Saturday Race Report
John Roden    March 13, 2008

The morning's misty kiss was still on the pavement as the third
episode of the BBC / Handlebars Giro broke free from the surly bonds
of earth and vectored ever northward toward the uncharted wastelands
of Niagara county. With somewhat decent weather, a stout field in
the 20's or so left the shop at the stroke of 10:22, under the clock-
steady Latin eye of sometimes Impresario Jim Costello.

After a dawdling warmup that led into a dawdling first few miles a
series of attacks signaled the days festivities had begun. A group
of series leader Halter, strongman Skalski, the ever present Ryan Nye
and three time winner of Witch Weekly's "Handsomest Smile" John Roden
were pulling away solidly only to be stopped by a red light, drat.
After this regrouping, Jason Skalski took a nice dig, but was welded
back by the pack. Halter broke free at that point, dragging Roden
who provided limited horsepower and eventually they too were welded
back, and so the tedium continued until the start of the final 5 mile
loop when a promising group of 5 broke from the pack, containing none
of the leaders.

After some dawdling in the pack, a chase on the final few miles
unfolded with Skalski, Roden, Nye and Ironman Steve Hoad slowing
dragging the break back into sight. A final suicidal lunge by
Costello closed the gap with 300m to go, setting up the field
sprint. Skalski lead the sprint out with team mate Halter glued o
his wheel and Roden stuck like chewing gum on a movie seat. Roden's
grip slackened and Ben Willis galloped up the right, along with Frank
Mesi, paying a visit to the pointy end for the first time all day.
Halter tipped his hat to Skalski in the sprint and came off the
leadout for his third win in three outings. Points are as follows:

Name Total 1-Mar 2-Mar 15-Mar
Joe Halter 21 7 7 7
Jason Skalski 12 2 5 5
John Roden 7 3 3 1
Dan Staffo 5 5
Ben Willis 3 3
Ryan Nye 2 2
Frank Mesi 2 2
Jim Costello 1 1
Mike Luther 1 1
 

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As reported on cyclingnews.com

Largest one-day US race set for April

The 2008 Tour of the Battenkill Cycling Race in Salem, New York has become the largest one-day race in the United States, organisers announced Thursday. With 1200 current registrants, the race has already surpassed Monterey California's Sea Otter Classic, and more than 1600 racers from across the US and Canada are expected to race on April 19.

The event, which is hosted in cooperation with the Towns & Villages of the Battenkill Valley will benefit Farm Team Cycling of Cambridge – an area Junior-level cycling team, and the Public Libraries of Southern Washington County, NY. Starting and finishing in the rural village of Salem, New York the race features one of the most challenging and unique race courses on the North American calendar with a single 55 mile loop, rolling countryside, direct passes through small villages, covered bridges, and the un-paved roads that have become the race's trademark.

Challenging sections of the course include Juniper Swamp Road in the Town of Salem – a 1/4 mile un-paved climb with a 15% grade, Meeting House and Becker Roads in Easton – four very difficult un-paved climbs that come late in the course, and the challenging climb up Willard Mountain at mile 30.

The Elite and Professional Men will race on an extended 82 mile course that will feature the rarely-traveled McKie Hollow Road in the Town of White Creek – a half-mile unpaved climb that averages 12-15% in grade, and a final seven mile circuit in the Town of Salem. Along the way, racers will pass directly through the Villages of Cambridge and Greenwich giving spectators several opportunities to see the race.

There are 17 separate races from Junior to Professional Men's & Women's races. Among the Professional teams attending are the Advil/Chapstick Women's Professional Cycling Team, Kenda/Raleigh Men's Cycling Team, Calyon-Litespeed Professional Cycling of Montreal, Target Training Elite Development Team, Team RACE Professional Cycling of Ontario, Fitness Together / IF pb Lionette's Men's Elite Cycling, MetLife Pro-Am Cycling, and VW/Trek of Quebec.

Many volunteers are needed for the safe hosting of the race. Contact Volunteer Coordinator Christine Hoffer at volunteers@battenkillroubaix.com or 518-677-5741 for details, or visit www.tourofthebattenkill.com for more information.

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The upgrade requirements for road and CX have been changed significantly. Check them out in the USA Cycling Rulebook, http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook.pdf. You can also access the upgrade requirements via the discipline-specific pages of the USA Cycling website. The essential differences compared to last year are as follows:

• There is now a tiered scale of points based on how many participants were in the race. In some cases, this will make it easier to upgrade, especially in classes with small fields, but it will take more races to do so as the points are fewer.
• If road races do not meet the distance requirement to be considered a road race, they may still be long enough to be considered a criterium or circuit race. In that case there is a different points table to use, but points would still be available.
• The parameters for upgrading from 4 to 3 on experience alone have been modified.

A couple of explanations/interpretations are also necessary to address questions that always come up.

Stage Races

First, stage races only count for upgrading from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1. Second, an omnium is not a stage race. There is no General Classification for an omnium and no points are awarded for overall omnium placings. The stage race can be on points instead of time, but must be a true stage race, which means a rider must ride all stages in order to continue. That is the easiest way to determine if it is a stage race or not. A long series of criteriums where there happens to be an overall prize does not count.

Mixed Categories

The question always comes up about how you handle mixed categories. Here is a play by play to explain how to interpret it if an rider wants to know whether a race counts for upgrading and how:

Let’s say the rider rides a men’s category 1,2,3 road race that is 50 miles and has 72 starters. The rider gets 5^th place. Does the rider get upgrade points and how many? Well, there is no single, simple answer to that question. The answer depends on the category of the rider requesting the upgrade and the composition of the field.

• Rider is a category 3 – Yes, the race definitely counts for upgrading. For a cat 3 to 2 upgrade, the RR need only be 50 miles, so we would use the road race points table. Since the field is a mixture of category 1,2, and 3, all of the riders qualify as starters for this rider, so we would use the road race table with 50+ starters. Did you get 5 points? If so, you did it right.
• Rider is a category 2 – Hmm. Alas this is more difficult. For a 2 to 1 upgrade, a road race must be 80 miles, so this race does not qualify as a road race. However, a criterium need only be 30 miles, so this race qualifies on distance for the criterium table. How many starters do we use? This is even more difficult and puts the burden on the requestor and on the administrator to know the composition of the field. This is why many administrators in the past just refused to use combined fields for upgrades. That is not the intent of the process, however. If of the 72 riders, 55 of them were category 1 or 2, then you would use the criterium table and 50+ starters. You should get 2 points. What if the 72 riders consisted of three category 1 riders, one category 2 (the guy looking for the upgrade), and sixty-eight category 3 riders? That race then had only 3 other riders that were the requestor’s peers or higher. Alas, that race did not count for upgrading as the table has a minimum of 5 to earn points.

Those two examples are the extremes, of course. There would be race scenarios intermediate between those two extremes.