Mountain Biking - The ultimate in sandbagging.

We just completed our 24 hour race at the GIHP and took third place in the corporate team category.

Now I am of the opinion that corporate teams are primarily the weekend warrior types and not teams of serious circuit racers. There are categories for competitive racers that those who are in the series racing elite/expert/sport should race in.

Lo and behold the Jr class Biketown tikes from Gainesville Ga. The oldest member of which does not even have a drivers license and the majority of the racers are near expert and some expert level riders. For example, a rider I know on that team turns 38 minute laps and I usually turn about 43-45 which is considered pretty good. The course is a tough 8.5 miles of climbing and technical descents.

Now I am not trying to be a sore loser but what pride can this team of racers possibly take in beating "mom and dad"? Everyone on our team is old enough to parent most of these racers.

Our team consists of two over 50 yr old members, 3 clydesdales (over 200 lbs ),
two over 40 year old members, and the rest of use are over 35 and most have kids.

I really do not understand the idea behind the bike shop entering this extraordinarily talented team into a class against the typical corporate team. We were slaughtered 33 laps to 28. Second place also had 28 laps but were 5 minutes faster than we were getting them.

As a side note, last year there was another team sponsored by oconee outfitters which sported no les than 6-7 expert riders.

In fairness our team did have three riders who race, the two clydesdales and one sport level racer. I do not race but I am second fastes on the team with average day laps of 43 min. Our fastest rider did one 40 minute lap and then did 44-45 afterwards. Most of our team was in the 50-55 minute lap range.

Are these bike shops so desperate to win they will show up at a essentially beginner/possibly sport level race with the 2004 olympic team and call it fair play? Seems so to me.

I'm astounded that they could in any way be proud of this accomplishment.

I hate sandbaggers. My first race in Georgia was full of them. I raced at Helen and simply got spanked. At least 4 or 5 of these guys were hardcore and definitely should have been in a class higher. I didn't understand the logic behind joining a beginners race just to spank everyone either. Where is the challenge? I still managed to place 12th despite extremely muddy conditions and some other fast riders. Sandbaggers suck, but unfortunately there's little you can do about them.


Did you have a good time at least? I think I saw a post by your wife about the conditions being muddy. Weather was great here all weekend though... mild and very cool... awesome for riding. Sucks that you got sandbagged, but ultimately you're just racing to have a good time anyway, so that's all that really matters.

:)

Hey Jim, conditions cleared up and were perfect. Yes we did have fun so the loss was really not a big deal. I am just confused about their ethics.

The word ethics is soon to be removed from the dictionary due to lack of use.


:D



How was that back section? Slippery? I remember it being slick even when we were there during dry conditions.

It was good. They did make a change which added an off camber right turn which made the hair rise on the back of your neck.

Sounds sweet. I've been meaning to enter another local race but our racing scene here sucks. Also funds have been allocated to lifting my Jeep ZJ. Glad you had a good time in the race. I couldn't possibly have turned a 45 minute lap on that course :D

Jim, good luck with the zj. Come up with a team next year and join us at the horse park.

One of the Bike town USA team members is a neighbor of ours. I know he wins almost every race he enters so it is a bit confusing why they would enter this category.

Most of the other kids are as fast or faster than him on the team from what I have heard from his parents.

not that I don't think sandbaggers are bad but......keep in mind that someone always has to win and someone will always beat you in the right situation....its racing.

sandbagging seems to be more the way of things than not. in colorado, it's actually accepted that you sandbag - too many racers to category up. it's true in both mountain and road. i did a hill climb in category 4 that got me 32nd place; i was 2 minutes behind the leader, the last place guy was 15 minutes back. the leader's time would have been 4th in category pro/1/2, and my time would have landed me very close to a place there.

i haven't raced offroad in a while, but when i did our expert mtn races were a nightmare. the top few guys were generally up and coming pros coming out for a spin. hard to finish out of the pack when jeremy horgan-kobelsky and brian leiho are both hammering up in front.

not that I don't think sandbaggers are bad but......keep in mind that someone always has to win and someone will always beat you in the right situation....its racing.

Considering they won against us and second place by 5 full laps or 44 miles there is no room for saying oh well we just got beaten. We were 5 minutes off second, that is competitive. That gap would have taken our fastest rider 4 full hours to close. Ridiculously out of ours and the other corporate teams league.

As I said before this was a team of some of the most talented junior racers in the southeast. It was unethical to even consider entrering this category.

I suppose they wanted to not only garauntee themselves a win but do it without worry of any unforseen problems.

The times these racers were posting would have placed them in the top 1-5 in every category of the event.

That's ****tay Sam. You shoulda knocked them out after the race and stolen their trophy.


Spoils of war my friend... spoils of war.

Yo Sam what's up?

I looked at the results of a recent race I was in. I was surprised to find that in most of the beginner classes the top 3 finishing times were very close, and in some cases faster than the sport class. It's not always possible to compare like this since most races have the sports doing a longer course, but in this race they were the same. I also watched at the starting line and in almost all cases there were several racers in each beginner class decked out in full-on race gear, riding $3000+ bikes. They definately did not look like beginners. No sandbaggers in the clydesdale class though :D

There is an easy fix too. Race promoters should set up races that make the beginner courses somewhat humiliating to anyone but true beginners. That plus setup clear guidelines as to what a beginner is. And, make sure the awards (whatever they may be) clearly show the class entered.