Why do we practice sprints?

To win!

Of course, this shoulda been one of our own riders, but there was something peculiar going on with this particular rider winning the Golden State Criterium last year in the 4/5 race. What was it??? Let me see if I can explain:

"Hey, I have enough points to upgrade from 4 to 3.....can I do it?"
"Sure. Oh wait, no, you can't. You see, you only completed 8 races as a Cat. 5. You'll have to go back and complete those two more races as a Cat. 5."
"OH, well, okay. Then I can move up to Cat. 3?"
"Well, no, you can't. You see, once you complete those two Cat. 5 races, you'll have to start all over again as a Cat. 4."
"You mean, I have to accumulate all those points again to go from 4 to 3?"
"Uh, yes, you will."
"Um, well, okay.....then I can upgrade to Cat. 3?"
"Yes, but first you must go back and complete those last two Cat. 5 races."
"Okay, I'll do it."

It makes about as much sense as the cereal diet(uh, yeah, another one of my Guinea Pig training ideas.....I'll explain the results in a later posting. One word - Mistake.).

As for the rider winning above, it's funny what anger and training can do for you. Can you say Cat. 2 by the end of the year??? This dude is already eyeing Cat. 1.