Cyclocross Racing - New USA Cycling Upgrade Rules

http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook.pdf

So let me see if I'm reading this correctly... All you need to go from a 4 to a 3 is 5 starts? At least the cross category lining up with your road or mountain category will reduce the number of sandbaggers...

wow. that's quite a change.

i was honestly thinking and hoping that they were going to go the other way with that. meaning that they'd create a category five which required experience to upgrade out of.

i'm not sure how this will reduce the number of sandbaggers. this means i (a crappy cat 5 road racer) will be racing against strong cat 3 road racers and expert mountain bikers who are new to cross.

wow. that's quite a change.

i was honestly thinking and hoping that they were going to go the other way with that. meaning that they'd create a category five which required experience to upgrade out of.


that is what i thought the best solution would have been.

Now there are going to be 2 giant classes cat4s and cat3s....the point system is strange to me as well, oh well, it doesn't really effect me to much i guess

that is what i thought the best solution would have been.

Now there are going to be 2 giant classes cat4s and cat3s....the point system is strange to me as well, oh well, it doesn't really effect me to much i guess

exactly, it's going to flood cat 3. right now a lot of races have a cat 4 race and then a cat 3 or 3/4 race. if the only true cat 4s are people who have done fewer than five races i'm afraid that'll do away with a lot of cat 4 races such that the lowest category race is a massive 3/4 race (like a lot of road races). so the threes end up having to race with the squirrelly newbies and the strong beginners have to wait awhile before they can really be competitive in a race.

unless a lot of people decide to stay cat IV after 5 starts just so they can be competitive. which would, in a sense, make them sandbaggers.

wow. that's quite a change.
i'm not sure how this will reduce the number of sandbaggers. this means i (a crappy cat 5 road racer) will be racing against strong cat 3 road racers and expert mountain bikers who are new to cross.

Oh, sorry. This comment was for the starting categories for new cross racers. Your road or mtb cat will dictate your initial cross cat. So no more getting killed by cat 2/smei-pro racers who just want to try cross out...

yeah, that makes sense. too many connotations for the word "sandbagging."

but yeah, i certainly wont miss the inevitable semi-pro time trialist or triathlete.

if they enforce the mandatory upgrade point i dont think the cat 3 field will be too huge. From what I gather there are a lot of cat 3 sandbaggers out there that will now have to race as 2s.

If they created another cat 5 field it would probably just mean another race going on the same time as the womens and cat 4 race. I dont know if the course can handle that.

They should probably think about changing the B race structure now too because having two races that a cat 4 can race is silly if you are supposed to upgrade after 5 races.

What I am conflicted over is if I should upgrade to 3 since Ive obviously already raced more then 5 times. I didnt want to until after a few races next year.

I'm sure the cat 4 to cat 3 upgrade after 5 starts is not mandatory. It's not written that way and that would be ridiculous. If you're consistently racing cat 4, never getting points, and the people who are getting points are upgrading, then it would seem silly to force a switch to cat 3. I have almost 20 starts but came up in the bottom half of most of them because I suck. I think the changes will make a difference, but not a huge one.

I'm still torn about whether or not I'm going to inflict myself on the master's division this year, maybe I'll be one of those cool guys who goes back to back.

I think I'm going to get a Norba license this year instead of a USAC because I might do a few mtb races but I'm definitely not doing any road.

agreed, it definitely doesn't look mandatory.

maybe this is a good thing. i guess the bar was set kinda high for upgrading based only on points, expecially if you tend to do the large-field c races.

i'm kinda torn. i'd like to be competitive in whatever races i'm doing if possible. i guess i'll probably end up in whatever category lets me double up races.

there seem to be discussions developing here (http://www.chicagobikeracing.com/) and here (http://www.benlikesbikes.com)

unless my coach suggests otherwise I am definitely starting off next season in cat 4 again :D

also I must be the only one that loves a congested race because I cant wait to race cat 3 races in fields of 70+