Race category question

witica

witica

New Member
Ok so I'm going to show my ignorance here...

In the UK we don't have distinct racing categories (1, 2, 3, etc.) because everything is done solely by age. I've just signed up for a US racing license and put myself down for category 3 in everything. Now I've raced a fair amount, but thought it'd be better to start off with a lower category than too high because I don't really understand the differences.

The issue now is that when I want to enter races, the category 3 course difficulty/distance seems to be much reduced compared to category 1/2, but I want to ride the longest and hardest tracks when I'm racing (that's the point, right?). I had assumed that the category was a reflection of the competition you'd be facing (i.e. slower!). So my question is: can I enter a higher category than what's on my license, or have I screwed myself by putting category 3 down?
 
It depends.

Pick a race and post it, then we can answer the question. If this is solely based on USAC, and mountain biking, it works like this:

Non-USAC: race whatever you want
USAC: You need to race the cat

*caveat: you can upgrade to cat 2 with no qualification in USAC. Cat 1 you need to actually earn the upgrade.
 
As Norm said, you can auto-upgrade to cat 2. You might want to do one race as a 3 just to settle in and get a handle on the scene, but it sounds like you have plenty of experience, so if you are happy with the distance, go straight to cat 2.

The category differences as they play out in this area are mostly distance and speed. There are some races that have harder terrain for 1s and 2s that the 3s skip, but generally we all do essentially the same course, just number of laps increases. Pretty much everyone is racing 1-2 hours, with fast cat 3s at 1 hour (and slow cat 3s like me around 1:30!) to cat 1/pros at three times the distance but still around 2ish hours.
 
If you've raced before, cat 3 in mountain biking is not where you belong, regardless of your current fitness level. It use to be called beginner before it was changed to cat3.

What kind of racing did you do over in the UK? What's the scene like over there?
 
So as an example, I wanted to race this enduro: http://tuscaroraoffroadweekend.com/courses/ But it says that cat 2/3 only race 2 of the 5 stages. If I entered I'd definitely want to do the whole course. Maybe this is an anomaly, I don't know. I like the idea of doing a cat 3 and then moving up voluntarily.

The scene in the UK is pretty good with a lot of people riding and definitely a lot of growth. I think that's why we have so many good pros compared with the population size. The access right are really helpful too because you can ride almost anywhere and build trails so long as nobody complains. I raced primarily DH and enduro back home, including the EWS in Scotland last year (which was amazing). I would like to do some XC races here too as that scene seems to be bigger than gravity.
 
DH is big here also, it's just not a lot of talk on this site. If you go to Mountain Creek during eastern states races you will see. I am not one for promoting another forum but most of the DH kids play at pinkbike as you probably know. Plenty of bike parks around for day or weekend trips.

Many of the parks have been updating with flow runs and then there is some that have awesome natural terrain, Plattekill for example Steep and gnarly just the way you good blokes like it🙂

Even though link says 2014 it's updated
http://www.easternstatescup.com/2014-schedule/
 
Agreed with all regarding XC. Cat 3 is, generally speaking, for those with limited experience and limited fitness. If you have either a modest amount of skill or fitness, and based on the fact that you've raced DH before then you likely have more than modest skill, then Cat 2 is where you should start. Some of the Cat 3 H2H races end up being like 30-35 minutes for the faster people which hardly seems worthwhile.
 
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