Fischer, Jim E (Corvallis)
Tim,
My understanding is that the correspondence is Beginner = 4, C = 3, B = 2, A = 1. Masters are 30+, and will line up with the 1s at the front followed by 2s, etc. in order of registration, but I don't know if the categories are scored separately. Elites are 1/2s for men and 1/2/3 for women under 30.
Here's the kicker...
If you registered on SBO with a new USAC license, you were given a start time with the lowest category (4s for men). If you go back to USAC and request an upgrade to the category corresponding to your OBRA CCX category, you will NOT be able to change your start location with SBO. This is in "rules" posted by USAC on Friday...third line down in red.
For those who tried to register at 12:01am when Masters reg opened, SBO folks told me today that they had 1900 people trying to register at once. They normally could handle this. They had 20 CPUs ready to deal with the work load. However, each registration required a query to the USAC membership database to confirm license status and category (which determined your callup location at the start line). The USAC database query hung. Many folks opened new windows and continued to try to submit their registration (and the associated USAC database query). SBO shut the system down for about 45 minutes, cleared the pipes and fired it back up again. They were able to process 4 registrations per second after that.
This AM, I guess the Junior and B reg also opened and was much better.
They already have almost as many people signed up for the race as actually attended last season...and the race is still just under 2 months out!
Apparently, the rules around registration opening were not communicated well to the rider membership for OBRA or for USAC. I just found out about it Friday, which was not near enough time to get upgrades handled for all those folks who don't normally have a USAC license.
Maybe we'll have more luck in 2011.
Regards,
Jim Fischer
________________________________
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On Behalf Of Tim Schauer
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 10:12 PM
To: OBRA List
Subject: [OBRA Chat] USAC CCX vs. OBRA CCX Categories vs. Natz Categories?
Anyone out there in OBRAland have any guidance on the category system for USAC vs. the CCX Natz schedule?
I'm requesting a USAC license upgrade from Cat 4 to....something that will permit me to race Cat B at Nationals. But the USAC CCX categories on their website are Cat 1,2,3,4....
The Nationals schedule doesn't list any numbered categories, but does list "B" and "Elite" as well as all the masters age groups.
Thanks in advance for any insights from the those more knowledgeable in the USAC system.
-Tim Schauer