Originally Posted by grolby

Isn't a bit early for you to be getting snobbish about unworthy upgraders? If the new rules result in bad effects on upper-category racing, they'll get changed again. No big deal. There's an element of discretion from both upgrade officials and riders as well - no doubt there will be some riders who will gradually accumulate 30 points over six seasons and then immediately submit an upgrade request, but plenty of others who will recognize that it might not be a good idea. And besides, plenty of people already upgrade and downgrade depending upon whether they have the training time to be competitive. In my own case, if I continue on the kind of streak I've been on, I'm confident of being competitive in Cat 3, possibly even of being able to upgrade in a reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, without training time, I'm barely competitive in 4s, forget about higher; for most people, their ability to compete in various categories is going to vary from year to year anyway, with the different demands on their time and life. I don't see how any of that changes because of these new rules. But I'm just a newly-minted 3, so WTF do I know? Just thinking out loud.