Hi,
Quick question: new to Crit/RR scene and found a cyclist that should have been under the mandatory upgrade rule of US Cycling a while ago. He is winning most races in his category for 2 years now and for some reason he’s not moving up. Is this a common practice?
Absolutely…. It’s ultra rare for USAC to force upgrade someone unless a race promoter puts in the request. You could send an email to the USAC upgrade officials with his points/results and request they are upgraded or train harder and beat them and upgrade yourself!
Sandbaggers are the worst.
Point it out to your district rep.
I seldom do USAC events anymore after transitioning mostly to off-road racing. I do not miss the category BS. The only big benefit I ever saw to categories was having a cat5 race as a place for new racers to get their feet wet. Beyond that, I personally think it’s mostly a flawed system that often feels like social stratification as much as trying to create a level playing field. There are always sandbaggers and then if you upgrade it’s like a mark of shame to drop back down a category if your fitness drops. I’d rather they just draw a line between pros and amateurs and call it a day. Or novice/elite/pro if you need 3 to provide a separate home for the casual and more serious racers. And while going strictly age group and gender has it’s challenges also, I think it works well enough on the amateur side (ie - better than categories).
BMX offers something similar with novice/intermediate/expert. The upgrades are strictly enforced after 10 wins in novice and 20 wins in intermediate. It’s similar to cat 5-4/3-1/2 but the problem is USAC doesn’t enforce upgrades like USA BMX.
Being a 40+ cat1, I actually find age group racing more realistic and maybe moving from a cat based system to age group only would be ideal for all disciplines like they do in gravel events. It could be structured in 10 year increments depending on turnout and of course offer a separate Elite/Open race for the ultra competitive.