Originally Posted by carpediemracing

I think they ought to come down hard on Masters doping. One thing that (as a promoter) I hear all the time is "I'm 50 and I just got my upgrade to Cat 4. Can I register for the M45 race?" And the honest response is "Do your category, not your age, because the masters races are so fast." I've done a few manageable masters races but generally the big hitters (perhaps in more ways than one?) were typically missing. When the big hitters show up it's basically a P12 race.

And this is over on the other coast. I can't imagine racing Masters in SoCal with all those World- and National Championship stripes all over the place. Well, I did, once, and got shelled when they turned up the heat at 4 to go.

*edit To clarify I'm not saying that this would slow down Masters miraculously, but it would certainly remove some of the spectacular performers from the stage. There are (unsubstantiated) rumors about certain riders around here who somehow decided to "take time off from racing" when rumors started flying around about testing Masters. When one of those riders is in a Masters race it completely changes the character of the race, at least in my eyes.

*edit 2 Also talented racers will always be talented. Ex-pros are always going to be fast, and guys that legitimately earn their Cat 1s are seriously strong racers. Around here at least there aren't that many so it makes it actually possible for non-pros to think about winning a Masters race.