USAC Changing Upgrade Policy

Racing
1

Seems a bit better to me overall, more logical at least. Not sure about pack finishes for moving to 4>3. Is that a thing now?

Anyway, #themoreyouknow:

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2

Oh. And no more Cat 5ā€™s. Cat5 is ā€˜Noviceā€™ now.

3

Well. Thatā€™s frustrating. Cat 4 is the new Cat 5. Feels like I wasted last seasonā€¦

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4

I like their new ā€œwinsā€ policy - seems like itā€™ll move people ā€œstuckā€ thru

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5

Link without that Facebook tracking click ID garbage.

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6

thanks, i didnā€™t even see it. OP is changed now.

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7

Nah - you got some good race experience.

When does this go into effect?

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8

I think these are very positive changes. Itā€™ll be interesting to see the new distribution of Licenced categories when the race directors of each region perform the mandatory upgrades.

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9

Holy crap, these are big changes and Iā€™m confused. Hereā€™s what it looks like to me for road.

  1. You can earn more points in crits and circuit races now. Looks like itā€™s a flat points structure.

  2. You get less points for stage race placement than before.

  3. Thereā€™s no mention of a limit of 20 points for an event like before.

  4. Thereā€™s no mention of only getting 10 cat 1 upgrade points in a masters racing. Does this mean I can just race masters from now on and get a cat 1 upgrade?

  5. No mention of limiting upgrade points from weekly series.

Can anyone comment on the above if itā€™s accurate?

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10

These revisions came out today and the website has been updated Here Iā€™ll get with our area director tomorrow and see if he has any more clarifications. I suspect the goal is to move people up as quickly as safely possible, so, getting to Cat 1 will be easier than before (a lot of races put 1/2/3 together anyway).

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11

Itā€™s even crazier for track.
Based on the plain-language reading as posted on the USAC site, you could theoretically upgrade to Cat 1 on the track without ever doing a mass start race (purely on sprint tourney points). That and completely removing field minimums could make for some very uhā€¦ interesting racing at masters nationals this year.

12

That seems to be accurate.
It really hurts stage races in terms of how useful they are for upgrading - my read is thereā€™s zero upgrade points for a single stage win, ONLY points from final GC standing, which is why the language about capping points to 20 from a stage race isnā€™t needed anymore.

13

IDK but, this seems too easy IMO. I donā€™t think this is taking masters into account but weā€™ll see as I have more than the required for a mandatory upgrade.

14

My read is that the GC now follows the same points table as the stages, rather than having its own points table. I donā€™t see any verbiage excluding individual stages, only clarification on how GC points are given.

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15

I am slightly happy with most of the changes, but this part is awful.

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16

Ah, you may be right. This makes way more sense.

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17

So if a gravel ride is sanctioned by USAC, does it offer upgrade points? For which discipline?

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18

As a Cat 5 (now Novice) racer, I donā€™t think anything is very different for me going into this season, right? Still need the same points requirement to get a Cat 4 upgrade and once I reach that category is where the changes come into play.

19

These two seem like the biggest potential changes to me on the road side.

I canā€™t imagine they are going to let you fill out a cat 1 upgrade with masters events, but there is no mention of it anywhere so it is either an oversight or theyā€™ve changed course dramatically

The removal of the very deep point payout for 50+ person stage races (points went 20 deep in the old model) is significant primarily for 2->1 due to the lack of pure cat 2 stage race fields. This used to be a nice way to give TT specialists some opportunities at points, that same field size now only pays 9 deep, dramatic difference. If I remember correctly 9th place in a 50 person stage was used to be 11 points, it is now only 1. Ouch!

Even if there is still a limit on masters+series points of 10 (as there was previously) this still seems to make the 2->1 upgrade process easier since 11 person crits now pay points 6 deep. Not sure there are a ton of tiny crit fields, but more points for these events should mean more people are able to upgrade more quickly

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20

It looks like as a cat 5 you can choose to upgrade at any point voluntarily

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