Coffee Talk With... Cat 3 Cup Contenders, Dan and Brian

From time to time, we here at GamJams World Headquarters and Low-Velocity Wind Tunnel take a break from investigative journalism and product testing to enjoy a doppio in our writers' lounge.  This week, we invited Dan Netzer and Brian Sjoberg to take a break from chasing the GamJams Cat 3 Cup p/b Mountain Khakis and to chat about fortune and glory... 

 

GJ: Now that I’ve got both of you in the room, can you finally just admit that this whole contest has been rigged and the two of you are conspiring to get as many free pants as possible?

Dan Netzer: I won my first pair of Mountain Khakis pants while in Italy. I think we’d been out wandering the streets of Rome when I got an email telling me I was the leader and there’d be two races that weekend. Obviously I lost the leader’s jersey, but the pants were mine to keep. I won Church Creek shortly after returning, regained the lead and then lost it the very next day in Reston. Brian gained four points and a new pair of pants. 

GJ: They have e-mail in Italy?  That’s cool.  Maybe I should go.

Brian Sjoberg: Well, I first noticed Dan when he smoked me at the Church Creek Time Trial and then again at Tour de Toona when he jumped from the gun of the insanely hard road race and stayed away for 3rd.  After a few crits I knew I had the upper hand in that discipline, so we talked and devised the Maximum Mountain Khaki pants plan. 

Netzer: Yeah, Brian and I have been swapping pants ever since and trading jerseys.

GJ: And now that there is only one race left, what’s the plan?  Is there a big shootout planned at the last ABRA race?

Sjoberg: I don’t know.  The MABRA Championship TT at Church Creek has been on my calendar for a while and it’ll be the last race I do before upgrading.  Plus, it’s about 4 hours closer than Appalachia Visited.  Still... I might register for both to keep Dan guessing.

Netzer: I do love a good time trial, and Church Creek is a good one for sure, but we’ve come too far to lose the competition by 1 point.  My team and I will be in West Virginia, burying ourselves to regain the lead in the individual and defend our lead in the team competition. 

GJ: And what kind of pants did you get?  What do you think of the Mountain Khakis and can I touch them?

Netzer: I’ve ordered a nice pair of MK’s Teton Twill pants and a pair of MK’s Lake Lodge Twill shorts. The longer version of the Lake Lodge Twill looks pretty nice, too. I’ll probably get a pair of those next.

Sjoberg: I got the Granite Creek Convertibles. They rock especially when you go commando, the material is so gentle on the boys. 

GJ:  You’re right.  They do feel soft down there...  But, I should focus.  So, tell me, why this year?  I mean, is this your first year as a Cat 3 and you have a “vaulting through the ranks” story?

Sjoberg: It certainly isn’t my first year of racing. I raced from age 16-20 and got to Cat 1 by 18, raced in Belgium on a Belgium team for a summer but then hung it all up to finish my college degree. This year it was a combination of my kids being old enough, they showed up to races and I finally upgraded bikes to a Cannondale SuperSix.  I hear the sandbagger cries now and I will just say that I am only training a quarter of what I used to get in, like 5-8 hours every week.  Secret sauce?  Not really.

Netzer: I upgraded last July and Page Valley 2010 was my first “3” race.  Thanks to some DIY hypnotherapy, I’ve been able to move on. The rest of the season was rather uneventful. While the other kids all got out their cx bikes, I got a coach and did a proper “off season”, starting with time off the bike, then weights and mind-numbingly slow rides that lasted forever. I was terrified I’d lost all my fitness when the first Snowball Crit rolled around. Turns out you don’t lose all that much. 

GJ: So there’s no secret sauce?  Just hard work?  That’s disappointing.

Sjoberg: Well, I guess I have one secret.  You see, back in my day I couldn’t sprint my way out of a paper bag.  But during the off season I found Crossfit and I have to say it has provided me with a sprint.

GJ: What is it about this competition that is working out so well for you?  Have you been totally focused on it all year?

Sjoberg: I didn’t get on the bike until early April and I didn’t really have any objectives other than to get consistent training in and let the chips fall where they may. It was after Tour of Washington County when I nabbed some big GamJams points and after that it certainly became an objective. It is a great series for the working-man category and I hope it sticks around for others in the future to contend.

Netzer: The Cat 3 Cup is awesome and has definitely played a part in where Celerity Cycling raced in the second half of the season. However, we didn’t start out with any hope of doing well. The races seemed too DC-centric and being in Tidewater, we decided to do local races first then whatever looks like the most fun. After good finishes at the Meadows Farm Circuit Race and the Church Creek Time Trial, I somehow weaseled my way into first place and took a few moments to read the prize list. After that, those races became more important, particularly the Franklin Omnium that we promoted.

GJ: But both of you have been very consistent all season, I think.  How did you set yourself up to have this “season long peak?”

Netzer: The primary goal for this season was the UCI World Championship for Masters and Amateurs in Belgium. To qualify, I needed to do well at the Gran Fondo New York – my first A “race”. That ride happened to fall on the same weekend as the Wintergreen Hill Climb, so I used that form to win Wintergreen then headed to New York and put in a top 5 time in my age group. Later that week, I left for Italy and a month of long endurance rides and gran fondos. Upon returning, I resumed training, slowly building for Belgium in September. Taking a mid-season break to do low intensity endurance rides helped quite a bit.

Sjoberg: Since I started late, I was nowhere in the early season but that has allowed me to stay fresh and I am still chomping at the bit to train and race. Early on I just helped the team where I could and worked on getting the legs and lungs in gear. As far as training, I am a group ride junky. If I am not getting dropped by a group or dropping people I just don’t ride hard. So I do a Tuesday and Thursday group ride in/around the DC area and then race on the weekends. Occasionally, I ride into work on Wednesday’s. My training program is all about quality, 5-10 minute warm up, punish myself on the group ride for 1-1.5 hours and then go home. 

GJ: If I’m not mistaken, you are both from relatively small teams, right?  Has that helped you or made it harder for you?  I mean, you’d think the large teams like NCVC would take competitions like this all the time just out of sheer numbers.  What gives? 

Netzer: Celerity Cycling has three Cat 3s. Wick Smith has a demanding work schedule so his racing has suffered, but Frank Cundiff and I are unemployable so we’re out there every weekend. Frank’s a master of messing up any and all semblance of organization in a field, and I am magnetically repelled by large groups, so it works out perfectly. Having a small team means we have simple plans and clearly defined roles.  For instance, our plan might be “you go and I’ll stay.”  Larger teams at this level still have a lot of guys riding for personal glory and we still see guys unwittingly or intentionally chasing their own teammates down. There are a few bigger teams who can organize and they’ve got a definite advantage. We’re working on developing an effective playbook and attractive benefits package in hopes of becoming one of those teams. 

Sjoberg: Bike Doctor is a small team. As with most teams we are made up of older guys with family and work commitments but when we throw on the Bike Doctor kit, we are selfless and bury ourselves to make sure one of our guys flies across the finish line in first. We get along great on and off the bike and typically we don’t even need to say anything in the race and just know where to be and link up for the finish. It doesn’t always work out but when it does it is a thing of beauty.  Kind of gets me choked up a bit thinking about it.

GJ: Okay, relax Sjoberg.  No need to get emotional.  Let’s talk “undercards.”  Cat 3 racing is like that compared to the big boys racing for $100 or more in the P/1/2, right?  So what do you think of this whole Cat 3 Cup competition?  Is it sort of celebrating mediocrity or do you think it’s changed the way folks learn to race?  

Netzer: Transitioning from Cat 4 or 3 to 2 is a big step and requires more than fitness and form. Strategy and tactics become increasingly important as does reading a race and understanding the politics of the peloton, all of which I’m terrible at, hence my love of “point and shoot” time trials. Competitions like this force us to step back and say, “I don’t have to kill myself in this race and go for the win. I just have to beat THAT GUY.” Your team now has an objective and things come into focus. The beauty of the team competition is that these lessons aren’t just taught to the top 5 contenders. Everyone benefits.

Sjoberg: I have been called mediocre all my life, so I am used to it. Personally, I think the series is great. It adds another element to each race because you aren’t just worried about the single day’s results. If I see Dan on the rivet going up a climb, I would send the team to the front and push to make sure he didn’t come back. I wouldn’t normally do that. I think it also forces a team to learn how to ride for a few select guys and be more aware of the other contenders. 

GJ: Normally I don’t care what folks say on the interwebs, but one anonymous poster recently equated the Cat 3 Cup to the Special Olympics in a pretty rude sort of way.  So, just be honest with me, are either of you planning to compete in the Special Olympics next year?

Sjoberg: That was a pretty disrespectful comment to many. Especially to the athletes that compete in the Special Olympics and overcome way more obstacles than you or I will ever know. Regarding next year, I am planning to hit the 1,2,3 scene in full force. I will probably still mix it up with the Old guys open race (35+). We are excited to have a very solid 1,2,3 Bike Doctor squad in the making for next year.  It will be fun trying to make a name for ourselves at the elite level. I am going to maintain my fitness by trying out the cyclocross scene for the first time. Not sure how well this will work out because it sounds like there is more drinking than racing, which I’m okay with.  But when the weather gets too cold I will be back in the gym 3-4 times a week hitting my CrossFit and SealFit workouts, I will also up my mileage a little more to handle the 1,2,3 distances.

Netzer: As Eric Cartman pointed out, "At the end of the Special Olympics a grand champion special athlete is crowned and given a cash prize of $1000!” I think it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama that said, “A win is a win.” So at this point, I’m not ruling anything out.  But in the unlikely event I awake with a conscience, I plan to spend next season racing the out-of-state races I’ve previously passed on, training for Nationals and developing a Celerity Cycling elite team.

GJ: So, any parting words of wisdom before I kick y’all out of here?

Netzer: We want to thank all the guys at GamJams for taking the time to orchestrate this competition and providing us lowly Cat 3s something to delay upgrading for. 

Sjoberg: Yeah, I’m sure you will always have the challenge of riders accumulating enough points to be forced to upgrade when the series is drawing to a close and you may want to offer an upgrade point bonus in the future.  Some people will have problems with this but it would save the sandbaggers the trouble of sandbagging just so they can contend for a season-long series.

GJ: Good point, Sjoberg.  But don’t worry.  We don’t care if people have problems with anything we do.  You see, it’s “our” competition and if they don’t like it, they can get their own.  As for sandbaggers, I want to see both of you with upgrade stickers about five minutes after the last race this year.  Got it?

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Your team enjoy the idea of coffee?  Do you like to talk about yourselves and think everyone in MABRA would like to know what you're doing these days?  Well, drop us a line and we'll fire up the steamer for you and pull some shots together (sort of).

 

Gus Grissom races for Team GamJams Racing, teaches Greek and Latin at DeMatha Catholic High School, and writes a dissertation in his spare time.  He compiles this column strictly for fortune and glory.