Sandbaggers in Cyclocross

Disclaimer...these are not the rules.  These are just my opinions about sandbaggers in cyclocross

My Position

Cyclocross is the coolest of all the cycling disciplines.  It is the punk rock answer to the corporate rock of road and mountain bike racing,  There is respect from one rider to the other.  We support each other and lend a hand.  Many race without teams or if it is a team is more often just a bunch of guys who enjoy beer together.  The races are not all aggro.  It is a community. The win is not everything in cross.  It is about personal efforts and personal bests and the struggle against your own body to make it do things you never thought it could.

Unwritten Rules

For years, USA cycling had different categories for cyclocross.  A's B's C's instead on 1,2,3,4,5.  They did away with that system though many regions still hold on to them.  In road racing you have to earn your points and submit for an upgrade.  Technically the same is true for cross but the reality is that is not how it works.  

These are the categories in my region and my opinions of who should be racing in them...

Cat 4 this is for BEGINNERS and for out-of-shape riders.  If you raced in this Cat and finished in the top 10 you DO NOT belong here.  Keep this category easy and competitive and inviting to newbies.   If you are already a road racer you probably should not even race in this category once.  If you place in the top 10 and continue to race here you might be a sandbagger.  If you placed in the top 5 and continued to race in this category then you ARE a sandbagger.  If you are one of those guys who races the 4s then races 3/4s and wins both then you are simply...a dick.

Cat 3/4 This is for the majority of the racers.  The fields should be big and competitive.  I feel that over half of the starting group should feel like they have a chance to be in the top 10.  If you always place in the top 5 you might be a sandbagger.  If you always get a top 3 then you are a sandbagger.   If you have won 2 or more races in a season then you ARE a sandbagger.  BTW winning the season series in 3/4 proves to everyone that you are a sandbagger.

Cat 1,2,3  This is for EVERYONE else.  If you are dominant in 3/4 then you need to be busting your ass to get a top 10 in this category.  

The same goes for age categories.  If you are dominant in your field then move up to a more aggressive field.  If you finish in 10th one race because of a mechanical or a crash that does not mean you are not a sandbagger.  

Second race syndrome.  Your second race should not be an easier race.  It should be a HARDER race or single speed.

Police yourself, make it better for everyone else!

And a little bonus section for those still reading...

Course inspection.  I have no problems with you checking out the course while I am racing, go for it, but be aware of what is coming up behind you.  If there is someone racing and you force them to take a slightly different line or to brake a little harder then you are a dick.  Get out of the way.

All of this is about one simple thing.  Respect you neighbor.

Spooky Cross Race Report

October 25th, 

Down in Irvine they held a cyclocross that started in the afternoon and finished under the lights.  It makes for a fun party type atmosphere which was something I wanted to be part of.  The day did not go exactly as planned.  Went for a decent 40 mile ride that morning and did a bit more work then expected then the day took hold as it does with a toddler in the house and next thing I knew I was late if I wanted to go.  I looked at my wife and asked, should we?  Sure.  We ran around the house collecting the necessary items and threw it all in car and off we went...straight into traffic.

I show up at the venue with 25 min to go before start time of my race.  Not much time to get suited up and registered let alone preview the course and warm up.  Oh well.  

Did I mention I had a cold and threw my back out?

I mention all these difficulties because for some reason they always seem to help my results.  It seems the worse I feel the better I do.

I sneak in and get a spot on the front line.  There was a long straight for the hole shot and I decided to play conservative and take only 4-5 wheel going into the first turn.  A couple pass me I pass a few more and the gaps start to open.  What I did not realize was that I was in the top group.  I thought there was another group of 2-3 riders ahead of me.  I park myself on the wheels ahead of me and sit in for the long haul.  the 3-4 of us jockey back and forth but for the most part we are together.  As usual I lose some spots on the non-technical and then gain it back quickly on the barriers.  One of the guys in our group was the resident sandbagger.  No need to mention names here but everyone knows him because he won states a couple years running but never seems to upgrade.  I figure this is a good place to be.

Second to last lap I lose pace on one open section and lose contact with the front group.  I realize that I am not going to bridge up to them and decide to just hold on to what I got, looking back making sure nobody is making up ground on me.

Lessons learned.  I should have turned myself inside out a little more to stay in contact.  But that is the beauty of cross.  You can identify exactly where you made your mistakes and know where you lost ground but little good it would do you because cross is about mistakes and making as few as possible.  If you did not make those mistakes you would have made others.  I got 5th and am pretty happy about that result.  Of course  there were 4 others better then me that day but considering my fitness I have nothing to complain about.

How George Bush Killed Indie Rock

A long time ago in a land much more innocent there was a thriving scene of underground artists doing it for themselves.  We called it Indie Rock.  The name is short for Independent Rock and it was grown out of the genre Alternative or Modern Rock.  In general terms it met alternative music made by artists who were doing it themselves or were signed to independent labels.  It really did not hold to a particular sound though there were similarities across the category.  The sub-genres and their names are not important.  It was the ethos that to me is most important.  Aside from the impostors, these were artists who believed in the ethos of independence and DIY both from a creative and a business perspective.

The 90's were prosperous for music and for artists of many levels and of many genres.  Towards the end of the decade radio consolidation (a gift from Bill Clinton) and rap rock had all but eliminated Indie Rock from the airwaves but that was not really a big deal.  Aside from a few bands Indie Rock never got all that much attention from commercial radio.  

The new millennium comes screaming in with a stolen presidential election and a President who is a dangerous combination of dumb, greedy, and credulous.  Arguably, the 2 biggest agendas of the Bush Presidency were to futher his Christian believes and to make his oil buddies (or other corporate monsters) more money.

Christianity and oil prices are the death of Indie Rock.

Before George's ascension to the highest office in this country, Christianity was a religion.  Something you practiced with your friends and families and something that was part of your belief system, but it did not necessarily punctuate everything in your life.  It suddenly became OK to be in a Christian Rock band.  Rock is anything but Christian.  It is about rebellion, discovery, independence, raw emotions, sex, drugs, etc.  All of which are decidedly un-Chirsitan.  

The influx of Christian bands into the mainstream ultimately watered the creative talent pool and ultimately stagnated the progress of true art.  Christian bands became popular not because they were good but because they were Christian.  At the core a Christian Rock band can't be good because for Rock to be good it has to buck the system or it has to make me feel dirty or sexy or something un-Christian. 

When Bush took office average gas prices were about $1.50/gallon  by the end of his 8 year tenure the price will probably average out to just under $4/gallon.  People are making less money spending and spending more on gas.   Coupled with stagnant ticket prices and stagnant merchandise prices and you have bands that simply can no longer afford to drive from city to city to bring their music to the people.  Since the beginning of the modern music era "the road" has been the proving ground for bands.  It was where they honed their skills and where they made their money to continue through another album cycle.  Without being able to go on the road bands are never developing into their potential and ultimately leaves us with a lot of crap bands who are more about a gimmick then they are about an artform.

I should probably take the time to write this in more eloquent prose but since I have talked about this idea for over a year now and have never written it, I decided to post away.  Afterall, none of it matters anyway.  Nobody reads the blog so...

George Bush through his policies and mainstreaming of Christianity and his undying commitment to make his corporate(Oil) buddies rich off the hard work of the working class has killed Indie Rock dead.

Qualifications to be President

1. You must have had a passport for at least 15 year and it must be stamped with other countries.
   
2. you must read newspapers or news websites.  The Onion and Fox News do not count (they are both entertainment not news)
3. you should have to take a geography test
4. you must accept that just as smoking causes cancer - carbon emissions cause global warming
5. you must believe in evolution (if you are going to teach un-intelligent design in schools then we must also teach the cybernetic inevitable)
6. You must be smarter then me (not asking a lot here)
7. You must be in between the ages of 35-65
8. You must like dogs.  (I do not trust anyone who does not like dogs.  They are hiding something)

I will come up with more

Joe Six Pack

Palin is not qualified to be VP.  This is just a silly argument at this point.  Neither was Bush and look where that got us.  I have a standard rule of thumb that I like to apply to those people who seek the highest public office in this country---they should be smarter then me---.  This is not to say I am some smart know-it-all.  Rather I am just an fairly well educated fairly clued in citizen.  Palin is a moron.  Bush is a moron.  McCain, Biden, & Obama are not dumb.   I have my disagreements with all of them but Palin is DUMB.

Back to my headline.  I am really offended by this phrase she likes to use all the time "Joe Six Pack".  I take that as offensive because who really is Joe Six Pack and who wants to be referred to as that? Is this to say that most of our country are lame people who just sit around and watch TV and drink a six pack every night?  Not really capable of a free thought.  Not smart enough to determine right from wrong.  Not aware when they are being lied to.  Not aware that times are tough.  Not aware that our kids are dying in Iraq when they should be killing Bin Laden in Afganistan or Pakistan.

I will concede that there are plenty of people who drink a six pack on the couch every night but even those people do not want to be called Joe Six Pack.  Even those people like to think they are smarter then their neighbor and more moral or more understanding of our differences.

Palin is dumbing down America.  We used to be proud to be the smartest most productive country in the world.  Now we are content to be Joe Six Pack

Here comes another set...

Coming from someone who does not surf that seems like a strange thing to say.  I work in bunches and I feel like bunches of blog posts are coming.

My previous rants about record deals and such have come to a head and that is why I have been absent.  We made a decision and since then we had to haul ass to make the appropriate deadlines for the release dates we wanted.  We had lots of touring already booked so those dates were important.

We ended up retaining ownership of our publishing and our masters and did 3 license deals (The Benelux, Germany-Switzerland-Austria, and N. America.  The rest of the territories are still in play and we hope to land something soon

There is a risk that we have not locked up worldwide releases and that our licensing partners do not put in the full effort (because their involvement in less on the back-end) but I believe this is the best solution.  We presented our same deal to several labels.  Many of them wanted to change it and complicate it.  There was certainly limited risk factor due to all the work that the band does on their own and their own investment.  For that we should be rewarded.

In the end there were a few labels who stepped up and we had to choose who was best.  We ended up going with the label that we had the relationship with over the past few years, albeit just as friends.  

Maybe more detail on that shortly