"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Suffer with the 4's or be God of the 5's

Hello, this is my first post here. Right now I am kind of between Cat4 and Cat5, and I am about to do The Tour of Utah this weekend. It is a pretty hard weekend with 2 crits, 2 road races ( one is 54 miles) and a TT. Now if you had the choice would you choose to suffer with the 4's or maybe win your entry fee back in the 5's. Thanks for the input.

no cash prizes for the 5's.

If you're so confident that you'll be a "God" of the 5's, then where's the challenge? Ride with the 4's and be humbled.

Mark

I always tell people, don't move up if you can help it unless you've won a race. You may never get a win as a 4, 3, 2 etc.. But you can probably crack one in the 5's

Winning is a GREAT feeling! and everyone should experience it at least once.

Now if you're winning without really suffering, then sure its time to move up.

Hello, this is my first post here. Right now I am kind of between Cat4 and Cat5, and I am about to do The Tour of Utah this weekend. It is a pretty hard weekend with 2 crits, 2 road races ( one is 54 miles) and a TT. Now if you had the choice would you choose to suffer with the 4's or maybe win your entry fee back in the 5's. Thanks for the input.


It's actually only 1 crit, we don't do start until Saturday.

I say stay with the 5's and move up with a vengance.

Suffer, you sandbagging son of a camel. Suffer.

I am facing the same situation. The five only crits are way to small and I can upgrade now. The 4/5 crits are much harder... I say suffer in 4...

BTW I will probably be upgrading soon because 5 is just to hairy for my taste!

you're not going to get better by not challenging yourself as much. Go with the 4's

I always tell people, don't move up if you can help it unless you've won a race. You may never get a win as a 4, 3, 2 etc.. But you can probably crack one in the 5's

Winning is a GREAT feeling! and everyone should experience it at least once.

Now if you're winning without really suffering, then sure its time to move up.

Good advice. Get a win.

dude, stick with the 5's. if you are who i think you are, the fella who raced c's all year for CU, then it is definitely not time for you to upgrade yet.

Guess it depends. If you're good enough to be a god in 5's then move up and suffer. Then again, how demoralizing would it be if you raced 5, and got shelled?! At least 4's are just a wee bit less sketchy. But notice that I said "WEE BIT" Good luck in Utah.

You should get some wins as a 5 before moving up. or at least 3 times on the podium.

If it's your first year, there's more to learn than you realize.
And I agree, you should take the time to learn how to WIN, or you'll be pack fodder forever.
It's not just about going fast. Or hanging with the big dogs.

My58vw, if you think that moving up will be safer, remember that YOU may be the hairy one in the 4's race.

Think of it this way:
When you were in 2nd grade, you looked over to the big kid's playground and you thought it would be great to be over there.
But when you were in 6th grade, you didn't want any 2nd graders coming over to play on your playground.

get spanked with the 4's---be ambitious...but you should get honest opinions from those who've seen you race.

Aim low. Go for the 5s. Then you don't have to work so hard. Is that what you're looking for?

Koffee

My58vw, if you think that moving up will be safer, remember that YOU may be the hairy one in the 4's race.

Think of it this way:
When you were in 2nd grade, you looked over to the big kid's playground and you thought it would be great to be over there.
But when you were in 6th grade, you didn't want any 2nd graders coming over to play on your playground.

Definitly true, I just get annoyed at all the guys in 5 who do stupid stuff like cut people off in corners and such. Last race I almost nailed people who swung into my line and pushed me into the curb twice because they took the corner too sharp. Sure I have probably done that too before but it just seems like it happens much more in cat 5 then in the 4/5 races.

I like you annology about 2nd grade and 6th grade. The question is how do you know when you are now in sixth grade compared to second grade? I know one is to start winning races in cat 5 but even winning races does not mean your handling is good. If what you say is true then people in 4 will not want people in 5 moving up and same for 3 to 4 and 2 to 3...

These are the reasons that I do not want to move up too quickly... although 80 percent of the races in socal are 4/5 and once I go to 4 I start earning point to dare I say cat 3 upgrade some day... tough decision.

I'd say go and crush the 5 field if you can.

Always upgrade, always. Stop only when you get to the top.

Or you may as well go race 3rd graders.

Moving up might you get dropped in 4? OUCH!

If moving up to a 4 is uncertain, then you are not yet a "God" in the 5's. Well, perhaps things are different in Texas. Here the 5's are not much slower than 4's, and many top 5's from early in the year are already 3's!

Stay a 5, you are not ready for the 4's yet if you have to ask the question!

I'm curious as to what this kid ended up racing and how he did...

Yea, did you go for a challenging loss or meaningless victory?

I always tell people, don't move up if you can help it unless you've won a race. You may never get a win as a 4, 3, 2 etc.. But you can probably crack one in the 5's

Winning is a GREAT feeling! and everyone should experience it at least once.

Now if you're winning without really suffering, then sure its time to move up.

I agree. I faced a simliar situation in motorcycle roadracing. I was getting to be fast as an amateur, and thought about moving up to expert, where I would get a lot faster really quick. But I hadn't actually won an amateur race yet. I decided to stay back and win a few races, and boy I'm glad I did. It was great to be "the man" for a little while. Personally I wouldn't move up unless I got bored or the organizers forced me to.

I agree. I faced a simliar situation in motorcycle roadracing. I was getting to be fast as an amateur, and thought about moving up to expert, where I would get a lot faster really quick. But I hadn't actually won an amateur race yet. I decided to stay back and win a few races, and boy I'm glad I did. It was great to be "the man" for a little while. Personally I wouldn't move up unless I got bored or the organizers forced me to.

We had a guy in the novice class (WERA Clubman novice) that we called "Woody" 'cause he was scoring wood just about every weekend :)

clubman, isnt that the CCS equivalent of super singles, where everyone races honda hawks? or is clubman the middle weight twins.

I raced heavyweight supersport/superbike, but I was pretty lousy, did snag a 2nd and a 3rd one weekend. You ever race at roebling road. Its about 25 minutes from my house.

I ran at willow springs.....big and little plus button willow out here in so cal. Great times.

We have Road Atlanta over here in the east, its probabl our premeier track, and my fave. Yeah, good time, but the $$$ was crazy. $1000.00 a month minimum....