Originally Posted by YMCA
You could be right about cat3's not being as strong as they used to be. Probably something do with the fact they rarely have to do 123's anymore and that racers now have more balanced lives than they used to. 15-20 years ago or more, you had a lot of 3's that trained 300+ mile weeks regularly. Now-a-days it seems most guys do just what they need to, in order to keep racing decently and keep up with other responsibilities better.
Bike racers used to be a smaller community and to succeed, or have anyone pay attention to you, riders had prove themselves constantly. Training and racing has gotten a lot softer. Almost to the point of yuppie triathletes. Could just be the hardened sportsman in me talking though.
I was actually saying that my friend told me that the level of the 3's has RISEN, not fallen. The three's used to get absolutely shelled when they came up to the 1/2's, now they are doing better on average, according to him.
I don't plan on being a 3 for any more than the rest of this summer, so I'm hoping that he's right. I blew plenty of 2's out of the water in my one and only race against them, and would like to see that continue.