I hve not done an exhaustive search, but I figured someone here might have the answer and save me an exhaustive search.

What are the categories in France for racing. I see they hae Juniors, then a First, a Second, and a Third Category. Do these correspond with American A's, B's, and C's or is it the reverse where Third is the highest level?

Finally, I would get my UCI license to race there. Does anyone know what category a foreign rider would be placed in? The reason I ask is because certain races I have found only have Category 3 or Category 1, and I would rather not entertain the idea of a race I could not do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

What category are you in the states? Where in the states?

What category are you in the states? Where in the states?

IIRC the Doc is a cat3 on paper, but a pro sandbagger.

I'll take a stab at it. But my French isn't as good as it used to be. Best to confirm.

From this page (http://www.ffc.fr/a_Licences_FFC/Types_Tarif/index.asp), it looks like the highest is 1. If you click on "Classification des coureurs pour 2008" over on the right, it shows that the goals are 10-15% of the riders are Cat. 1, 20-25% Cat.2, and the rest Cat. 3. Cat. 1 licenses cost more, too.

Other things that jump out at me:

- you'll need a medical certificate
- licenses seem to be issued by the regional body in the name of the FFC, so I would try to contact one of the regional directors (preferably the region you want to race in) and ask them.

How's your French?

^

sounds like the dutch system, where you choose which cat you want to race in, and the higher it is, the more you pay.

you also need to pay +/-90 euros to get a medical check by an approved doctor.

Instead of upgrading O'Donnnell is moving? Hell, Will, we never even got to race against each...never mind on the same team :(

He could probably win the french national tt...

I go to France for the summer every year. I will be spending July there and thought that I would enjoy trying my hand at racing while I was there this year. My French? it's passable. I will check the link. I will also check with USAC to see if I will need the medical eval, or just the UCI license. I will not be grabbing French licensure per se, but I do want to know which category I should enter. Sounds like the 1's.

I go to France for the summer every year. I will be spending July there and thought that I would enjoy trying my hand at racing while I was there this year. My French? it's passable. I will check the link. I will also check with USAC to see if I will need the medical eval, or just the UCI license. I will not be grabbing French licensure per se, but I do want to know which category I should enter. Sounds like the 1's.

OK. I don't think I added much info, then. There are some results if you dig in the regional organizations. A few time trials, even, which might give you an idea of the competition.

Also, I don't think all the TdF rosters are finalized, so you might want to ring up AG2R. :)

Bon voyage!