Racing Categories

My race posting on the Nelson Stage Race in Las Vegas talked about categories; I caught up with a “Cat 4”, we started behind the Cat 5s, etc. The title of my blog is Masters 45…what does all this mean?

I’m sitting at my computer in a driving rainstorm. I live in the high desert of Los Angeles County and rain is usually a rare thing here. But this has been a long winter for rainstorms and associated road washouts and closings. In short, I’m sitting on my butt instead of riding my bike – a good time to post to the blog. So let’s talk about how categories work in bike racing.

The current system is set up to allow all levels of ability access to road racing. By having categories you can be reasonably sure your riding with other riders that are at your level of ability. The system uses numbers, 5 being the lowest, and 1 is the highest. If you’re a beginner you will start out as a “Cat 5” or “Cat 4” for women. The difference between the cats for men and women only reflect the relative numbers of racers for both groups. There usually are more male novice racers out there than novice female racers. As your ability progresses you move down the categories until you reach Cat 1. So it pretty much works like this:

Cat 5: beginner or novice
Cat 4: beginner (women) or novice with at least 10 races under their bike tires (men)
Cat 3: Expert
Cat 2: Expert or semi-pro
Cat 1: Semi-pro
Pro (There is also a category for professional riders)

I’m a Masters 45, this means that I’m 45 or older. It can get a little strange here, in that all categories can exist in the Masters group. Master racers can start after age 30. So that means there is a category called Masters 30. So if you were a Cat 3 when you were racing in your twenties and you joined the Masters 30, you are really a Masters 30 “Cat 3” racer. In my case, I was out of bicycle racing for 20 years, so when I restarted this year, I went in as a Masters 45, Cat 5.

Just to make it more confusing…I can also enter races as a “regular” Cat 5 and skip using my Masters designation. Why would I do this? Because I would know that I was riding with novice racers instead of a bunch of “old guys” that have Cat 1-3 ability. In fact, Cat 40 or higher racers tend to be pretty tough, which makes the Masters categories a difficult category to race in. Though I haven’t raced in 20 years, I’ve chosen to stay with the Masters group because of their bike handling skills. Cat 5 racers tend to spend some time on the ground, as accidents seem to be much higher in this group. I’ve made the choice to get my ass kicked with the Master riders than add to my scars that I collected 20 years ago when I started out as a Cat 5.

Try out the USA Cycling web site for more information on categories.