http://www.cxhairs.com/2013/01/23/ca...ross-its-here/
I don't know if you all saw this, but I'm wondering if the series I'll be racing this upcoming season will have a Cat 5. Honestly, I've only raced one race before, and I would love a Cat 5 race. I plan on doing around 8 races this upcoming season so I'd love to be able to race Cat 5 my first entire season of racing. Even if a Cat 5 exists, I wonder if they'll group the Cat 5 and Cat 4 together. Or even worse, they might group us along with single speeds or women or the real young kids or other oddballs.
I think it's a good idea. Cyclocross is the most spectator-friendly cycling sport and I know a lot of people who want to try it but are too scared of making a fool of themselves when racing sandbagging Cat 4's. It would be hard to sandbag if you're forced to move up to Cat 4 after only ten races.
Any thoughts of whether or not this is going to be legitimate?
New for 2013 USA Cycling rule change:
1E6: Category 5 established for men in cyclo-cross and upgrade system changed to resemble the road more. There will be voluntary upgrades and mandatory upgrades based on points. Cat 5 to Cat 4 upgrade by experience only.
Full upgrade section with new rule changes:
1E6. Cyclo-cross Upgrades and Downgrades
Cyclo-cross categories are upgraded similarly to road category upgrades using the system below:
(a) Requirements for upgrading:
5-4: Experience in 10 races is a mandatory upgrade.
4-3: Voluntary upgrade with 10 points. Fifteen points or two wins if the field had at least 30 competitors is amandatory upgrade.*
3-2: Voluntary upgrade with 15 points. Twenty points or two wins if the field had at least 30 competitors is a mandatory upgrade.*
2-1: Voluntary upgrade with 20 points. Twenty-five points or two wins if the field had at least 40 competitors is a mandatory upgrade.
*Juniors are exempt from this mandatory upgrade
(c) USA Cycling may add additional requirements for upgrading at their discretion. Any such changes shall be made available on the website.
(d) Cyclo-cross Conversion
Cyclo-cross (CX) categories may also be upgraded by conversion from a rider’s earned road or mountain bike (MTB) cross country (XC) category. If during the season, a rider upgrades his or her road or XC category, the cyclo-cross category can be upgraded to match the road or XC category shown below by request of the rider or by request of the administrator.
Complete USA Cycling Rulebook can be found here: http://www.usacycling.org/forms/rules