The Demise of MMBA Championship Point Series

I was emailed this link to MMBA forum on racing:

http://mmba.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=104176

After reading the text version, it's rather clear that sandbagging is perfectly okay thing to do in the CPS.  Not only that, you will be supported for doing it.  That really kills any integrity the series has.    When I raced Sport, all of use were pretty matched in ability.  In 2008, when I took 3rd,  all three of us were relatively close in points.  We really had to push ourselves to beat each other.  When I won the TT series, I did so by 1 point on the LAST race of the series.  At the end of the season, the CPS rules dictated that I move up to Expert.  I had no choice.  However, a year later, that rule was removed, thus the current situation.  Hopefully the CPS committee does something to restore the integrity of series, or at least the sport category.  However, I'm not sure what can be done during the season.  It is really up to the personal integrity of the racer to move himself up when he knows his abilities are far above the current category.

The situation doesn't affect me so much in the CPS because I race Expert.  Given my ability, it's all I can do to finishing the damn race.   So my dream of podium will require much more training than my schedule permits.  Plus, with Triathlons, I have to split my training between running and swimming. It may affect me in the Tailwind series because I will race Sport since they require a license to race Expert.  I'm not dropping the coin on a license when it already costs me money to drive a minimum of 2.5 hours and a hotel room.  If my times dictated Expert I would, but it appears even without the sandbagger, I will not podium in Sport.  If I find that I am winning, I will either buy the license or just stick to triathlons. I'm going to try and avoid as many CPS races as I can given the 'incident' earlier this year.  Really wish USAC would do single day license like USAT does.  But I guess USAC goes for the money grab where USAT goes for participation.