Its real simple, if you've won in the 4's, upgrade, if you haven't stick around and see if you can. Winning is rare in this sport and you may not get close at the next level.
Originally Posted by
Radish_legs
Look, Rubik, have some self-awareness, it's a topic of interest to a few people around here. When should people upgrade or not. It was kind of fun to see a young mattm talking about upgrading to 3. Lighten up.
I notice most of the people in that thread are long gone. Maybe they were driven off the board? I don't know how that could happen. Shocking.
I've lurked here for 10 years or so and most either get banned or lose interest in the sport or forum. Really the only people driven off the board are newer racers that show some bravado and overstep their knowledge base (I've been guilty of that). To be fair, when a Cat 5 starts correcting a guy with 10 years of racing (and that happens alot) can see why people get annoyed.
The newer guys are excited about racing as well and just want to contribute, I don't see it as intentionally malicious.
Originally Posted by
Radish_legs
Don't give up. I don't know if I have been granted the right yet to actually give advice to another cyclist in this forum (many people over the past year have criticized me for it). One thing that I am doing different this year is not worrying about results or points or upgrades, I'm just doing it for fun. I'm trying to get fit, I'm trying to learn to be a better racer, but I'm not obsessing about outcomes. If racing becomes unfun because of lack of results, then you might benefit from changing your outlook. Work for your teammates. Let fitness build up over the season. Just enjoy the experience. There's no shame in being a 4 for a long time. Some of the successful 4s around here have been racing for 4 years straight.
I probably take this too seriously, but I think everyone here does. Right now I'm getting back into it and doing too much dumb stuff in races, but fitness wise I think I'm 'okay'. It would also help if I would stop being afraid of my chain snapping or slipping when I sprint; I'm basically hitting 500 less on my peak power because of that 'fear'. I love racing but if it ever gets to a point where I think there is zero chance of me ever stepping atop a podium I don't really see the point. That's far from the case tho.
Originally Posted by
Radish_legs
We have guys in my area that are basically cat 4s for life. For example, some of the guys who race the 35+ 4/5 every year, and regularly do well and have many podiums. But they are certainly not at the level of 40+ racing. That's night and day.
We have many guys in our area that have mandatory upgrade points in a season, and it's never enforced from what I can tell.
The reason I found this thread is I wanted to read a discussion on the pros and cons of upgrade to 3. I think I already know how I'm going to approach it. When I feel like riding in the A crits is a challenge I want to take on, time to upgrade to 3. That will probably be this season.
Of course certain strengths lend themselves to upgrading quicker, for example, having a good sprint in pack finishes. Sprints happen regularly in the 4/5. Much more rare in the 3/4 and 1/2/3, so theoretically you could have a hard time upgrading to 3, but actually excel in racing as a 3 because you have more of a breakaway physiology and mindset. At least I would think.
I have a buddy that they tried to ban from the local C crit as a Cat 5, because of his success this season. He pointed out that he had submitted his upgrade, but it had not been approved yet, and he had only been on the podium once in this particular crit.
Speaking of upgrades, I'm not sure how I feel about the "I'm a cat 1 mountain biker, so I should be allowed to upgrade to 4 after a single crit, and then start racing 3/4." Apparently this is happening in my area. I don't think any of these guys have actually won a 4/5 crit yet.
It's also possible that I may not be allowed to upgrade to 3 because all of my points are from weeknight crits (apparently this happens sometimes as well).
I could probably upgrade on 35+ 4/5 crits, even though racing here is down we have a crop of talented 20 year olds in the 4's. Those 4/5 masters races are largely eliminated for 30+ 3/4 (which, I don't really see 30 as 'masters' I mean, people win grand tours at that age) because a lot of Cat 3 Masters didn't want to race in the Masters 123's.