"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Collegiate Riders

Wondering how many people here do collegiate racing. Who do you guys ride for? My school, Michigan Tech, is organizing our first road team. I was wondering, how do the collegiate categories compare to the competition in standard road categories? Cat C = to about cat 3?

D= Beginner, C= Cat 5, B=4/5, A=1/2/3

The races are smaller at the high end (A) compared to the field sizes I see in my races during the summer. There isn't a limit on the field sizes in the C's or D's, though, so there are a LOT of people in those races.

Usually the breakdown of starters in each race, for guys, is around 40-60 for A, same for B, 60+ for C, and 30ish for D. It really depends what race it is, and when it is. Nice courses that are centrally located, at times when no one has spring break or Little 500 (IU only...but they have a HUGE team) will draw the most, obviously.

Im a freshmen at California Polytechnic State University and just joined the cycling team. Right now its just mountain biking but im hoping to get serious about the road racing when the season starts.

Correction:

A=Pro/1/2/3

We behave like grownups over here and race in the regular cats. ;)

Except for BUSA national races (kinda like NCAA), in which teams can put in anyone they like.

asmallsol, im on nmu's team. do you have a lot of people interested in a road team?

and +1 to dukes breakdown of the cats

I wish that MIAT had a cycling team, that would totally rock.

If you don't run into trees for no reason and can pedal your bike at 20mph with no assistance for decent stretches, start in the Cs.

How people don't maim themselves and others in the Ds is beyond me.

We don't have D's in the SEC. Instead, there are plenty of sketchy kids in the C's. They usually get dropped, though.

I wish that MIAT had a cycling team, that would totally rock.

Not sure if that's a college or not, but if it is:

1) make an organization through your school
2) contact the USAC and get them to recognize you as a club
3) buy a collegiate license
4) show up and get it handed to you

U C L A

I wish that MIAT had a cycling team, that would totally rock.

so start one! its like 10 bucks to start a team...




oh and ill be representing KENTUCKY this spring

ill see you in the d/c's unless i become awesome fast... we are in the mwccc instead of the sec for some weird reason....

i even think the first year license is free. i started ours 2 years ago and its something ill never forget, go for it!

Ill be racing for U of Illinois Urbana for the second year this coming spring. After that, hopefully for UC Riverside, but at this point who knows. Collegiate racing is a blast! Especially if you have awesome teammates like I did.

I race at UNC-Chapel Hill, I'll be doing A's this year - it'll be fun to try to keep up with those guys. At least I'll have some teammates with me. Plus our kits are going to rock, we are going the argyle route this year, in keeping with a long-standing Tar Heel tradition.

How people don't maim themselves and others in the Ds is beyond me.

nice.

Not too far from what I expected when I joined D's last Spring, although to my surprise, I made out at the end without having witnessed a single crash in the D's (although Breezy mentioned having been in one a weekend or two prior). Perhaps those who rode D's were such noobs (including myself) that they were fearful of crashing and rode more conservatively. As an example, at the Midwest regionals crit last season crashes didn't occur in succession until the B's went out.

nice.

Not too far from what I expected when I joined D's last Spring, although to my surprise, I made out at the end without having witnessed a single crash in the D's (although Breezy mentioned having been in one a weekend or two prior). Perhaps those who rode D's were such noobs (including myself) that they were fearful of crashing and rode more conservatively. As an example, at the Midwest regionals crit last season crashes didn't occur in succession until the B's went out.

You should have seen the Ds the year before. Actually, all in all, there were VERY few crashes this year. The only crashes I saw in the As were people taking solo flyers, carrying too much speed into corners, and washing out. I saw many in the As and Cs the year before, and was involved in three (3) in the Bs. I think JK went down twice and JM at least once. JC ate it in the womens a couple of times last year as well.

Perhaps the general absence of IU had a calming effect. And then, when they showed up for regionals, bad things happened.

U C L A

Your goin down.

You mean for tomorrow's game? Are you a CAL guy?

btw, it's "you're" not "your"

U C L A

See you in spring. ;)

P.S. and yes you are going down tomorrow. :)

I was in a D race, saw like 10 people crash out on a 180 degree turn, tons of fun.

I have a horrible D race experience though, i just bought a road bike and had it for a week. Before that i casually rode an 80s scwhinn, and not for about 6 months before i bought that new road bike.

So anyway, i got this thing and decided that (not knowing anything about training at all) it would be an amazing idea to train as hard as i can all week before the race. So i did, every single day for a week up to the last day before the race.

So i get there, ignore warming up, ride up to the group at the starting line.. attempt to clip out and fall over because it's my first week in clipess :). Announcer makes fun of me but i go on to the back of the group. I hang on for awhile but then we face some hills and i kinda blow up standing on them, then a shock hits my body that felt like i just trained too hard before and my legs suddenly were almost numb and in lots of pain. So right before the end of lap 1 out of 2 laps i think i got dropped... in a D race... still finished like 35/45 or something

So i guess that should have completely discouraged me from participating in another race ever again, but thing is, i had a blast riding that course and wanted to do it again. Since then i road biked on and off for 1.5 years and now im actually trying to "train" and ride consistently. I can hang on in "fast" group rides and hopefully i'll do a little better in Ds this year.

just wanted to share

D= Beginner, C= Cat 5, B=4/5, A=1/2/3

The races are smaller at the high end (A) compared to the field sizes I see in my races during the summer. There isn't a limit on the field sizes in the C's or D's, though, so there are a LOT of people in those races.

Usually the breakdown of starters in each race, for guys, is around 40-60 for A, same for B, 60+ for C, and 30ish for D. It really depends what race it is, and when it is. Nice courses that are centrally located, at times when no one has spring break or Little 500 (IU only...but they have a HUGE team) will draw the most, obviously.

there's actually a new pre-D category, i think it's just called Beginner. I'm not sure if it's always been there but i've heard of guys riding in it last year

yeah, i completely plan on being dropped in the d's and causing wrecks, even though i should probably be at c level by the time race season comes around.

watch out for the sweet retro uk jerseys, with a "big ***** fans" sponsor on my behind, as i drope the hammer past you and then wipe out and cause a wreck going into the following curve.

I would be quite upset if i crashed, simply because i don't have money to do much repair work, so i'm gonna try to stay up front and keep it that way.. shouldn't be too hard, those guys didnt even go fast last time i checked. I also hear difference between C and D level isn't that big and is mainly in the bike handling department.

shrug

wow. I guess I got very lucky last season. I know I would've been pissed as hell if I wrecked my new bike... part of the reason I rode solo in a lot of parts I should've been sucking wheel. I still made out well and had a blast so I'm not complaining.

You mean for tomorrow's game? Are you a CAL guy?

btw, it's "you're" not "your"

No, im a cal poly guy and i believe we race eachother in the spring.

D was not a crash fest for us in the ACCC. It's a good place to start out. I did an SECC race in Georgia, and the lack of D in that conference was noticeable (in that there were a lot of raw beginners who got dropped quickly).

If you want crashes, ride B. C is ok. The problem is that there are a lot of riders. I think the riders are better at handling than D's, but not a great deal. C's are slightly harder, but the pack will drag you around if you can hang on.

Collegiate cycling is a great introduction to the sport. Those BUSA chaps in England are missing out. They only have three races a year! We have 3 a weekend :D

Of course, British Cycling does not offer a cat 5 either iirc. And nobody cares about collegiate sports outside of the boat race.

asmallsol, im on nmu's team. do you have a lot of people interested in a road team?

and +1 to dukes breakdown of the cats


We have about 8 or 9 people interested right now. Not many but good enough. I am on co-op this semester, so I haven't actually met any of the riders to find out their skill level. I'm a cat 4 currently, and will probably be moving up to three midway through next season. I just don't have a ton of starts to make the move yet since I've only been racing for a year. Based on the breakdown, I could do either b or c, but I don't know how the others are.

if you plan on catting up to 3 i would race atleast B's. thats very similar to a 4 field.

Plus our kits are going to rock, we are going the argyle route this year, in keeping with a long-standing Tar Heel tradition.

Ilpirata, is there any way to buy a team jersey (not the standard cookie-cutter jerseys you can find online)? My future brother in law is a huge Tar Heel fan (their whole family is actually, the other brother played for Dean Smith) and I'd love to score some brownie points. Thanks.

I'm in the ECCC. Our Ds and Cs have similar handling skills... but the Cs go a lot faster, making the wrecks a lot worse. We didn't have many this year. Because of the snow, we also didn't have many races this year.

I think the C's in the ECCC are MUCH better at handling. I'll be in the B's this year, but I didn't think the C's were bad at all. When I was in the D's I feared for my life every race.

<-- Rutgers

I'm at university of alabama, and we're just starting back up from a few year hiatus. I haven't done collegiate racing yet, but i'm planning on doing Bs (the license says 4)

See you in spring. ;)

P.S. and yes you are going down tomorrow. :)

HAHA... I just read this post now. What was the score again?? 30-21, UCLA?? thank you

See you in spring

HAHA... I just read this post now. What was the score again?? 30-21, UCLA?? thank you

See you in spring

Pure luck. he he.