Espoir? What does it mean?

[TrekJeni]

So I've been entertaining the thought of racing. Need a little help eith some terminology. Tried to look it up on the UCI site, but no luck.

9:20 Category 5 Men / M 15-16 Staging
9:30 Category 5 Men / M 15-16 Start 30 minutes
9:50 Cat 4 Men / M 17-18 Staging
10:00 Category 5 Men / M 15-16 Finish
10:05 Cat 4 Men / M 17-18 Start 30 minutes
10:25 M 10-12 / M 13-14 / W 10-12 / W 13-14 Staging
10:35 Cat 4 Men / M 17-18 Finish
10:40 M 10-12 / M 13-14 / W 10-12 / W 13-14 Start 20 minutes
10:45 Men Masters 40+ Staging
10:55 M 10-12 / M 13-14 / W 10-12 / W 13-14 Finish
11:00 Men Masters 40+ Start 30 minutes
11:00 Trials Demo
11:25 Women / Women 17-18 / Espoir 19-22 Women to Staging

Now I know about Cats. What I don't know is the whole M 15-16 and the Espoir stuff. Anyone care to explain?
Jeni

[Eden]

Found that espoir refers to youth catagories in cycling - working on what the M designations mean - can you post a link to the site that the original information is on. It might be easier to figure out in context.

[velogirl]

M = men
W = women

Espoir doesn't really equal youth. Espoir means under 23 years old (or more precisely 19-22 years old).

Juniors = youth (12 to 18 years old).


Jeni, if you're an adult woman, it looks like your only option is the Women's open race at 11:25 (meaning they don't separate the women by category). This is probably because there aren't a lot of women participating in that particular race.

Amateur racing in the US is sanctioned by USA Cycling (not UCI), so if you're in the US you can find the rulebook (which includes explanations for all your questions) at http://www.usacycling.org

[colby]

Wow, there are enough men all the way down to 13 years old to justify categorisation, but not enough women to even justify TWO categories? That makes me

[TrekJeni]

I finally figured out what espoir meant when I went to BikeForums. Here's the link to the race info

http://www.reserbicycle.com/newportc...event_info.asp

So let me get this straight - this means that all women and girls are racing together yes?

It's starting to make sense! Not that I'm impressed I'd have to go with all the other women, I was hoping for a beginners gruop!

Jeni

[Grog]

"Espoir" (French) actually translates as "hope".

Pronounce "(h)ess-poohar" (my written phonetics is really bad).