Yep

How many wins will Nomad secure in his first 5 starts in the 'ole US of A?

*edit*

Sh*t, forgot 0.

fly:yes/land:no

at least 6.

cmh

What cat?

Yep

Not sure if he'll be a 4 or a 5 when he gets here. If memory serves, he sounded pretty sure he'd be a 4.

YMCA

Going by his domination of locals in the far east, and the fact that his cat4 o-meter should already be busted, I'll give him one win and a lot of time spent off the front of his first few cat4 races.

Squint

Depends on whether his competitors use normalized or average power when racing.

jkizzle

i still dont get the whole cat o-meter thing

daytonian

Power won't be Nomad's problem. Negotiating thru the full 50 fields in the 4's drove Dr. Pete nuts last Spring and that will be the only issue. Can't wait for the race reports. Just think, somewhere in D.C. a Cat 4 is preparing his ultimate domination this Spring and has no idea this forum or Nomad exists.

kukusz

As in you think it's lame or as in what does it do?

MDcatV

He'll be in my area. Not sure which races he's planning to do, but if it's the MABRA calender (I'm not counting the training series races in Feb/early March), his 1st 5 races (off the top of my head) will be:

U of MD Presidents cup Crit, a very technical criterium
Jeff Cup, rolling not very selective road race
Tour of Walkersville, another rolling not very selective road race
Tysons Crit, a 3 turn industrial park crit with a climb that always selects if the race is driven hard
Carl Dolan Circuit race, an non-selective/non-technical industrial park crit

Based on his posts, Nomad will do quite well and certainly have no issues with fitness as long as he 1)signs up for the MABRA listserv to be notified when race registrations open; 2)gets into Jeff Cup/Walkersville/Carl Dolan, they fill up in minutes for the Cat 4 races; 3) stays upright; 4)races intelligently, there are lots of strong 4s and everything is chased; 5) is comfortable in packs with squirrelly riders; 6)can sprint.

I'll back him for the win at Tysons, with stong showings at Jeff Cup/Walkersville/Dolan, and an upgrade to Cat 3 at that point. Then he'll have a short guy on a cervelo following him all over the place

jkizzle

i dont understand what it means haha .... explanation?

Lithuania

Full 50? Try full 100+ fields in some cat 4 races around here.

I dont think his domination is going to be as easy as some of you think. There are a lot of really good racers in this area and lots of sandbaggers.

Like mdcatv pointed out a lot of the races are either really technical crits or very nonselective road races that end in sprints and everyone seems to chase breaks around here.

YMCA

ex1: a cat4 trying to get the 20 points needed to upgrade to cat3 might have amassed 12 of those points so far, so his "cat-o-meter" would be 60%

ex2: a cat3 who has already gotten the points needed, but is waiting a bit before upgrading in order to sandbag some races might write, "cat2-o-meter is broken".

ex3: an aging cat1 who has no hope at 42 of becoming a pro might write "pro cat-o-meter abandoned"

I really have no idea who started all this and if I'm on the right page, but hey I call it like I want to.

zimbo

I think he's gonna do very well, but my limited experience tells me that he won't likely be in very many races as a 4 where a breakaway gets away and stays away so the strongest riders don't always win.

At the same time, I'm nowhere near the cyclist he is in terms of VO2Max power numbers yet my strategy of sitting in the whole race and then taking off like a bat out of hell with about 1.5 miles to go seemed to work pretty well for me as a Cat4, perhaps because in the non-selective courses around here everyone just assumed it would come down to a sprint and thought I was crazy.

I'm tentatively planning to race Jefferson Cup, so hopefully I'll see Nomad and other forum members there. I'll be in the 40+ race and my goal will simply be to not get shelled.

--Steve

jkizzle

i dig, so basically its just bragging rights...

Andrew Coggan

Don't look now, but my ol' oft-times training partner Ramon Benitez is now "training with (a) power (meter)".

waterrockets 

I don't see it that way -- just a status. While advancing in the amateur categories requires hard work, and one should be proud of such accomplishments, it's not so difficult as to be brag-worthy until you start moving your cat-1-ometer off baseline (I'll never even get one of those meters).

jkizzle

i fully intend to brag when i reach cat 3

kukusz

Link? I can't find it on MABRA.org, I've looked here

MDcatV

WHAAAAA!!!! I thought he was a "race himself into shape" guy.

MDcatV

those links are old. try this one.

https://groups.google.com/group/mabra-uscf?lnk=srg

kukusz

^^^ good deal, thanks.

Lithuania

Ramon is going to get even better!?! Maybe I wont start racing masters yet.

NomadVW 

Wow.. a thread all about me? Hah. I've already upgraded to Cat 4 for next year. My "starting schedule" is here, not all are priority (like Wintergreen - since @ 165 lbs I'm still far to heavy for any chance of a win up that beast, but it's an excuse to go hit the winery at the bottom that my wife and I love to go to):

https://www.cycleanywhere.com/blog/schedule.php

I'm riding Strasburg cause I don't want to go into Jeff. Cup "off." Whenever possible I intend to ride 4 and 3/4. Jeff Cup is my spring event. The course appears to suit me and well... I love that area so I need an excuse to go down and pre-ride the thing a few times!

I'm not worried about the pack riding, really. Our races here are typically well fielded in group size.

I certainly can't wait. Honestly, I'm more worried about getting name on the registration as the races here don't typically fill up until late.

YMCA

Lance was 175 at 5'10" back when he was winning everything at the Dupont, including Wintergreen if I recall. And you aren't having to deal with a full-on pro peloton, full of flyweights.