New to track racing

ga02clr

Having a history of mountain bike, cross and road racing I am about to make my first foray into track racing. I have done some intro courses etc.

My question is how does the senior split A and B categories work?

I am assuming it works on Road/Track Cats so being a Cat 3 I assume I would be B?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Pross

A and B just relate to youth classes as far as I'm aware. Senior races are ranked the same as on the road. The difference is that you often get races that youth can race in with seniors. I could be wrong but that's my understanding.

Eddy S

Sorry Pross, I'm going to have to put you straight on this.

The A and B categories indicate the experience and speed of the riders/races irrespective of road category. A track novice racer will be expected to ride as a B to start with until the meeting organisers (and other riders) understand a novice's skills and capabilities. This will even apply if you are a road Cat 1 but have never raced track. Equally lower cat road racers could ride as A riders due to their track speed/experience. I'm a Cat 4 and probably always will be as far as road classification goes but I ride A riders on the track.

The progression from B to A will different from track league to track league - we've seen some riders advance within a few weeks at Reading.

ga02clr

Thanks Eddy.

My next question therefore is when they are stating. ''Racing will be split into senior A and B categories, and youth Under 12 and Over 12. All events are registered as British Cycling Regional C+ which means license points in each race.''

does that mean that I will if positioned high enough in a B race be getting points that would count towards my road licence as the Categories E1234 seem to be track and Road when referred to by the BCF or am I getting completely the wrong end of the stick?

Eddy S

Your 'road' licence is just one entity and not split between road and track - if the TL you plan to ride at does give points then they count.

ga02clr

Thanks Eddy.

As I suspected then.

Bronzie

Isn't it unusual to have points available for individual track league races? Certainly not available at Welwyn, although they are available if you finish top 10 or 15 overall in the league at the end of the series.

Guess it depends how they are distributed, but it seems like an easy way to rack up loads of points (seeing as the races are c. 6 minutes long and you get 4 races per meeting).

Eddy S

From the BC regulations:

For track racing, only endurance scratch events, including pursuits and time trials of not less than 3 km, and the final standings in track leagues, shall qualify for licence points, except for events restricted to Youth riders. For omnium events, only the final overall result shall qualify The following points bands shall apply, but only the first six shall receive points:

Points Band
Standard event 5
National Championship or National Series event 3
Final standings in Track Leagues 4

Pross

Eddy S wrote:

Sorry Pross, I'm going to have to put you straight on this.

The A and B categories indicate the experience and speed of the riders/races irrespective of road category. A track novice racer will be expected to ride as a B to start with until the meeting organisers (and other riders) understand a novice's skills and capabilities. This will even apply if you are a road Cat 1 but have never raced track. Equally lower cat road racers could ride as A riders due to their track speed/experience. I'm a Cat 4 and probably always will be as far as road classification goes but I ride A riders on the track.

The progression from B to A will different from track league to track league - we've seen some riders advance within a few weeks at Reading.

Thanks Eddy, I was confused as I've seen races listed as 2/3/4/A/B so I thought they were open to 2,3,4 seniors and A and B youth :oops:

mgittings

ga02clr wrote:

Thanks Eddy.

My next question therefore is when they are stating. ''Racing will be split into senior A and B categories, and youth Under 12 and Over 12. All events are registered as British Cycling Regional C+ which means license points in each race.''

does that mean that I will if positioned high enough in a B race be getting points that would count towards my road licence as the Categories E1234 seem to be track and Road when referred to by the BCF or am I getting completely the wrong end of the stick?

road an track rankings are the same (which i personally think is wrong) but im guessing you got that quote from the rollapaluza open meeting at herne hill on sat?

if you race as a B rider and place in the top 6 you will get points same with A riders in that meeting and it will count towards your road and track liscence

track leagues will normally be regional c not c+

SteveR_100Milers

Newport TL has only 3 categories, A, B and C

A is fast, C is Cat 4 / novice B is well in between. Some riders of course are borderline, but in my esxperience C really is only for beginnerers (I won almost every event I entered in the first 2 weeks of racing in Cs and I'm no powerhouse). I'm a cat 4 roadie, and I managed to win a couple of races and get placed in others in the Bs and am nowhere near cat 3 standard on the road. Comparing the two is pointless as it requires a different type of effort.