lessons from sun tzu

The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
- Sun Tzu

Recently Gary was asking about what road races to register for now. RMM suggested that it was most important to register early, thus to intimidate your enemies/crossresults nemesis. That by "calling your shots" if you will, you stand to win.

I disagree, and I can site my sources! The true path of the sandbagger is not to win through intimidation, at least not until you become known as a sandbagger. The key is to win by choosing your battles.

ah so!

At the heart of it, sandbagging is only racing when you know everyone faster than you is racing at 1pm. Of course the most important part of this is to never ever upgrade, but still train like a cat 3. But more subtle is the art of the pre-reg. One must always know thy enemy and the crucial advantage of bike-reg is the confirmed rider list.

As an up and coming sandbagger I plan to always wait until the last minute, to better know who i must defeat. Should a stronger opponent register, the better part of sandbagging valor is of course to feign prior comitment and not enter. Since if I wanted to challenge myself by racing faster people, of course I would upgrade.

The only flaw of course is the "ebay sniping connundrum" Should many skilled sandbaggers be active in one area, there may be a flury of last minute registration from many skilled sandbaggers. Thus the key to victory is not how hard one races, but how well timed one's bikereg.com skills become.