MABRA Bows Masters 35-49 Category in 2009; Racers Comment on the Change

On January 10 at the MABRA Annual Meeting, a proposal to modify the Masters 30+ BAR category was heard. By a vote of 11-4, the proposal was accepted, and the previous MABRA Masters Categories of 30+ and 40+ will be replaced by a single 35-49 category. According the proposal, submitted by MABRA Officials Coordinator Jim Patton, the change is intended to encourage senior riders to compete in their category events instead of Masters races: "Speeds in the 30+ field are comparable to the Senior events.  The current attendance for the experienced Senior fields is, and has been, low.  Removing the BAR category would encourage riders to race rather than chase the 30+ BAR."

Time will tell if the change affects its intended purpose. In the meantime, GamJams has asked several masters racers to weigh in on the change, and how they believe it will impact racing in the region.

Bo Lee (Saroff Racing Team), the 2-time defending champion of the 30+ BAR, likes the timing for the change: "the 30+ BAR has not been well contended the last two years.  I know the guys that could've won or could have been in contention either didn't care about the 30+ BAR or they were busy chasing other goals.  With the combined talent of all the big-guns in the 40+, the new BAR category should carry more prestige.  Although it'll still be the usual suspects taking up most of the top ten spots, I'm betting the overall quality of racing will significantly improve for everyone." Yet he points out that the change does not come without a cost: "I think the 30-34 guys are getting the short end of the stick.  The exclusion hurts the Cat 3/4 30-34 guys that prefer racing in Masters races - not so much the elite 30-34 guys.  Of course this assumes the 35-49 age range was designed to filter out the elite 30-34 year-old racers."

The change also jabs racers like John Raley (Immediate Mortgage / Artemis), whose racing age just turned to 40, but who suddenly finds himself racing against those young 35-year-old pups again. "I actually was looking forward to romping the Masters 40+ having the current champ (Bill Breslin) as well as 3rd & 4th on my team (With Ramon and Dave). Instead I shall look forward to having one HELL of a stacked and talented field."

Immediate Mortgage / Artemis teammate Dave Osborne thinks the change could have the opposite effect of its intention, making the 35-49 races as rapid as the Pro/1/2: "Most of the guys that do the senior races that are 30+, didn’t do the 30+ races much anyway.  If a lot of horsepower shows up in the new 35+ category, it will be very much as tough as a Cat. 1,2 race.  Some of the fastest guys in our area fit into that age range."

Andreas Gutzeit (NCVC / Inova Health System) points out  that the new 35-49 could have the speed of the 1/2, as well as the overflow popularity of the Cat 4 events: "I do worry a little that the new master’s field will be bigger, especially if race promoters decide to only offer one Masters race by combining 35+ and 50+ fields. I kind of appreciated not having to worry about getting into a race."

Bill Gros (Evolution Cycling) notes the opportunities the change creates for other categories: "This may also help promoters by having a single 35-49 race vs. two 30+, 40+ races that may open up opportunities for other categories."

How do you think the change will affect local racing? More importantly, how will it affect you? Leave any additional thoughts in the comments.

Comments

[Scott]

With a racing age of 46 how discouraging it will be to race with guys 11 years younger. Clearly racing against those guys will make me a stronger rider. But here is the real world issue. With age comes a significant drop in fitness. What happens when I am 49 and racing against a 35 year old cat 1. 5 laps into the race I will be finding a secure place to bail out, to save face over the humiliation of getting my teeth kicked in. I don't train to complete in a race to last for a couple laps, get pulled, then drive 1 1/2 hours to get home. It certainly will discourage me from even entering the race in the beginning. If other older racers feel the same and don't enter because we can't compete, well where does that leave us. So I tell you where it leaves me, racing at a age of 46 against Cat 3 & 4 20 year olds. To be competitive, looks like I will be racing in PA with the 40+ masters

[Pete]

I was cool with the idea of Masters 5-year categories, starting at 35, but grouping them all together like that? Great idea. That SEVERELY puts a limit on the opportunities that the average bicycle racer in our area (30-49 years old, Cat 3/4~ish) can race in, let alone makes the top 10 in any masters race an affair of rearranging the exact same names over and over again.

What I don't understand is the general lack of ingenuity at races. Why don't we stop racing the same damn people for the same damn results at the same damn commercial park? I'm all for replicating the same Masters groupings that USA Cycling does, but that doesn't mean we can't have 30+ and 40+ races anyway, just for the heck of it. My favorite race of the year was BikeJam, because it was a Cat2 (and cat 2 only!) race...it apparently doesn't count for squat, but I don't care, I can go make the All-Star team for the Alexandria Wreck-Reational Drinking League if I'm THAT concerned about local titles.

Now I'm REALLY going to play devil's advocate here, but why are we bitching anyways? After all, we could have to deal with the same limiting fields the Women "get" to have all year!

It sure is nice to have the option of doing multiple races....(says the 20 something who can't do major races because they shut the 2's out...figuring they can just do the 30+ instead. Bastages.)

[Joshua]

Good. I feel we have the same problem in the VCA. The Masters races are fast. There are usually a 30+, 40+ and 50+. Each one of those races have 20-30 riders. Then the Cat 1/2 race usually has 15 or less racers. Most of our 1 and 2s are master racers. I feel if they were limited, they would sign up for the 1/2 race. Most promoters put the majority of there money into that race...it should be the biggest race of the day.

[Chuck Hutch]

I plan on focusing on masters races this year, so the age change is a welcome because I will be one of the youngest masters. Yeahhh! Just kidding.

[Brian]

Remember this only means no 30+ BAR, not the elimination of 30+. Promoters have the option of doing other nonbar events. They could do a nonbar 30+, or a 3/4 30/40+, or add another senior race like a cat 2/3 race. This could also give more chances for people to double up and for promoters to experiment with new categories/classes.

I think there is also a proposal for pa to go to 35+

[Jesse]

If you don't want to race with fast cat 3's don't upgrade from a 4.

[BJ]

We will see if this is a good thing.
You have to race against whoever shows up on the day anyway.
If I get blocked from racing because the masters field fills up then this is a bad thing.

[Raymond]

As a 46 year-old male racer my opinion is that the notion of age-graded racing is obsolete and nonsensical. A better system for the vast majority of MABRA racers would be one that matched events with membership numbers and that did a better job of sorting racers based on performance to reduce the blatant practice of sandbagging. Promotion of women and junior races need not be affected and perhaps could be improved.

The reason I suggest this is that MABRA membership is mostly recreational (i.e., Cat 3 and below and age 30 or older) and in this context I presume most want a reasonably level playing field. A true Cat 4 racing against a Cat 2, as is the case in Master's races, is not a reasonably level playing field.

Specifically, MABRA male membership (90% of total) is 89.0% Cat 3, 4 and 5 and 77.4% aged 30 or older. Interestingly, the lower male categories are almost equally represented: 25.8% Cat 3; 30.8% Cat 4; and 32.3% Cat 5.

These statistics suggest to me the elimination of age-grading and splitting male 3, 4, and 5 categories into finer gradations with some mechanism to more quickly push riders up who belong in the next higher category.

[Cranf Burglur Goof Tard]

1- If you don't want to upgrade from Cat 4 you might as well just quit racing.
2 - Shove it Joshua.
3 - There should be no masters racing until 40+. Then people would race their category.
4 - USA Cyclequeen should create a new rule that if you are 40+ you can race up to your category, and down to Cat 3 regardless of your category. That would give the up and comers a chance to race experienced racers. And if you can't get upgrade points against 40+ers you might as well stay a 3 anyway. It would also give the hardcore oldies a little chance for some well earned, yet hard fought gravy. And it would pump up the registration lists.