rydaddy

I've only done 5 races (2 C's and 3 B's) and just got my upgrade to Cat 3. We have some USAC events coming up and I wanted to stay with the "B" crowd.

UBUvelo

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...cense-for-2011

(my original inquiry...)

i did 3 races last year....8 so far this year (and more to come, official or not)....at age 47, starting to make some progress among the crowded fields of cat 4 sandbaggers and folks who fall constantly in the technical....i am usually the oldest but at least starting to beat and pass a few guys since really dialing in the training, diet, etc.

my concern is should i cat (not UP but) OVER to my age group? i noticed i actually had better times than most if not all at the PACX championships...i was in the cat 4 race, but maybe should've raced with my age group. i still 'suck' but not so much as before, ha! maybe i'm getting my numbers wrong, but i think good ole masters 45+ is my 2011 niche. and i get to sleep in a few more minutes. i think

Cynikal 

I just cat'd up to 3 for the Lange Twins race on the 18th. Kind of annoying to jump through hoops for one race but whatever.

M_S

Are you fours racing in 3/4 races or just 4s? And are your As 1/2/3 or 1/2?

Here it's often As = 1/2/3 and Bs = 4, with no C. At some of the bigger races it's A = 1/2/3 or 1/2, Bs = 3/4, C = 4. Unfortunately this means there is a pretty big split in the Bs between the real beginners and those going for placings or whatever. Though some people near the front of fours are true beginners in cross but aree very fast in other disciplines.

I'll almost certainly be racing 3s next season, probably early or before the beginning depending on my summer, but if i still live where I am now there's a solid chance I'll be DFL for every local series race. I do wish they would change Bs to 3/4. it would have been nice to win a cross race once in my life. Oh well.

Cynikal 

We have a A's,B's and C's. I did one season in C's and up'd to B's. I've never cared about what cat I am because it never applied to me. Also I went to B's because the riders have more skills. Our C races are filled with road racers with few dirt skills and there are always clusterf@#ks on the first technical turn(granted this was 3 years ago when I raced C's).

M_S

Yeah, I jumped straight to Bs, but as I said only maybe a third of the races I do in a season even have a C race. I guess my whole point was that categories, whether A/B/C or numbered cat may vary depending on where you are. Some of the digs at the 4s in this thread don't really apply to some areas. Now if you're ina n area where 4s = C, period, and thus the beginner cat then yeah it's just like folks who hang out in beginner class MTB all season and keep podiuming.

rydaddy

That's why I upgraded. There's also Folsom this weekend. Though, I bet a lot of people are up in Bend...

Cynikal 

Yeah, I'll be missing that race but we'll get to do it again in Jan. Have fun out there, it's a fun course.

hocker

OP, If you were a 2 in mountain bike and upgraded on the road you should have never been a 4 in CX. It's not apples to apples, but...

I upgraded after a couple podiums and winning a huge field in my second year of racing. About 14 total races, total. I've done one road and one mtb race in my life. In hindsight I should of upgraded after my win, but at the time it seemed like a fluke. Now i'm mid pack 3 and mid-back pack of 35+. You can see from Natz that Colorado masters are ridiculous and I probably won't see the front for years if ever. Doesn't matter though, I really enjoy racing as a 3 as it has made me really think about focused training and increasing power and handling. I'm skipping beginner mtb and doing 2s this year.

spencedonfonix

I raced 2 cat 4 races in '08, raced the '09 season in the Bs and this year I did every 1-2-3 race locally and was only forced to do the Bs at Cincinnati UCI3 and raced SS open at USGP.

IMHO, there's no gain sitting in lower races. If you don't have the power for As, at least do the B race. Save the C(cat 4) race for beginners. Second, third r fourth year C racers bug me. And if you win you're first Cat 4 race, UPGRADE.

jfmckenna

One of the problems with sand baggers in cat 3 or 4 is that a lot of cross races are a part of a series and typically they have overall series prizes so if you cat up in the middle of a series then you are out of the overall. So people stay in cat 4 for the whole series. I know a few guys that stay in the cat 4's simply because they like cyclocross but never really train and end up towards the back every race. I don't really see anything wrong with that. I started doing cross over ten years ago and all they had was A, B and C categories. Because I won a few A races years ago they gave me a cat 2 once they changed the system over a few years back. I mostly race Masters now competitively and do the 1/2 races for training. Cool thing about Masters is that there is no such thing as sand bagging

Rutnick

I disagree. Cat4 road has nothing to do with cat3 or Cat4 cross. Neither does cat2 MTB. there were Cat1-cat3 roadies at times in my cross races. They never podiumed that I know. The winner of our Cat4 series was a Cat4 roadie. he won the series by like 15 points. My best finish as a Cat 4 Cross racer was 5th.

I've already upgraded to Cat3 Cross and already raced as a Cat3. I got my ass handed to me but those guys had been racing Cat3 in another series all freaking year. It was close to their season finale. Brutally cold, winds of 17mph and mud and snow.

It was awesome. had one good battle with another guy. He would gain on me in the flats and I would gap him in the technical stuff. He and I did that for 45 straight minutes.

ridethatbike

I just upgraded the day before yesterday to a 3. My cat4 results were so-so, but I think I have more to learn as a 3 then if I were to stay a 4.

Two races to go this year. The only downside is that the Cat3's go off with the open guys, and it's a 50 minute race versus a 30 minute race. I hope my 'ol back can hold up. ;-)