idc

Question: If you do upgrade from Cat 4, do you keep the upgrade for life or is there a minimum racing you have to do each year to remain upgraded? I don't think I'd ride 10 races/year every year.

Also, can you apply Cat 5 road races and Cat 4 CX to upgrades or are they totally separate?

jfmckenna

Once you are a cat 3 you will stay there, you cannot go back to cat 4. A cat 1 or 2 can apply for a downgrade however, something I should probably do seeing I am slow and fat now

I think they are a bit more strict about keeping the disciplines separate now. Back in the day however I was able to start road racing as a cat 4 because of the success I had in two years of cyclocross. That was before cross was on the cat system and the races were just A-B-C categories. It can't hurt to ask your local USACycling official though. If you have been crushing it as a cat 4 in cross they may give you an upgrade.