>
> 9:55am Category C Men, Masters Category C 35+ and Unicycles A&B ---
> change to Cat 4 &
>
Did I read that right? There's a MUNI category for Crusade? Do you get
much of a turnout? The (dis)mount is much easier without that other wheel
in the way...
When I renewed my USCF License last year I had to select one of the CX Categories. I selected the "2" cat and when my license came there were no questions asked. I did send in a letter and copy of my OBRA License at time of registration.
USCF had me at a cat 4 still, expert mtb & no CX category as it had been 3 years since renewing my license with them, where OBRA has me at cat 2, elite (or whatever it is now) & A CX last year.
I guess what I am getting at is they let me self select and didn't make me start in the CX 4 field.
My vote would be to stay similar to the USCF, there was a huge discussion on this when they switched on numerous CX Chat boards. To me it really wasn't any different, A=1/2, B=3, C=4/5, so if you were used to the old letter designation you new what to select on your new license application. They still run Masters, Single Speed (the best class:)), women, etc... More or less just like the road racing scene. After talking to a few guys at a CX race it sounded like the people that objected the most were more from the MTB side of things, as they were Sport/Expert on the dirt and 4/5 on the road, yet were racing A's in CX and they didn't want to start over. When they signed up, they just had to put down they use to be an A or B and their license came as it should be, a 1/2 or a 3.
My understanding is they are keeping it separate from the road, like they do MTB, and have done with CX in the past.
I don?t see any changes in what people would race, if you look at the current Crusade fields:
9:00am Beginners and Masters 50+ --- Change to Cat 5 & Masters 50+
9:55am Category C Men, Masters Category C 35+ and Unicycles A&B --- change to Cat 4 & Mst Cat 4 35+
15 minute break
11:00am Masters Category B 35+ and Junior Men --- Change to Mst Cat 3 35+ & Junior Men
11:55am Kiddie Kross (approx. start)*** --- No Change
12:10pm Category B Men and Single Speed --- Change to Cat 3 & Single Speed
10 minute break
1:10pm Women: Category A, Category B, Beginners*, Masters 35+, Juniors* Change to Cat ?, Cat 3, & Cat 4, Mst 35+ & Juniors
2:00pm Category A Men and Masters Category A 35+ --- Change to Cat ? & Mst Cat ? 35+
Master catagories are usually decided by the race organizer, with guidence from OBRA, and can be catagoriezed or not.
Check out this link http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=45728&highlight=uscf
Richard
I agree that there should be some self selection allowed for existing cross
racers. Myself and many other racers I know are all Cat 5 road, race expert
Mtn. or not at all, but have been racing in the B's and A's in cross.
Personally I don't want to start in the CCX4 category, and I would like to
think it wouldn't be fair for the others. Look at last year's Cat B series
winner, he's a Cat 4 road, and I think expert mtn and I assume he was gonna
race A this year in cross. But by the new standards he would be in CCX cat 3
at best. I don't think it's fair for the riders that focus mostly on cross,
as well as those that may be newer. The newer racers would be surrounded by
riders that last year would be called out as sandbaggers. HoweverI think
this is really just an issue for this year, as we sort out into the new
categories. So I would encourage OBRA to allow a certain amount of self
selection, based on last year's results, and in the future new riders can
use the equivalents to propose a category.
Overall though, getting rid of self selection will help to equalize the
fields and clear out the sandbaggers.
Scott
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