Folks, this is a great thread.
The whole concept of what to do with age-group riders is also pretty big in cycling these days - if a bit off most people's radar. There was a move afoot in Oregon earlier this year to seriously limit the category level at which you could participate in master's racing.
( In USCF cycling they have 5 levels of "proficiency" grading, 1 being top level amateur > 5 being beginner, plus "masters" categories beginning at age 30 and going up in 5 year increments.)
The idea that got floated around was to limit Master's racing to cat 3, or maybe cat 2, and lesser riders. Yuck. Bogus. The argument (from my completely biased perspective) seemed to boil down to "Hey - we keep getting our a##es kicked by these fast Cat 1 and 2 guys, let's just force them to race their category."
Some people REALLY want to win - and if the only way they can do that is to find a way to disqualify the fast folks, then so be it. Yuck.
I really like the idea of racing against my age-group peers. It's fun, and it's different than doing the elite races. I also think the whole age-group "thang" is a big part of what makes tri so inviting to beginners and people who are competing "for the experience," which raises issues in and of itself, but is in general a good thing, IMHOP.
MH - Cat 1 on the road, but also in my late thirties, damnit.
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