Road Bike Racing - To upgrade or not

I am a brand new racer this year and am doing quite well in the few races I have done so far. I am getting close to have enough points to upgrade to cat 3 but feel I need more experience in road racing and crits before I stand with the big leagues girls. What to do? Cat 4 women have races on their own and a lot of races have 1-2-3 all together, so I fear I will sweep the pack for a while before I get good enough to stay with the good ones. Comments? (I have won time trials and a second place in a stage race where the road race was cancelled due to thunderstorms)

Thanks, Kati

Kati,

I would get some more experience and compete in more races before upgrading.. They do seem to combine more womens races because the fields are smaller.. Get a win or 2 under your belt before upgrading.. When I upgraded from Cat 3 to Cat 2, it was a harsh experience. Going from a fast field to insanely fast was a tough transition.. Riding with the Pro's was a great experience, but it took me over a year to get comfortable with the pace at that level.

Kati,

I would get some more experience and compete in more races before upgrading.. They do seem to combine more womens races because the fields are smaller.. Get a win or 2 under your belt before upgrading.. When I upgraded from Cat 3 to Cat 2, it was a harsh experience. Going from a fast field to insanely fast was a tough transition.. Riding with the Pro's was a great experience, but it took me over a year to get comfortable with the pace at that level.

I would definitly agree with that. I have 2 more races to qualify to go to catagory 4 (we start at five vs 4) but will not until the end of the season. I feel I still have lots to learn and would like to place at least twice in the top two before upgrading.

In my understanding 3 - 2 is one of the hardest transistions to make. Of course since I am not even close to that level I can not say I have experienced it personally (maybe in a few years).

Good luck, glad you are having sucess in your present racing.

Race Results for Michael Swager
Racing Age 23 from Riverside, CA


Place Name License Time Bib Team
No results were found for this rider.

Looks Like you have a ways to go.

Race Results for Michael Swager
Racing Age 23 from Riverside, CA


Place Name License Time Bib Team
No results were found for this rider.

Looks Like you have a ways to go.

LOL!

However, I think that usacycling webpage is not up to date... I've done 8 races this year, all USCF and none of them have shown up yet.

cheers

LOL!

However, I think that usacycling webpage is not up to date... I've done 8 races this year, all USCF and none of them have shown up yet.

cheers

yeah some of the races I've done this year have shown up and some have not . . . I was thinking that it depends on the race organizer and whether they bother to submit the results or not. When you apply for an upgrade you send in your race resume manually anyway . . .

As to the original question, I'd say race the season out as a cat 4. Besides, if you haven't done any crits, they may not allow you to upgrade . . . the uscf rep usually wants to see that you have done crits, because they are the most technical

Race Results for Michael Swager
Racing Age 23 from Riverside, CA


Place Name License Time Bib Team
No results were found for this rider.

Looks Like you have a ways to go.


so i'm assuming you're talking about the guy named 58vw on this forum? why do you have such a hardon for him? leave the kid alone. go ride a bike. find a girlfriend. whatever. it's sad how you feel the need to pick on him. i wish you well.

nice, it's snowing in ann arbor. i love this town.

as to the original post: to play devil's advocate, if you want to learn to ride w/ the fast girls, ride w/ them. in that spirit, it may pay to upgrade. no way to get faster than to force yourself to ride faster. just a thought.

dan

Some advantages to upgrading:

1. Faster learning curve, especially if you are in combined fields. There is no better way to learn than riding with good riders.
2. Depending on your strengths the longer races typical in higher categories offer more tactical opportunities than the typical 4/5 races which heavily favor sprinters.
3. Higher category races are faster yes, but are also smoother. IMHO this more than offsets the increased pace, making it a bit easier to sit in the field once you get used to the increase in speed (more a mental than physical adjustment).

However, I've always beleived in pushing outside the comfort zone.

Race Results for Michael Swager
Racing Age 23 from Riverside, CA


Place Name License Time Bib Team
No results were found for this rider.

Looks Like you have a ways to go.

Just a question... does USCF place all races online or just the ones you place in the top x of the field? I was looking at that earlier too...

ewitz - ignore him, he is an ass. I never said I did super well in any of the races, you only need to start 10 races to qualify for an upgrade, I have started 8, and BTW finished 4. What I said was that I have enough "points" to start racing 4's but I am not going until I do better in five. I have been racing for 3 months, when I started I got dropped in the first lap, then it was lap 3 then 5, last race I stayed in until the last 3 laps then bridged an enormous gap to make the final sprint. Places mean nothing at this stage of racing for me, somepeople do not understand that :mad:

Oh ya... Rancho domingous crit (twice), la circuit race, home depot center crit, ontario crit (twice) Redlands crit... + more... I have done quite a few races this year me thinks...

LOL!

However, I think that usacycling webpage is not up to date... I've done 8 races this year, all USCF and none of them have shown up yet.

cheers

You're pretty much at the mercy of the race promoter to submit the results to USA Cycling. Out of the 30+ races I did last year, 0 were submitted.

So to recap, the USCF online rankings don't mean jack