Mountain Bike Racing - Too much travel for XC

Im a rider on a budget, an extreme budget, and Im now looking for a new bike....

I like to recreationaly ride some pretty extreme and technical trails, stuff i want a slightly longer travel bike for (about 5 inches tops)

however, Im also looking to race XC, at an incredibly beginner level, with this same bike....

so, assuming we disregard weight problems (just too complex), is there an amount of travel whivh is detrimental to racing? will having more 5 inches of travel cause any real problems besides increased pedal bob?

on a side note, any bike with 4-5 inches of travel which has very little pedal bob?

there are a lot of 4-5" travel bikes that can be raced recreationally. If you plan on doing a couple of races i'd suggest going with a 4-4 front and rear set up is definately capable of handling the tech trails and the racing.

The Specialized Stumpjumper FSR is your bike... its an "all mountain bike" with just over 4" of travel designed so it can still be raced as an XC bike.

I've always had 100mm, Its a really good balance, im not saying like you should use that for everything but my bike is more of an all around bike as well and it suits me with no flaw

Dude - Go to Specialized site - delear locator. Go to 50 mile range and start calling shops asking for the SJ FSR '04 in your size (comps, pros or whatever you can afford). You can get screaming deals on '04's. I recently bought an SJ and a Roubaix, both '04's. The SJ FSR is like butter - both up and downhill. I s*** you not. I will NEVER ride another hard tail off road - ever.

thanks for the responses

it gets more and more apparent to me all the time that a stumpy is the way to go, for everything