Quote Originally Posted by Eden View Post
just curious - are you thinking about upgrading - it seems like from some of your last reports you've been doing really well. I'm feel like I'm at the point where I ought to. There are always a few in our field that come in as strong as some of the 2's so I certainly haven't been going out and winning, but I certainly feel stronger and I am racing better than most of the people who were my nemesi last year. I don't TT that well, and I know 1/2/3 crits will be painful at the very least and more likely that I'll be pulled from a lot of them...., but road racing has been going great and I'm climbing very well.
Just the same thing I was thinking last evening, I currently ride with a license which you could compare to cat 4. Yesterday I drove in a cat 3/4 (or the dutch equivalant) race and it went to easy. It's not like I have the power to ride away from the pack on my own but my power in the sprint and the complete ease with which I held myself in the pack made me think. We don't have a point system to force riders to upgrade, it's just left to their choice but I miss that bit of tension you get when you don't know if you are going to finish the race and the feeling of being drained at the end of the race (sounds masochistic but do I make any sense?). I already joined a local club to be able to apply for a higher license (equivalant to cat 3) and next week the healthcheck. That way I can ride the cat 2&3 and 1,2&3 races which hopefully will be more challenging, the group will be much larger (fields of 60-100 women with elite/worldcup riders), the race draws more spectators, higher price money () and more fun courses.