Combined Category Racing (in particular Women's Cat 4) What do you think?

[pll]

Just in case, I am not saying the women's 4 field should not be combined with juniors, rather than it should not be a free option for the parents of those juniors. Have them pay to secure a spot. I just put some of the numbers from the Chi Cross Cup women's 4 field for your reference (the combined field with juniors is 100):



What I would really like to see is the women's 1/2/3 back to back with the men's 1/2/3 race, highlighting both races in the series. Right now the women's 1/2/3 happens before the cat 3 and women's 4 races.

[SheFly]

Just in case, I am not saying the women's 4 field should not be combined with juniors, rather than it should not be a free option for the parents of those juniors. Have them pay to secure a spot. I just put some of the numbers from the Chi Cross Cup women's 4 field for your reference (the combined field with juniors is 100):

So your races are getting 60+ juniors racing in a field? That is awesome! The real question is how many of those would still show up if there were a fee (we charge juniors at the big series races, but a reduced amount - smaller races often offer a free entry to the cub juniors)? I'm guessing that a reduced fee wouldn't change this ratio.

As I have said, the juniors are the future of this sport, and I think we should encourage them to race in any way possible. Here, our 10-14 fields typically have a cap of 30-40 at the big races, and have been selling out (terrific!). In fact, at Gloucester the cubs sold out so fast that the series leader got shut out of the race. So, I offered her my spot. Why? Because a junior with high potential in the sport should be racing before some 45+ year old (the promoter accommodated both of us).

The most important thing to remember is that we do this to HAVE FUN! None of us are getting rich racing our CX bikes every weekend (though some of those juniors may some day). Think about the sport as a whole and how we can improve the experience for everyone, not just ourselves.

Happy racing!
SheFly

[pll]

So your races are getting 60+ juniors racing in a field?

Yes, it does, at least at pre-registration time (which is free to juniors). That is the 10-14 and 15-18 juniors. I have not looked up how many end up not showing up. This is my first season doing cross, as I mentioned before, but I gather the Chicago Cross Cup is big relative to other series. I think that having 30+ women out in a race is pretty cool.

[Wahine]

Out here in the PNW it's not unusual to see 2000 racers at a given event. Apart from the Cat A women, the women all race together with staggered starts. So the Juniors get their own time. But a lot of the juniors will do a second race so I will encounter women juniors in the women's race and male juniors when I race singlespeed, which is combined with men's Bs (about equivilant to Cat 2). I'd have to say that the juniors on a whole usually don't pass nicely or don't accomodate passing appropriately, but they are learning and I try to keep that in mind. Is the course a little crowded sometimes, sure. But the way I look at it, that's cross. Learning how to deal with other people on the course is part of the game.

I'm OK with it all. Nobody's paying me to race so what difference does it make in the end? I'm out there for fun. Do I get annoyed when a junior passes me kind of tight and doesn't even announce that he's there? Sure. But all it all, it's not going to change how I place and I'm confident enough on a bike that I can stay upright with some incidental contact so I don't let it bother me.