So all the new upgrade rules are in effect. One big thing they removed was the time and distance rule on races. There really doesn’t even need to be a distinction between Circuit Race and Road Race anymore. You simply place high in the field and gain points no matter the race length.
So if you were at a road race that had a 1/2/3 later in the day, say 50 miles long. Would a Cat 2/3 be interested in a race that was only 15 to 20 miles long a tad earlier in the day?? Basically a chance to grab those upgrade points but the distance not long enough for you to be discouraged to race the 1/2/3 later in the day. A “speed race” of sorts. Obviously the entry race fee would have to be much lower.
Thoughts?
As a previous cat 2, I and my teammates did that sort of combination frequently for crits and circuit races. Go to the earlier race for upgrade points, do the later race for fitness. We always paid the same fee for both.
The biggest problem tends to be the time that consumes. Go to the first race, warm up, race, sit around, race the next one. It basically turns it into an all day event, so you’d better have not much else going on or really understanding significant others.
So I’d imagine people would do it, because I and my teammates did frequently. It can be sort of counterproductive for the person doing it, because you do it enough you end up always showing up to the p12 race tired, and then are competing against fresh p1s so always get disappointed, but that’s just something racers need to figure out themselves.
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It sounds like you’re asking this as a promoter who is considering setting up another field. I think many people would take this opportunity, with the primary considerations being timing between events and how different the two distances will make the efforts - so if your 2/3 race at only an hour is going to be flat/short enough to primarily suit sprinters whereas your 1/2/3 later in the day is long/hard enough to be more rolleur focused then you might not see a ton of guys doubling up since they will want to focus on the one that really suits them
All that said - its great to have more fields, and really I’d hope that the rule changes will lead to more 2 only fields as that was one of the hardest things to find when I was chasing points for my 1
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