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(December 31, 2013) A common race flyer will look like this: There are a lot of different categories for a lot of different people. All categories are split by gender, although sometimes female competitors are aloud to join men's fields. Most of the categories are age groups. Age groups are not based on actual age, but on race age. A person's race age is what the age of the person will be on December 31st of the year of the World Championships of the discipline and season in which they are competing. The Cyclocross World Championships take place in late January or early February each year, but the season takes place from late August of the previous year, all of the way until that point. This means that unless your birthday comes in January or very early February, you will never compete in a race categorized by your actual age at the time. This also means that if you have a December birthday, you would race most of a season 2 years older than your actual age and that your road and mountain age for a year will always be 1 year younger than your 'cross age. This seems somewhat arbitrary and really it is a little bit. However, your race age shouldn't change midway through the season, and you should not be able to race in a category with an upper age limit when your real age is older than the limit but your race age isn't (i.e. the race age is December 31st of the year of the main season, you have a January 1st birthday, and you race the world championships at your age from last year when really you are a year older.) So the UCI had to put a date where this couldn't happen and they could choose the date of the world championships but that changes every year, so they decided on the end of the year. Anyway, age group are based on this racing age. For Colorado local races (I'm not sure about other areas), there are no age categories for racers over the age of 18 and under the age of 35, and there are no upper limits on age categories once you reach age 35, so you could be racing someone 20 years older than you. Junior categories (under 18) do have upper limits because of development, although younger riders are generally aloud to "cat up" and race with an older category. Junior categories are Pre-J (which is really pre-junior so anyone under the age of 9), 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, and 17-18. Pre-Js are not permitted to hold a license and also are not permitted to cat-up. At most large races, there is also a U23 category which is for all racers race age 22 and under but really it is restricted to 19 and over also. Masters age categories change depending on area, but are normally split into 5 or 10 year groups. The other way in which fields are divided is through categories. Sometimes fields are restricted to an age and a category in local races but that is striaghtforward so I will not talk about that. The lower the category, the faster and more experienced the field, and likewise, the higher the category, the less experienced and generally slower the field. For road and cyclocross, categories start at Cat 5, and for mountain, they start at Cat 3. Riders move from Cat 5 down to Cat 4 after they gain some experience racing in a group by completing 10 races, also with the opportunity to do clinics which can substitute up to 5 races. Cat 3 for mountain and Cat 4 for road are pretty similar, with riders at about the same skill level for their discipline. Riders upgrade by finishing in the top few riders of a race, determined by the number of starters, and earning points. Once enough points are reached, a rider may upgrade voluntarily, or choose to stay in the category but if too many points are reached, they are automatically upgraded. Pro is the best category to be, and that means that you are currently under contract. Cat 1 is the closest you can get to being pro without having a professional contract. However, Pro, Cat 1, and Cat 2 racers often race together in races for road and cyclocross, and open races are common for all disciplines, allowing any racer of the gender to compete, although generally Pro, Cat 1, and Cat 2 racers are the only ones who compete in these. |
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