aaacidrap

This is me almost word-for-word, minus the injury part. Lots of solid, hard training......followed by lots of poor execution in races.

spdntrxi

Cat5 lifer here.. Mainly because I believe in race what you can replace thoery concerning crits. I need to finish my allez

gtrob

The only real difference between cat 1 and 5 races is the bike they are riding

furiousferret

and about 5 watts, give or take...

jsk

The Cat5's have more expensive bikes, right?

Duke of Kent

Not necessarily more expensive bikes. I'd say it's that the CAT5s actually paid for them.

Wylde06

One of the most expensive setups ive seen was in a cat 5 race

Christobevii3

Someone had a hand made us steel bike at last race with dura ace and was like "Damn that bike is like $5000 with ultegra" and the guy is like "oh this is my first race and i spent $4200 not including carbon wheels. He then won so there is that too. I'm still sporting my giant defy 1 from 2011 with 73 degree stem for tcr geometry as best i can.

aramis

Eh if people want to stay a 5 or a 4 forever it doesn't bother me. I have been a 5 all year but I don't like road racing/crits that much so I have only done 4 races and fear of getting crashed out of the lower cats is a problem for me.

At the track I'm points ready to upgrade to a 3 but going from winning to suffering doesn't sound super appealing in the short term but I hope it'll make me stronger and need to bite the bullet.

KingShakes

There's a difference between occasionally racing, not being two serious and racing a few cat 5s a year vs. a guy coming out for 10 a year and going podium every time. I've seen that situation, and the second is narcissism.

MDcatV

i find it's best to just worry about my courses of action and progress, while not worrying about that of others. same with the equipment i'm on.

himespau 

That's the type of person that needs a mandatory upgrade.

rideaz

Having watched the chaos and carnage of Cat 5 crits, I am really surprised that some guys voluntarily stay in Cat 5! Most of the guys I know do their 10 races asap to get out of cat 5, with the exception of some friends who only do TTs and HCs.

AMFJ

I must have had a very unique Cat 5 experience, but in all 11 of the races I did as a Cat 5 (last two were part of a stage race), there was not a single crash in any of the races. In 90% of the races I've done as a Cat 4 there has been a crash.

Number400

It took me awhile to get the hang of the road races. Once I started to figure it out and contest the sprints more, I got bored because most races were a group ride with one fast lap and a sprint at the end. The last few races I did really felt like races and that was fun and then I upgraded. My plan was to go straight to the masters races to get away from the crazy riding nonsense and really work on fine tuning my preparation. Then I got hit and gave it up. One thing I learned was that you get faster when you race with faster guys. Staying in cat5 to get a result will only keep you in cat5. Moving up will make you faster.

BTW, if they actually had some road racing strategy classes and would hold a training race and a bicycle handling skills class or two, they would actually get people through cat5 faster. They let anyone sign up and then they are off the back in the first few minutes. That is not fun for the people trying to get into the sport and they will not come back after paying to get shelled. Anyone who has consistent finishes in cat5 should automatically be upgraded for the next season.

grolby

You need to not make excuses and just race what you have. Worry about replacing it IF you break it.

caloso

This is the purpose of the Early Bird series here in NorCal. It's a NCNCA initiative, but really it's something that USAC should make nationwide.

wens

Besides there's at least a good chance that you can fix crash damage on a carbon bike for <300. The chances of destroying an entire bike in a crash without cars involved are greatly exaggerated.

Edonis13

I didn't know this until last week, but one of our teammates is racing on a previously damaged carbon frame that he repaired and painted himself. I didn't know at-home carbon repair was possible (not that I would ever attempt it).

Rosshole

Sandbagging is only remotely acceptable if you are a 1, 2 or maybe a 3... tons of sandbagging in my area.

shovelhd

They have. It's called the Better Rider Program, and it's the basis of the Cat5 upgrade changes made for this year. What they haven't done is provide an incentive to local associations that could provide it. Here is an idea. We think you should do this. Good luck.

Wylde06

They had that Beginner Racing Program at one of the spring training series I do, and they really emphasized that the cat 5 men/cat 4 women participate. They had a great turnout for it which I was really happy to see

TexMac

LOL..we have a guy that looks forward to winning CAT 5 races esp when they give out shoes, tyres, $100 for KOM in road race . They take 3 months off and back again. I need 4 more crits to upgrade this year.

Sizzle82

The issue I have is there is just no racing in my area. The closest crit is 3+ hours from me. I really want to upgrade and I always have good results just cant afford to race enough a year to upgrade quickly.

shovelhd

Those kind of prizes are not allowed in Cat5 races. Cat4/5, OK, but Cat5's cannot accept them.