I read umd's quote wrong and misstated. I used until meaning to include the year you turned 18, which is how your racing age is taken. Bad grammar mistake for the Language Arts teacher. In my defense, and it doesn't take away from my mistake, the first year I started racing, our racing ages were taken on December 31st of the previous year. That was the year I turned 15, so my racing age was 14.

UK, I've heard the argument regarding birthdays from both sides. I don't think it matters. For the kids that mature faster (like the 6'1" junior that won the 13-14 crit at junior nationals this year), they are just more mature. It doesn't matter if their birthday is January or December, they are just going to be bigger, stronger kids. When I was a junior, Hincapie used to tower over all of us. He was probably the same height he is now and I swear he was thicker. He was intimidating. His birthday is June, right in the middle of the year. I don't think it matters for masters either. My birthday is August, toward the end of the season. At the only 35+ race I did this year, I got a ton of grief from a bunch of the old guys because I was only 34. Some of them didn't even believe I was 34, which didn't make sense because I've known several of them since I was a junior.