Short answer. Yes. If you're on a team it's pretty normal to all ride to help 1 or 2 guys. Crit racing is super fun regardless of where you finish so sometimes it's just about racing, and entry fees are normally way cheaper then tri entry fees.

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Yup. Chances of a win are significantly higher when people are working together. Plus, when you know you have no chance to win, it's fun to help teammates. Esp on good teams, when it's a good day for you, your teammates will help you, when it's a good day for others, you help them. That way you can all learn and grow and move through the categories together.

In general, the higher the class the lower the average power and higher average speed, but not always. I have seen the 1/2 race run a lower average speed then the 3/4 race, but that is because those racers understand tactics. That brings me to the answer to your question.

The big races will have big teams racing. Amateur clubs with guys that take racing way too seriously (in my opinion). Those teams will sign up as a team and they will have members racing that have the jobs of blocking, pulling, and providing break outs. All the tactics you see at the TdF. They are expendable and not expected to score in the race.

And then there are the newbies that make the critical mistake of jumping on the front and thinking they can stay there to the end. You see it all the time in the lower classes. Those are the guys (and gals) that get the social media jab for "thanks for the pull."

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I can see where you're coming from with taking things too seriously, but at the same time, some of the tactics are what makes bike racing fun IMO. Crits are like high speed chess games, trying to figure out who is going to go when, and seeing if you can predict the tactics of the other teams and then move to counter them based on your own relative strengths.

I have no problem with tactics. I use them like everyone else, and you do not get out of 5 without some understanding, and out of 4 without a very good understanding.

I'm talking about the unnecessary risky moves in the pack, the yelling and screaming at perceived slights, and the general win at all cost mentality that I see in class 3 these days. I'm riding a $6000 + bike when you add in the power meter and wheels. I'm not impressed when someone ties me up to get 5th place.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Bike racing is a team support - and just like every other team sport, people have different roles

Not everyone can take the final shot in a recreational basketball league, and that doesn’t mean their entry fees were wasted

Actually, all you need to do to get out of 5 on the road is ask USA Cycling for a 4.

That changed a few years ago to get faster/stronger riders out of 5 and let newbies race without getting completely blown away.

My very first race: we're lined up and the gun goes off. One guy immediately stands up and is gone off the front. I'm watching in awe as the guy next to me says "We'll see him again in a few minutes". 10 minutes later the pack passes him so fast it looked like he was going backwards. I do like lessons I can learn from other people instead of making them myself (so I can go on to make all new mistakes)

And all you need to get to cat 3 is "20 pack finishes" which IMO is a bad rule. The reality is that a lot of races are P/1/2/3 and very fast and very technical. Upgrade at will to Cat 4 and 20 back of the group finishes in 4/5 crits does not prepare a rider for what are essentially small-field pro races. Maybe the average speeds over the total race are similar, but watch the technical sections for the real differences. The bumping, closeness, apex speed, and acceleration out of sharp corners is where the learning curve is for bigger crits.

Sometimes a team sport ;)
This was a great win by Corbyn Labecki. I think most people seem to be happy that she beat the Legion train given their tactics and bravado.


And here she is winning the 2024 Crit Nats a few days ago...


And no, I am not based in the USA!

Yea but knowing you won't make the last shot you just don't leave the court.. (and say if you do, only people on the court get credit for the win)

There are any number of reasons why someone might drop well back of the field, or even pull off the course, once their race is done. For example, if someone has completed their role with more than a few laps to go, they may drop out so as to not be in the way when the race comes back around a few laps later. Another thing that might lead to someone dropping out is the realization that in crit racing, merely finishing the distance isn't a big deal, if you're not contesting the win.

If you think that's crazy, wait until you hear about people who pay nearly $1000 to beat up their bodies for 140.6 miles just to get an opportunity to pay well over $1000 to enter a more special 140.6 mile race in October.


My cycling teammates are my best friends. Working together with my best friends to achieve a goal is pretty fun.

But....there are plenty of strong cyclists out there who will burn themselves out on the front in the first 10 laps, and then claim later that it was "tactics" and for the good of the team. In reality, it was bad tactics that didn't help anyone.

All of us here on ST are a little crazy. We all have a niche hobby that most of the world doesn't understand. Heck...i don't understand myself at at times either. If that person who used bad tactics and blew themselves up had fun, then I think they got their $25 entry fee worth.

I didn't know that about Road Cat 3

I got my Track Cat 3 by asking for it and having one of my coaches vouch for me.

I can’t believe USAC has gotten so soft with this. When I was a cat 5 they wouldn’t let me upgrade to a 4 when I was only 1 point short. Guess the sentiment now is everyone gets stoked and doesn’t have their feelings hurt from getting teeth kicked in, instead of learning how to race a bike.

I like that cat v 5 is reserved for new racers. It makes it easier / less intimidating for new folks to try out bike racing

It does make racing in the 4s a bit more unwieldy

It's definitely a shock for old timers like us, but working with younger riders working their way up over the last several years, the problem now is that there are just so few races in most parts of the US that it would be somewhere between ridiculously hard and impossible for most people to score the point totals that were required back when we were racing. Even when they do, they still don't have nearly the race experience that we would have expected back in the day. For eg: I just had a client upgrade to cat 2, and his first crit as a 2 was the first rainy crit he had ever done. There just haven't been any in the couple/few years he's been racing!

It's just a different world now.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

I get most of that and completely agree 5 should be all about new racers. If I recall, all that was required was to complete 10 races or skills clinics, with results bearing no meaning. That all makes good sense—learn skills, tactics, bike handling, etc.

However, upgrade to cat 3 with just 20 finishes? Is that right, performance doesn’t matter? Lack of races is obviously a big issue but when do riders become racers as opposed to participants?

I don't disagree with you at all, in theory. Thing is, though... how many races are there on your local race calendar? We used to have 2 races every weekend essentially throughout the season, plus 2 weekday training races. Now we don't have 2 weekend races *a month* most of the season. The "training" races are still around but they're actually sanctioned events now, and the only way most folks can get points or starts for an upgrade. This means they're faster and harder than they ever have been in the past, and like most training races cats racing together due to weekday time constraints mean few options for lower cat riders.

Just getting 20 starts in is going to take a couple of years for most racers now, and if you aren't a sprinter, how long would it take to actually get the points necessary to upgrade, especially since everyone else is in the same boat trying to grab the very limited points available?

The points system just doesn't work when there aren't any opportunities for people to score points. I can't say I'm particularly sanguine with the purely experience based upgrade system, but I also don't know what the alternative is. Cat 4 races full of non-sprinters that have been stuck there for 2, 3... 4? years trying to cobble together enough single point races to escape sure isn't it!

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

That's pretty much how all my coaches describe the system to me as well.

I wasn’t living in OR when the race scene was going, just came up here for the best stage races on west coast. In NorCal it was the same—2 or 3 to choose from each weekend. I really don’t have a solution, just a bit mystified by how things are, and if a cat x is really that or a result of simply showing up.

Btw, I do feel like one of “those guys” with all the “back in my time” references!

When I first started out ('90), there was no Cat 5. You could upgrade from 4 to 3 with only 10 races, so some might argue that things are better now than then, and I would agree with that assessment. But, it was also the case that there were very, very few P/1/2/3 races, so as a Cat 3 you raced against other 3s.

One bit of advice I was given at the time was to upgrade as soon as possible, because you can't learn to race by racing with others who also don't know how to race. The 10 race minimum at least gave you some pack riding experience, but you wouldn't really learn much. I would go so far as to say that many of those who upgraded to Cat 3 based on finishing points were at a disadvantage, because they often got their points by riding off the front of the pack and thus didn't learn anything about pack riding or tactics.

In my case, I didn't score a single upgrade point as a Cat 4, but about halfway through my first season as a Cat 3, I got my first win. It was like a switch was flipped, and with the newfound confidence, I had some pretty good success for well over the next 20 years and never once won a race by being the strongest guy in the race.

I distinctly remember getting crushed in first race after each cat upgrade and thinking “I don’t belong here.” Then going back, working harder, improving skills and learning race craft so that I could be. Eventually we all run out of talent that was a big part of the process to me.

now i see why there are some strong riders other cat 4/5 riders are complaining about in the field. and man are they strong. me personally, I look at it as reason to train harder.

anyways you are right, not many races (they also went up in price to about $50 each).... most are in LA ( I am in san diego) , so the travel factor also is big. Although this year we have 6 crit races here, as opposed to past 4 years of just 1 or 2. You have 3 years for the 20 races, if I stay local and finish all, still wont make it for voluntary cat 3 upgrade.