To race expert or sport?

Triathlon Forum
1

To be fair, I’m looking for some advice.

I’m starting the mountain bike season this weekend, and haven’t bought a Norba license yet. The thing is, a year license is 60$, and is required to race expert. However, you’re allowed to buy a day pass to race sport class. I will probably be doing 3-4 races this year where this is required.

Here’s my dilemma. Last year I raced sport with a fair amount of success. My ability level is at the point where I would consistently get my ass kicked racing expert, but would probably place top 3, the majority of the time (depending on the race of course), racing sport. Financially, it doesn’t make much sense to buy a year license. However, I want to be fair and race in the proper category, and I want to challenge myself.

I think my mind is made up, but I was looking for some people to bounce this situation off of.

2

Make the leap and race expert, in the spirit of sportmanship and personal improvement. I raced at the Tidewater MTB Challenge a few years ago and won the Under 24 Sport race and felt like a sandbagger. This past year I raced expert and placed 8th (Behind Jeremiah Bishop and Chris Eatough mind you) and the sense of accomplishment trumped my sport class win.

My opinion is that you should always race in the highest class that you won’t emabarass yourself in or impede the progress of others. Good luck and I hope to see you at some MTB/Xterra races this year.