Agreed, it’s a bit disappointing to be honest. It seems like USAC really doesn’t care about MTB, even though NICA is exploding and KC is on track to be the face of US mountain biking to the rest of the country who has never watched it before.
I self-selected into Cat 2 and forced myself to stay there for a season and get my results before moving to Cat 1. I would have been in way over my head in 1 if I had done it the first year.
Seems like a good time to post this:
From the USACommunique page:
If you’d like to ask a question, you can email USACommunique@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 405-CXHAIRS. Follow the show on Twitter at @USACommunique to keep up with the latest.
Maybe Lindsay will come here with lots of requests to answer questions.
The removal of a limit to points scored in master races for a 2 → 1 upgrade is certainly intriguing. I was close to doing it properly a couple years ago but then I got old, got a new job, and wasn’t competitive in P-12 races anymore, even if I’m competitive nationally at the masters level. Perhaps that dream can be realized after all…
Lindsay on the show would be great. She’s awesome. Doing great things at USAC. Still racing pro. Mom. Crusher of all. Her podcast with Bill with a good listen.
Personally (Cat4** with ambition), it seems to me like these changes are encouraging more crit and circuit racing. Which means my plans for doing more stage races this year miiiight need to change? I could also not chase points and just do it for the experience.
**Cat5 now?
Points would only count based on the 3’s in the field not any of the 4’s.
Fantastic question! Maybe it’s the entire field. That would make it way easier for you to figure out how many points you got in a race.
It seems USA cycling is trying to make upgrading less of a headache, so it would make sense that the entire field counts. Way easier to keep track of!
The cx upgrade for 10 points is crazy
I would be eager to see this be true, as my goal to upgrade to Cat3 this year would be a done deal from past podiums and I could start working on Cat2. However, it doesn’t seem fair, in general, to take advantage of combined Cats for upgrade. I do understand it being simpler, though.
This is, bar none, the biggest motivation to continue to move up and/or not participate in the 2-4th races of the year.
They got rid of the 10 race requirements for 5>4. Now you can upgrade to Cat 4 at will? Not sure that’s the best idea.
From our LA’s Facebook post:
Points are now earned based strictly on your finish position amongst all racers in a field with lower category riders no longer split out for purposes of calculating upgrade points. This is a significant change and could affect your existing points! It is very likely some of you who may have been a few points short of a mandatory upgrade are now over the threshold.
Our LA’s President answered this question and it was left out by mistake:
the limit to the number of points from masters races that can be used for a Cat 1 upgrade was errantly left out of the updated policy. That rule is still in place and USAC will be updating the online policy.
A few months ago I requested my upgrade to cat 1 without having the 35 points. I was thinking it would be denied and I’d get feedback on what they would want to see from my resume next time.
All my points are from crits. I never got a response so I thought it got denied and moved on.
This morning I got an email saying it was approved. A lot of my points are from a weekly crit series. So it’s definitely easier to upgrade to a cat 1 now 
…would also help in places that don’t have many USAC races. If you raced all the races possible in some regions of the country for an entire year, you still might not have enough points to upgrade (on the old program).
What about weekly series? Can I get all of these points racing 1/2/3 crits in Reno?
…also wonder about the Gran Fondo’s. It notes races have to be USAC sanctioned, but not too clear on the GF’s
Looking over this it seems like the idea is to allow for faster upgrades. If mandatory ones are enforced(a big if), our local CX series would see a huge uptick in upgrades. Especially since it has 11 races and thus racers couldn’t get a series waiver. In the 4/5, 4 and 3 fields you could have 80 plus and so two top fives gets an auto upgrade.
I’m not sure that is the best way to handle some cat 5’s and 4’s.
Seems like its designed to get more people into racing. Move people up in ranks, sounds cooler, etc. With a lot of road racing dying it seems like a way to try and encourage people to get involved and get more racing.