Bags of sand and why you should care

Career Sandbaggers. We've all raced along side them. They've been our team mates and our competitors, the guys you hate to race against. Part of me couldn't care less about them, but another part of me hates them. Let me explain. When I race along side a sandbagger, it doesn't bother me personally. It forces me to train harder knowing that I'm along side guys who should be a category higher (in part, that's why I race masters category in a lot of crits). What I don't care for is lower category guys who refuse to upgrade. All that does is promote more animosity in a sport known for extreme snobbery. Whether it's ego or fear that keeps people from upgrading, I don't know, but being the highest rated guy in the lower categories would embarrass me personally.

1. It's not good for your team. If you are a team leader, you need to lead by example. Refusing to upgrade when you are past the "mandatory" point, is not being a leader. Getting wins for your team may or may not be important to your sponsors, but having a bad reputation is certainly worse for your sponsors.

2. It's not good for you. Reputations are hard to shake, for the good or bad. There's a small group of riders of riders in Ohio and whether or not we know everyone's name, people know other's by sight. If you have a reputation for being a good sprinter, people know it. Bad climber, people know it. Won't work in a break? People know it. Sandbagger? Everyone knows it.

3. It's not good for the system. That's why categorization exist.

It comes down to personal choice whether or not to upgrade as there has been no mandatory submission of race result and/or no forced upgrading. Hopefully the new Ohio Cycling Association will help fix this problem. Mandatory result submissions in my opinion is a great place to start.

I'm not saying to upgrade before you are ready, BUT if you are on the podium every week, it's time to move on up.