XC race categories

[Megs]

Heard a rumour that categories for our XC races were changing for 2010. Is that true?

[dunkman]

or did the rumour just get started

[riderdown]

Weight catagories would be good or maybe to simplify it "Butted" and "Non Butted" riders.
I would be racing in heavy weight or Butted catagory.
Matt

[countryboy]

Ill go in the 100kg plus class .

[henry]

After much discussion amongst the Club Committee, there has been some changes to the XC Categories for 2010 as follows:

There will be no senior age categories, ie Masters or Super Masters,

Junior categories will be Under 17, Under 15 and Under 13 (with the same age calculation as 2009, ie the rider must be Under the designated age on the 31 Dec 2010, for example you must still be 16 on 31 Dec 2010 to ride Under 17.

Senior categories will range from 6 laps down to 1 lap.

[locky]

Just when I was going to jump up and ride with the Super Masters!

Oh well, looks like it's back into Sport B for me.

Another idea that may be worth considering is:

(1) Deleting the lowest scoring two rounds from each rider (leaving the highest 7 out of possible 9), so those that have to miss a couple of rounds through work, travel, illness, etc are not penalised and effectively taken out of the any chance of awards over the full season.

[Megs]

Thanks for that Henry. Can you post a list of what the open age categories will be called and the laps they will do so we can all pick a category to race for the year. I'm guessing there are still male and female categories separate?

Locky, that's a great idea - pick the best 7 results out of 9. Lots of people have to work on sundays every now and then or are sick for a round so it would allow everyone a couple of rounds slack. As it is now, you basically just have to go to every race to win your category, so I think a system like that would be good. A bit more work at the end of the year, but you could just keep the pointscore the same as it is now and then just readjust it at the end of the year by taking off the two worst scores for each person. I think it would also be worth reintroducing the idea that you need to go to at least 3 rounds to qualify for end of year points. Lots of place getters were just blow ins who had done one race and were never likely to be at the presentation anyway.

What does everyone else think?

[axeman]

Hi Everyone,
And yes its not just a rumour, the race catergories have changed and we will be using the following format for the 2010 season.


Seniors
Sport A - Men 6 laps - Women 5 laps
Sport B - Men 4 laps - Women 3 laps
Sport C - Men 3 laps - Women 2 laps
Sport D - Men 2 laps - Women 1 lap

Juniors
Under 17 - Men 4 laps - Women 3 laps
Under 15 - Men 3 laps - Women 2 laps
Under 13 - Men 2 laps - Women 2 laps
Junior Novice – Men 1 lap – Women 1 lap

The Club executive & XC committee will be keeping close watch on the racing and results as well as getting some feedback from you all to see if we need to tweek anything (distances, start times etc...).

Cheers
Pete

[henry]

Further to the 'El Presidnete' post above, there will be a 5 lap for men and 4 lap for women category in addition to those listed.

The requirement to complete three rounds has always existed, as well as being a SCUM member, however, these may not have bene enforced last year.

The 'Best x of y' format can be discussed and decided at a future Club Meeting (hopefully before the last race)

[dirtdiver]

Hmm, that place getter thing at Presento Arvo would be me printing out a few too many "award certificates" it would seem (have they started to fade yet? Keep them out of the sun, people). We DID have 24 separate categories with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd so I got a bit confused and carried away with the old Photoshop and home inkjet printer. When you're in a groove, your in a groove, so it's not surprising that some people got an "award" who didn't qualify.

Anyway, with the categories being condensed, it is unlikely to happen again.

Cheers
Kel

[Megs]

Some condensing of categories seems like a good idea - we had a LOT with only one or two people in them who could be racing with others of similar ability. Also good to up the number of laps for under 13s with a novice option. But what would you name the old expert category? A2? Gets a bit confusing. You could just go A, B, C, D and E for open men and women but I'm thinking those who are used to say Sport B might feel like its a bit of a downgrade now being in "D". You could just keep the names Elite and Expert, then have A, B and C to minimise the feeling that it is all different now and so that nobody has to feel like an "E grader". Just an idea.

[axeman]

One of the main complaints was that the previous system was too confusing, which it was.
As for category names, the idea is to drop the elitism and get back to what we are trying to achieve that is good competitive "club level" racing, category names are just that .....names.

[dirtdiver]

A solution to the names is to use the model that Pete originally posted a while ago which is ctrlC'ed and ctrlV'ed below

Seniors
Sport A - Men 6 laps - Women 5 laps
Sport B - Men 4 laps - Women 3 laps
Sport C - Men 3 laps - Women 2 laps
Sport D - Men 2 laps - Women 1 lap

Juniors
Under 17 - Men 4 laps - Women 3 laps
Under 15 - Men 3 laps - Women 2 laps
Under 13 - Men 2 laps - Women 2 laps
Junior Novice – Men 1 lap – Women 1 lap

As there is not a perfect solution that everyone will be 100% happy with, I think this covers most needs very well.
To avoid the shame of being an "E" class (unless your a Mercedes Benz), how about only having 4 senior categories (whether they are 6,4,3,2 or 5,3,2,1 matters not) so it's still A,B,C,D.
Also, what sort of convention are we referring to here anyway - how students are marked on their Higher School Certificate or School Certificate? It does not relate to grading in MTBing. D does not mean dunce - it means 2-3 laps.
The reason we have embarked on this venture was that there are (or were) way too many categories. One could say that it is only one extra category (having a 5th senior category) but now I think of it, it does detract from the whole purpose of the exercise.

Keep it simple, keep the numbers of categories to a minimum and enjoy the racing.

20 cents spent

Kel

[locky]

With this new idea this year of a time trial round, what about creating age group time trial records on the day for each 5 or 10 year age group in the club?

Members only for records?? I'll volunteer to sort it out from the round results.

Geoff

[henry]

Please provide some feedback on the new categories.