mattm

I'm just glad to be a 3 and be out of that mess (the 4/5's) - doesn't really matter to me how sketchy the new crop of riders is anyway.

Let 'em come from Triathlons for all I care. =]

SalsaPodio

To back up Psimet, I upgraded to a 4 last year on 6 mass start races. It might have helped that I won all the races I entered, but I'd like to think that they saw that I was good at handling a bike and knew what was going on.

WCroadie

Trust me, the 3's can be almost as sketchy.

You're just bragging Kudos to winning all your races. I upgrade to a 4 after 7 races and I didn't win any, all but 1 were top 10's tho.

carpediemracing 

Big frickin sticker.

Racer Ex 

Or worse. Cat 3 legs on a one-day brain is pretty common and some of them get so puffed up about hitting "average" that they start acting like Lance Freaking Armstrong.

carpediemracing 

Cat 3s crash less often but they crash a lot harder.

3s crash because of errors in judgment (normally). Like a guy swinging out to get around a blown up rider without checking to see if it's clear (the "I'm in front, I can do whatever I want" mentality which to me is totally effed up - it'd be convenient to be able to slam on my brakes at will and wreak havoc but my conscience won't let me do it, unlike some other racers I've dealt with). This is what caused me to break my first ever bone(s), 26 years into my racing life, a guy swerving hard about 6 or 8 feet to the side with about 500m to go in a training race while boxed in. Or sprinting with their head down and bouncing off the crowd barriers (or crowd itself) like what happened at Harlem Cat 3s in 2010. You should see the insane recoveries in that crash. 3s generally know how to ride. Sometimes they're just too dumb or arrogant to ride smart.

5s usually crash because of mechanicals or lack of basic skills. Number one reason for Cat 5 crashes in my experience - broken chain due to worn or improperly installed chain; second most common, blow out due to improperly mounted clincher tire. Since the latter usually fails before a race, it's rare to see it fail during (but I've seen it happen). Broken chains are the worst. A good hint it's the mechanic's fault (usually the same individual that crashed when the chain snapped on his bike) is that the chain is new. Since I promote a spring series of races, a lot of racers show up for their first races of the year. They show up with bikes barely assembled, hurriedly finished by the racer while someone pins on their number. Racers will buy Record components and use the wrong tool to install the chain and complain about the component when the knucklehead that installed it is at fault.

Another common Cat 5 crash cause - slight brushes of arm/shoulder/bar resulting in over-reacting and taking oneself down. This is usually due to the fact that Cat 5s tend to look down, not forward, and end up much less aware of the overall situation. However since 5s ride so far apart (2-3-4-5 feet between riders) it's unusual that there's inadvertent contact except when taking poor lines through turns.

TIP: When you corner you should always corner in your lane. Cornering line is absolute BS (outside-inside-outside), it doesn't matter if you're in a pack. If in a pack then follow a path parallel to a common arc that everyone can follow. At Bethel, on the curving hill, I follow the yellow line - it's the middle of the road and everyone to my left and right should have room to ride. Most riders cut both bends, squeezing right then left. There have been many, many crashes due to those squeezes. It's because people are taking a "good line". It's idiotic is what it is. You take a parallel line, and if you're not in front, you follow the rider in front of you. Everyone in the same "lane" should automatically pick the same parallel lines. Parallel. They don't ever meet. Worry about good lines when you're solo or the field is in single file behind you.

4s crash because of lack of skills, sometimes lack of judgment (meaning making a move that would cause a crash even if the crasher knows how to handle a bike). One Cat 4 mowed down a race at Bethel by cutting from the right curb to the left while sprinting in the middle of the field. That was chaos. I've also seen guys topple over after touching wheels, or slamming on their brakes when the field eases, or swerving around potholes and such.

TIP: NEVER swerve around potholes. You chose a bad line, you freakin well better eat it. Either learn to bunny hop, learn how to pick better lanes, or buy yourself new rims regularly.

This is my experience with the races I've held and others that I've attended. I got to do a 4-5 race in 2010 (a training race) and I was shocked at the pack riding skills or lack thereof.

cdr

mazdatech10

Got mine too , but its all green and says uci international license, had to do for my new team/ sponsor

Psimet2001 

Yes......Yes.......They are "my people".

I can almost feel it coming now. Read the signs - see everyone who is redlined/pin-wheeling. The twichiness. The desperation as people try to cover moves they can't cover, etc.

I'm the perpetual (pro) cat 4 sitting there dispensing the "take it easy guys - we all have families and jobs to go back to", "Look for the stack up", etc. I called the 1 wreck that I hit the deck in last season. "Allright guys - It's the last two lap and there's a ton of us still here with a lot of juice left. Every year this is when people get twitchy and there is usually a big wreck right around now. Take it easy and take it level - no one is getting away at this point and there's no point sprinting for 50th."......half a lap later two guys barely touched and took down half the field.

Good times.

Beer and donuts boys....beer and donuts.

saratoga

Yup. Still a huge age range, still a huge range of abilities. There are definitely fewer but now the sketchy riders are usually strong enough to keep up unless the course is selective.

substructure

I've seen more crashes as a 3. And other than one specific 4 race last season in the rain, the 3s crash harder most of the time.
We host a lot of criteriums in my region. In my feeble observations the higher the Cat the harder the falls. Some of the P/1/2 races are just crazy - speeds, moves, attacks, crashes, the whole gambit. Masters, on the other hand, seem to crash less than all.

rkwaki

It's because it takes too long for us to heal.

Grumpy McTrumpy

both my race crashes in 2010 were in Non-Masters races.

the Millersburg one was in the 3/4, and the Brooklyn one was in a 35+ race that had been secretly made into a 123. (thanks for that AVD!)

I didn't find this out until the results were posted on usac.

ridethecliche

You want to upgrade to the 4's in road and you've never raced on the road. Wait, what?

The officials have probably been drinking the beer handoffs.

rkwaki

+1
Put your time in young grasshopper - racing and training are very different.

Grumpy McTrumpy

nope. your cross age is your road age in the next season. example: rider turns 45 in december. race cross in oct at 44 (road racing age 45, cross racing age 46)

WCroadie

Very true

Very accurate. I find the young strong ones are sometimes the most dangerous because they don't realize the consequences of their actions. 1 local horse of an 18yo is very strong and multiple people have "talked" to him about his dangerous BS moves he would pull in the weekly training crit, his response was he doesn't care if he crashes, to which I replied, the 40 people behind you do who have to go to work tomorrow.

The next season he crashed in a crit, smashed his face, broke his jaw, lost teeth, etc. he's a little more caring about crashing now...

Psimet2001 

+1 - it's like super mega racing age. Sucks. Has to do with the fact that cross technically spans the year end - into jan. Your racing age then becomes your racing age at the END of the cross season - next calendar year.

mattm

Btw is there such a thing as a one-day UCI license?

E.g. if I wanted to do a crit in Canada (BC), can that work without a real UCI license?

Grumpy McTrumpy

I have been told that you can buy one-day canadian UCI licenses to race masters.

Enthalpic

It depends on the province, in Alberta there are no day licenses for road events other than the odd time trial where they make an exception for triathletes.

Grumpy McTrumpy

what I was told had to do with the Coupe Des Ameriques in Quebec, which happens at the same time as Fitchburg. (and is now the only stage race available that weekend here)

here is the application for their single event license.

I assume that the promoters are responsible for arranging this on a race-by-race basis.

alexp247365

Is there anything in between cat-1 and pro? I know there are different levels of Pro, but where would the next logical step be if you were a strong cat-1 and did well in your regional races?

jwible

Just renewed my license. I'm old.

But my new team is in the system at USAC. woot.