When do you experience the biggest jump CAT 5> CAT 4> CAT 3 > CAT

Pro/1/2 is pretty close. Lots of 1s or even better 2s can hang with the lower end pros. 3 to 2 and 4 to 3 would be my guess for the bigger changes. 4s and 5s are basically the same just the difference in number of racing experiences.

capwater said:

Pro/1/2 is pretty close. Lots of 1s or even better 2s can hang with the lower end pros. 3 to 2 and 4 to 3 would be my guess for the bigger changes. 4s and 5s are basically the same just the difference in number of racing experiences.

Slightly off-topic...
Is it legal/possible to jump from a Cat-6 to a Cat-3 or 2? (Skipping over 5 and 4)
I've never officially raced before, but i'm confident I could hang with 3's.

wh0areume said:

Slightly off-topic...
Is it legal/possible to jump from a Cat-6 to a Cat-3 or 2? (Skipping over 5 and 4)
I've never officially raced before, but i'm confident I could hang with 3's.

Uuhhm, well there's no such thing as a Cat 6... but anyway, there is not just a difference in strength but also skill level. You may be able to hang with the 3's but take the time to do some lower category racing and get your bike handling skills to where they need to be in order to race the higher class. If you're really all that then it shouldn't take you more than 10 races to upgrade to a 3 if you win them all.

vcsparky said:

Uuhhm, well there's no such thing as a Cat 6... but anyway, there is not just a difference in strength but also skill level. You may be able to hang with the 3's but take the time to do some lower category racing and get your bike handling skills to where they need to be in order to race the higher class. If you're really all that then it shouldn't take you more than 10 races to upgrade to a 3 if you win them all.

🙂 ya, what i meant by cat-6 was i'm not even cat-5 (because i've never raced)
And are there Cat-5-only races?
I really have no idea how racing works, but i want to get into it asap.

The main thing i need to learn is how to take fast corners in a group of bikers.
That might take a few races to figure out. (I only bike with 2 other guys right now)

wh0areume said:

The main thing i need to learn is how to take fast corners in a group of bikers.
That might take a few races to figure out. (I only bike with 2 other guys right now)

This is what the Cat 5 is for... and please don't race with the Cat 3 until you get it... they don't call it crash 5 for nothing.

LS17 said:

So when you move up to a high categoryer which is the biggest jump? I am guessing Cat 2 to Cat 1 since Cat 1 riders are basically pros.

Depends, you will usually have a few ringers in the Cat 4's... it is not that hard to sit in a 3 race compared to 4 race... I have never raced higher than 3, but it is much harder to place in a 1/2/3(common to combine these cats) combined than a 3/4 or 3 only.

Unfortunately they do mostly a 4/5 split here. 3's and Juniors are combined, and then 1/2. So here the hardest would probably be 4 --> 3 and 3 --> 2. 5 to 4 is no problem as long as you're reasonably fit. I did it this year in two races. But I can see now, in 4, that it will take me another season probably to jump to 3. There are usually a few sandbaggers in 4.

I am not really sure that there is some huge leap between categories anywhere. I think there are, in 4, 3, 2, 1 strong riders. To me it's not about the categories but the experience of racing. I'm finding the 4/5 split to not be a great experience, because of a lot of the squirrels in the pack. I'm hoping that 3 will be perfect.

wh0areume said:

🙂 ya, what i meant by cat-6 was i'm not even cat-5 (because i've never raced)
And are there Cat-5-only races?
I really have no idea how racing works, but i want to get into it asap.

The main thing i need to learn is how to take fast corners in a group of bikers.
That might take a few races to figure out. (I only bike with 2 other guys right now)

You might want to get some experience in bigger group rides before joining a race to hone your bike handling skills. Strength and experience wins you races and good bike handling skills keep you racing. Things happen pretty fast in a race, even on the straights. You are not only responsible for your safety but everyone else's as well.

Happy racing🙂

Cat5 was established for the primary goal of letting rookies get experience. Go race and then we'll continue this discussion about jumping from "cat6" to cat3. Here in the US, per USCF regs you need 10 mass starts to go from cat5 to cat4, although I have seen folks upgrade with less if they have demonstrated results. From 4 to 3 you need either a set number of top 10 finishes in decent sized races and/or an accumulation of points. For more info check out www.usacycling.org

You can be the fastest/fitest rider in the race, but then get all sketchy in the first turn and crash the pack. Racing isn't about pure speed (well, maybe TTs are). I race mainly criteriums which require a fair amount of skill to ride fast just inches away from another rider without banging into someone.

capwater said:

Cat5 was established for the primary goal of letting rookies get experience. Go race and then we'll continue this discussion about jumping from "cat6" to cat3.

Yep, ... wh0areume in your first race you will be sitting in the pack thinking "wow this pace is easy, I am so much stronger than everyone here". At this point you should go to the front and show everyone how strong you are by riding away from the pack... 5 minutes later when you blow up and the pack goes cruising by, you will have learned lesson #1: successful racing is not about being the strongest, it is about being smart and conserving energy. This was how myself and many others learned 🙂 . There will be other lessons you learn on the way to Cat 3, and that is why there is the requirement that you gain experience before you move up.
OTOH, if you are able to stay off the front for the entire race in a 4/5, you will be up to Cat 3 in no time and off to 1/2s with experience.

wh0areume said:

I've never officially raced before, but i'm confident I could hang with 3's.

What makes you think that?

whoawhoa said:

What makes you think that?

Mostly ego and ignorance.

wh0areume said:

Mostly ego and ignorance.

Awareness of an issue puts you ahead of 95% of folks... if you are strong, you could hang with cat 3's even with cat 2's... but they will race so much smarter than you could without the experience, and you will find yourself dropped like a brick againts people you may have beat in a TT. Get yourself racing and get both ego and ignorance wiped out 😎, the ego may return. 😉

LS17 said:

So when you move up to a high categoryer which is the biggest jump? I am guessing Cat 2 to Cat 1 since Cat 1 riders are basically pros.

As a guy who just went through all of those upgrades in the last 15 months, I can tell you that Cat 3 to Cat 2 is the biggest jump. Once you're a 2, you're racing primarily Cat 1/2 races, so it's like jumping from Cat 3 to Cat 1 (plus there are always some legitimate "pros" if you're racing in SoCal). The racing style changes completely. There are many more attacks and those attacks are much more powerful and they last longer. Also, teams play a much more significant role and tactics get a lot more complicated. Sometimes I feel like 30+ 1/2/3 and 35+ 1/2/3 races can be even more difficult than the Pro 1/2 races because there are often more attacks and smaller fields leaving less places to hide and rest inside the group. I've had a few races this year where my power output was as much as 50 watts higher average in my masters race than it was in my 1/2 race.

USA ---> Europe 😉

LS17 said:

So when you move up to a high categoryer which is the biggest jump? I am guessing Cat 2 to Cat 1 since Cat 1 riders are basically pros.

Going from cat-3 -> cat-2 is the biggest jump as far as differences in the actual races goes. However, in terms of difficulty, yeah, getting to cat-1 is the most difficult process, there's only a couple hundred of them in the entire country. That's because 1/2/pro races are the absolute top level. In order to upgrade from 2 to 1, you have to beat the 1s! Most pros got there from cat-2 without ever getting to cat-1. That actually makes the cat-1 racers more elite than pros. We've got some pros here in town that's sponsored by some bike-shops that they're buddies with, but they're nothing special just cat-2 racers with a paycheck.