I’ve always tried to be open with my thoughts here on Low Cadence. That’s what this site is — “Thoughts of a cyclist.” So, I am going to lay out what I’m thinking right now and hopefully my motives won’t be judged too harshly.

Going into this season (which has hardly even started) I envisioned how the year would go. I would have a good Spring Series and come out of it with a few points toward an upgrade to Category 3. There was reason to believe that by the end of the season there would be points enough to complete the upgrade.

Moving up to Category 3 was simply not in my goals. If I thought about it at all it was something like, “Yeah, I’ll get my goals this year and then retire at the end with an upgrade.” Once I got there I would become a sacrificial lamb for my 35+ Masters teammates. Mostly, I just didn’t think about it.

Here is how it works. You get points for each race in which you place. These races are divided into two types: Road Races and Criterium/Circuit Races. The races in which you compete must meet minimum distance standards. The amount of points you get is also determined by the size of the field participating.

The points you earn from placing in these races are compiled by USA Cycling. For a guy, to upgrade from Category 4 to 3 he must have 20 points within a 12 month period. He submits his resume to the regional officials and they decide whether to issue the upgrade. There are some other options for upgrading that are a little more complicated.

However, the upgrade guideline that got my attention was, “30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.” If I’ve calculated correctly, I’m sitting on 28 points. Two more points and I’ll be at 30 points.

People assume you are all set to upgrade when you get the chance. I’ve heard, “Good, now you can upgrade to 3 and join us in the 35+ Masters.” “Welcome to the 3′s!” “Guess you’ll be moving on up now.”

Whoah! I’m not ready for that! Mentally, I have my season planned out and I have goals that as a Category 4 racer I just MIGHT accomplish. As a Category 3 racer… those goals become very slim. Upgrading now would cause me to reassess all of my goals for the year.

I simply did not expect to be at this level this soon in the season! Plus, I am learning a lot. I’m now at a point where I am actually competitive in the 4′s. Rather than just trying to survive, I’m learning to race. With only six races at this level, I don’t think I’ve come close to learning all I would like to learn.

I asked my coach about it and he said, “It’s up to you unless you reach 30 points, then an official may (I stress ‘may’) push you up automatically.” He then went on to say that we would discuss this further. Wonder what that discussion will be about?

Steve Sperry keeps telling me it is time to move up from high school to college. Yeah, I remember that transition! It was quite the change. He goes on to say that the day would then come when it would be time for me to move from college to grad school — meaning Category 2.

I appreciate the confidence — though sometimes I think he is just teasing me. Watching those guys fly around in the 1/2′s makes me feel like I am in kindergarten! Me? I’ll be Peter Pan. I don’t want to grow up — not yet. What would you do?

 

Tags: Category 4, Upgrade

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.