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I went to a couple USCF sanctioned events but I can't get any concrete answer on their categories/classes. They have Women's 1,2,3,4 and then Masters Women by age starting at 30.
If I want in the absolutely least experienced group should I go with Masters Women 50-54 or stay with Womens Cat IV?
What's the difference?
It's a bit complicated. Master's isn't a category it is a class (so you still are in a category, your age and your category may entitle you to race in a certain class if its offered- yes, very complicated) and I believe that local racing associations have some ability to set classes, but not categories.
Up here in Washington you'll find the regular cat's 1-4 and sometimes there will be Masters. For women that means Master A's or Master B's. A's are anyone over 35 who is a 1,2 or 3. B's are 35+ cat 4's or 50+ in any category.
Soooooo the short of it is if you race B's you do take the chance that there will be very experienced women who happen to be 50+(D's is any category 50+ for the men). With the men sometimes there are guys who are cat 1,2's who are old enough to race with the D's and there aren't usually enough of them so the fields are combined with the C's.... who are 35+ cat 4's.... the hubby says Master's races are often faster than 4's. I haven't done enough master's racing around here to really know... usually only the state championship races have women's masters categories and enough of them are on the same day as the senior ones that I've only done one or two, if any.
But that is around here - your local races may choose to do their Master's categories differently. If you really want to be with less experienced riders then 4's would probably be the way to go - but I won't even begin to guess which group would be easier.
Pink: In Arizona, if you want the least experienced riders, race in Cat 4. In the master's age groups, you can hook up with Cat 2 racers in the age group.
However, I have to say, the Masters group is usually a better group to ride with as far as bike handling so it is usually a safer group, albeit it can sometimes be really fast.
spoke, ex racer.
If you want to race with the least experienced people probably cat 4 is your best bet. But, depending where you race, the organizer may decide to race two or more categories together if the # of riders signed up is low. Not many women racing around here, so I've seen several times organizers pool together women cat 3 and 4, or sometimes 2,3 and 4. Now that would put you together with some pretty fast cat 2ers at the last minute - which is definitely a surprise :D
Only once I've seen them decide to pool all women in one race - meaning cat 1 through 4 in the same field. Nice! :eek:
On the other hand, cat 4 is where you most often may see a rider pulled, or some unsafe riding, or all of the above - so if I were you I'd try to work hard and get my upgrade done asap, to be in a much safer riding bunch!
Good luck and have fun!
ps: of course we want to hear your race reports on the forum :)
FWIW, I just raced a Master's category this past weekend, and am a Cat 2 racer... As it turned out, I won the Master's category, and finished 2nd overall (it was a TT).
My point is just to echo what others have sad - racing Masters you may end up with some fast women in your category.
SheFly