, but he knows the guys.



I was checking the omnium points for that crit series and in perfect reflection of my racing, I am 5th in both 2/3s and in p12. Always a bride's maid

hack

I think @save10 is a current team member and can provide some insight, too. Worst case, you bail out next year and have a new kit to wear this year. Best case you have fun and get a few guys you can convince to lead you out or work for you in a few races.

FWIW, most the their guys that I've met in the 3s and 4s seem nice enough and there aren't any guys that I'd want to avoid like on a few other teams. Also, not sure how, but they have a couple of 1/2 guys up this way, too. Seems a bit far out of the way, but they seem like decent guys.

mattm

can't go too wrong with a late-season team, as long as you can still get kits. then again you've gotten this far without one.

i joined the first team that asked last year and later regretted it, but my reasons wouldn't apply to u most likely.

the main caution is have is that a lot can change between now and jan/feb.. sponsors come and go, as do teams.

anyway I'd ask @save10 about joining irt since he's still on it.

Ygduf

Who you talking about!

indigo

I know quite a few guys on that team. They have a close association with my team (SJBC) and most of the guys are on our club rides. I think the big question to ask is how many of them are racing in your category? Sucks to be on a team and still not have a team of significant size to race with. Erik Camacho is a really nice guy. They tend to be oriented around crit/flat races, not as much of a presence in the climbing races.

They are pretty annoying in that they keep changing title sponsor even mid season which makes them hard to keep track of. I wonder how many new uniforms those guys had to buy...

mattm

nate lives up that way, but I think he's the only 1/2 not in the Bay Area.

hack

Ha I appreciate your constructive yelling. I was referring some guys up this way in the 3's and 4's on a couple of local teams that seem to instigate conflict in the ranks and lash out if their race isn't going as planned.

hack

There is Nate and I was talking with another guy that is jumping over (this week I think) that used to be on with Davis Bike Club.