Originally Posted by Mtn Mike

Wow, I'm sorry I offended so many Masters. We go through the same heated discussions on the WA State list serve with the same predictable results. I know, no Master likes to be called a sandbagger, and everyone wants a "fair" race. Unfortunately this rarely happens in any area.



In an ideal world I guess that everyone over 30 would race against people in their same age bracket, AND their same category (Masters 30-35+ Cat 1/2, Masters 30-35+ Cat 3, Master 30-35+ Cat 4, Masters 30-35+ Cat 5....Masters 45-50+ Cat 1/2, Master 45-50+ Cat 3, Master 45-50+ Cat 4, Master 45-50+ Cat 5....Masters 50-55+ Cat 1/2, Master 50-55+ Cat e3, and so on and on and on). I assume that Southern California and other larger metro areas have enough racers to consider breaking down races in such fashion.



You can race with the Elite 1-2's, or you can race with the Masters open field. No one is telling any Elite racer that he/she cant race in their elite category. I suspect that what you would like is a Masters (insert your age) 1/2 field. Yes, in an area with a big enough population of racers, this would be great. In my area you'd be racing with one or two other racers on a consistent basis.



Yes in an ideal world, Masters would race in a "Master (insert your age), Cat (insert your category) field". Unfortunately this doesn't happen. So which way do you want it? Should Master 1-2's race with Elite 1-2's, should Master 1-2's have to race "down" with Elite Cat 3's, or god give you strength, Elite cat 4-5's?

In our area we have made the choice to have open (cat 1-5) Masters fields because that seems to accommodate the most racers. We race the Masters 40+ with the Elite 4/5's and they're scored separately (maybe I wasn't clear on this before), and we race the Masters 50+ with the Masters 60+ (both scored separately).

Seriously, as a small-time grassroots race promoter and an as an official, I'm asking for better suggestions on how to set up our fields. So far I haven't seen a good argument one way or another. The Masters saga continues.