To race Masters at cross nationals: Up to racing age 54, you need to be at least a cat 3 not 4. Age 55 and above cat 4s can race cx nationals and I think even cat 5.
The other way to upgrade, if you are a mtb racer, is to upgrade mtb to a cat 1 and then that can convert your cx cat to a 3. There is significant sandbagging in the cat 4 group overall so there are some fast cat 4s as well. The problem in NM is that most of our fields are not large enough to force mandatory upgrades. I feel our State USAC organization should make some strong suggestions to cat 4 racers who consistently finish in the top 3 to upgrade.
For cross series this year we will have a special “sandbag” award for racer(s) who by performance appear they are racing significantly above others in the cat 4 group.
j
POINTS AWARDED FOR CYCLO-CROSS RACES
| Number of Starters |
Placing | 5-10 | 11-20 | 21-50 | 50+ |
1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 |
2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
4 | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
5 | | | 1 | 2 |
6 | | | | 1 |
Cat 4 to 3: Voluntary upgrade with 10 points. Fifteen points or two wins if the field had at least 30 competitors is a mandatory upgrade.*
CX CATEGORY BASED ON ROAD OR MTB CROSS-COUNTRY CATEGORY
ROAD CATEGORY | MTB XC CATEGORY | CX CATEGORY |
Pro/1 | Pro | 1 |
2 | 1 | 3 |
3 | 2 | 4 |
4 | 3 (women only) | 5 |
5 | 3 (men only) | 5 |
From: Bike-racers [mailto:bike-racers-bounces@mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Bob Perls via Bike-racers
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2016 9:55 PM
To: M. John Jordan
Cc: Bike-racers@mailman.swcp.com
Subject: Re: [NMCycling] USAC upgrade question for cross
John,
That is a great description and very helpful. I guess the other question is: I am racing masters so why do I care about upgrading from cat. 4 to 3? I wanted to move from 5 to 4 because officially I was not supposed to be in the Masters racers as a Cat. 5. When will it ever make a difference? My understanding is if I want to race Masters even at Nationals, I can do that without upgrading. Is that true? Thanks.
If you desire to upgrade from a Cat 4 to a Cat 3, you must race with others of similar category (Cat 4 in this case) or higher (Cat 3/2/1) in sufficient numbers to qualify the event for upgrade purposes, but you must also race and place sufficiently high with these similar category racers so that you earn points towards a requested (by you) upgrade based on these very same results. So, if you continue to race Master's, it is more of an age-based grouping rather than a specific capability-based, category-specific grouping. What this means is that when you race in Master's class, you may be racing with Cat 4, Cat 3, Cat 2, and sometimes even Cat 1 racers who prefer the camaraderie of "more experienced" racers to the pure contests within a Cat 4, Cat 3, or Cat 1/2 race event. So, in order to gain points in the Master's races, you would be racing head to head with some rather capable racers. This is possible, but you will need to bring your A game. We have some pretty heavy hitters in the local Master's races! We even get some heavy hitting racers from out of state sometimes and then things really can heat up. So, if you want to compete in the Master's while you seek to place highly enough to earn upgrade points, and given that you are a Cat 4 and since there are no racers lower than a Cat 4 in Master's, then you are up against some pretty long odds to get enough finish points to upgrade, especially since you have a time limit window (last 36 months from time of upgrade request) to earn and accumulate sufficient upgrade points.
What you should contemplate is racing in the Cat 4's, so that you have a better chance of achieving high enough results to earn points relatively quickly so that you can move up to a Cat 3 as soon as possible. If you are racing with the intent of gaining a higher Category, whether in CX, or Road, Track, or MTB, then the common wisdom is that you're not getting any younger, and racing against a more capability-based level-playing field like the Cat 4's would give you a better chance of placing highly than going up against a wide variety of levels in the Master's. The challenge will be that there is a wide variety of ages in the Cat 4's. You might be out there with racers from as young as 16 to as old as mid-50's or older.
So, you do have decision to make if you want to upgrade. The best strategy would be to really understand the USAC upgrade rules and work them as best you can to your advantage (same applies to anyone wanting to upgrade!) while enjoying your racing!
John Jordan, USAC Official
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