[rryyddeerr]

got to thinking while lined up this weekend about what would be the most efficient starting order of different racing classes. is there a pat answer for this? it seems like the more races Im in the less the start order makes sense. I am continually passing the classes in front of me along with most of the folks racing with me.
granted, we dont catch the pros. thats why they are in the front. but SS next? comeon. those dudes are fast on some courses, but not all. and the 19-29 guys get caught in the first ten minutes. seems the guys who do really well in my class are strong passers. or really aggressive. personally I would rather racing ability dictate who wins. not how quickly you can get around folks your not even racing against.
anybody ever hear of a reasonable way to prevent as much of this from happening as possible?
avg. class times? maybe? dont want to sound too high on my horse, just thinking out loud. I know this was on the mind of most of the guys lining up with me this weekend.

what are you alls' thoughts?

 

[Poncharelli]

This is the starting order for our state series. Our series director has tweeked it over the years and this seems to work really good from my group's standpoint: men's sport 30-39. The director mentioned switching the sport 30-39 with the 19-29. About 8 -10 guys in our class will pass nearly all but one 19-29 rider by the end of the race.
1. Pro Men
2. Exp Men 19-29
3. Exp Men 16-18
4. Exp Men 30-39
5. Exp Men 40+
6. Pro Women
7. Single-Speed
8. Sport Men 19-29
9. Sport Men 30-39
10. Sport Men 40+
11. Men 50+
12. Men 57+
13. Sport Men 16-18
14. Sport/Expert Men 13-15
15. Expert Women
16. Clydesdale
17. Sport Women

It may seem that the expert women have a lot of people to pass, but those groups immediately in front are really small.

BTW, beginners ride at 9AM. This group starts at 11AM in one minute flights.

Also, not too much trouble with the singlespeeders, since most of them are pretty strong (ex-expert riders and LyndaW; she's freakin tough!!). I might catch a couple of them but I think our director has placed them perfectly.

 

[mtbfool]

I think it's just part of racing. Each group will have it's fast people and slow people. It's frustrating and happened to me this past weekend, but everyone goes through the same thing if you are at the front of your group. I always wonder how much time it costs me and if the 1 or 2 guys in front of me were lucky enough to catch the slower peeps on a wide open road and I was unlucky enough to catch them on the singletrack.

 

[Hardtails Are Better]

I had one really bad one last year, where my group (<18 Expert, but for this one we got combined with <18 Sport) got started DEAD FREAKING LAST among the Sport/Expert/Pro riders. That was bad. We stayed together for the first couple of laps, and were passing Sport riders left and right. By the time the race was over, the top finishers in my class had passed almost all of the Sport riders. That race really sucked, both because we had to pass so many people, and because I droped my chain off of my big chainring on a rock when one of the Sport riders I was trying to pass swerved all of a sudden and forced me into a tree. The chain got wedged between the crankarm and chainring unbeliviably tightly. I lost easily 1:30 trying to get the stupid thing out. I had been riding with one other guy in my class at the front, and came in secone by about 1:00. That was horrible start positioning. Other than that one race things have been fine for me.