Originally Posted by
carleton
Yeah, that rule has been in place for a while.
I think I've mentioned this here before, DLV's former race director Jeff Hopkins (former road pro, jr track world champ, international level trackie) wouldn't let P/1/2 roadies who were new to the track simply hop into P/1/2 track races. He'd literally make them race in the beginner races with the strict instructions that they couldn't leave the pack until the final lap. They had to trudge it out at 22mph with the CAT4/5s for 9 laps until the final sprint.
It sounds mundane, but what he was really doing was protecting the P/1/2 trackies from having a squirrely guy show up in the big show and make a mess...at 35mph
I agree that that's how it should be done. I've worked with a couple of them trying to teach them how to race track, but they just can't resist going off the front. We usually move them into Cat 4 races pretty quickly since it's pointless to have them ride Cat 5. The larger CAT 4 field is where the real education occurs. In six weeks or so, they usually cat up to the CAT 2/3 racing on Tuesdays.
Well, that's how it works for Cat 2 roadies. I haven't worked with any new Cat 1 roadies to know how Ttown deals with them.