Hmm, interesting. Length/time also isn't taken into account, since it's not available on the USAC results page (or anywhere on USAC besides the flyers as far as I know).

Which makes me wonder, do they even check lengths if it's so hard to do?

But yeah, it's a limitation no doubt.

Hmm, interesting. My guess as to why is that if you're doing Masters 1/2/3's races, then it can only assume you are a 3 at best. But I assume you've done p/1/2 races so it should guess you're a 2.. I'll PM you for deets so I can see what's up with that!

The other way to fix this is instead of guessing the category, figure it out from the rankings pages. Or just enter it as you suggested.. maybe some day.

I get the feeling the upgrade process is very fungible. Can you imagine some upgrade coordinator going through someones race results, opening each race to check the flier for duration, then results for field size, then the field itself in mixed-cat races to see who actually counts?

There is no way anyone is actually doing that.

I bet they open your results, see some top-10s and top-5s and say "good luck!"

If someone upgrades too soon, the biggest victim of it is the person who upgraded and can no longer compete for results.

When I knew guys who never got good results in the 4s that upgraded on pack finishes to the 3s, I was like "alright then, good luck" on the outside, and "alright then, more fodder" on the inside.

Incorrect. I know for sure the NY upgrade guy checks mixed fields and does the math.

Mixed fields, I believe. Distances/time though, I still wonder..

I guess local upgrade coordinators are familiar with the local races and will generally know if something is too short to qualify.

But some local p/1/2 "road races" are 70-something miles, just short of the 80 minimum for 2->1 rr upgrade points. Maybe for 2->1 upgrades (that are done by a national USAC upgrade person I believe), they do check that stuff.. since you're going to 1. Then again they have even less of an idea of the local races, so who knows.

At any rate, upgrade points stuff is tricky!

I took points from a 48mi/6k climbing circuit race.

Crit by the letter of the rules, RR by the spirit of the rules. I'm not really a stickler for anything, but especially stuff like this.

Also, stop signs should all be yields. "STOP" just makes scofflaws of 99% of driver and 99% of cyclists both.

Some LA upgrade officials do exactly that. It depends. Cat2>Cat1 upgrades are collected at the LA level and submitted to CO for approval.

The biggest victim is the elite level guy who gets taken out by the guy who upgraded by riding away from the field and can't handle their bike amongst those that can.

you don't need any skills to earn legit upgrade points.

e.g. me.

That's a separate issue, imo.