Whats the pinnacle of amateur racing?

HiCadence

Im curious, Whats the best race/most prestigious race an amateur can win?

imposter2.0

HiCadence wrote:

Im curious, Whats the best race/most prestigious race an amateur can win?

If you're talking about grass roots road racing and club cycling, then probably the regional RR championships. Or for riders over a certain age, the National Masters title.

ozzzyosborn206

would it not be National Champs? an amateur can ride them so theoretically win them, although I imagine they probably wouldn't be amateur the following year. I don't think the divs really holds any more prestige than any other nat B to be fair they are probably easier than most nat Bs anyway. But like has been said European amateur scene is massive and many UK domestic pros would struggle in the high end of them

okgo

Prem calendar?

Certainly not the divs.

imposter2.0

Lots of 'amateurs' ride the prems - I suppose it depends what level the OP is thinking of.

lyn1

Depends how you define amateur. Because Div 3 (Continental) teams have riders who may be paid, but may not, they are not seen a "real" pros . Accordingly if you view these riders as amateurs, it could be as high as, for e.g U23 World Champs.

If you define amateur as anyone who does not receive a salary, expenses, kit or other benefit in kind and does not ride full time, then it is national level at best, more probably regional, if you are talking about winning.

ju5t1n

It’s difficult to get a ride in Premier Calendar races if you’re not in a team, you see very few club riders on the start sheet, if any

okgo

That really depends on your division. Ours was won by a 2nd cat (though 1st now)

Rodrego Hernandez

The distinction between amateur and professional was removed in the 90s. 1995 was the last pro / am worlds I think.

The split then was U23 and over 23.

You might want to define what your interpretation of amateur is as it is possible to compete at world level without being in a world tour team so the pinnacle would be the World Road Race Champs.

ozzzyosborn206

on a slightly different note, the UK needs to sort out its high end racing, there were 6 Prems this year, just in Brittany on August there is 4 Elite Nationals. BC like to lap up the track and tour success but they could do with putting more effort into improving the local scene, ten years ago there was 20 Prems.

Rodrego Hernandez

ozzzyosborn206 wrote:

on a slightly different note, the UK needs to sort out its high end racing, there were 6 Prems this year, just in Brittany on August there is 4 Elite Nationals. BC like to lap up the track and tour success but they could do with putting more effort into improving the local scene, ten years ago there was 20 Prems.

No, you're wrong. Since Sky became involved cycling has gone from strength to strength and we're now a leading cycling nation. Even our president is running to be UCI president.

(I'm taking the pi$$ by the way, couldn't agree more with you. Domestic racing is terrible, both the number of events and quality of racing).

okgo

Hard to argue with that. 6 from 20 despite participation being up probably 5 times?

lyn1

Not old enough to remember .....but what was the purpose of the PC or its equivalent when there were 20 rounds. Was it the same as now? Was it aimed at a similar level of rider? Seems to me that depending on your ability and aspirations, constrained by team sponsor commitments, that 6 races may be too few, just right or too many!

Rodrego Hernandez

Premier Calendar was formerly known as the Star Trophy - I think from the Star newspaper.

A season long competition to find the most consistent amateur. Usually won by Paul Curran / Steve Farrell / John Tanner / Mark Lovett.

First Event used to the GP of Essex in March and they were usually every few weeks until September finishing with the Tour of the Peak.

If I remember right these were a few of them.
GP of Essex
Welwyn - Hatfield
Archer GP
Girvan
Tour of the Kingdom
Tour of Lancashire
Lincoln GP
Tour of the Marshes
Tour of the Hopfields
Tour of the Peaks

They were all over the country so you could miss the odd one and not really be at a disadvantage. There would be a break in may for the milk race which usually had 3 GB teams in so the top amateurs were riding that.

ju5t1n

Tour of the Cotswolds was another

lyn1

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

Premier Calendar was formerly known as the Star Trophy - I think from the Star newspaper.

A season long competition to find the most consistent amateur. Usually won by Paul Curran / Steve Farrell / John Tanner / Mark Lovett.

First Event used to the GP of Essex in March and they were usually every few weeks until September finishing with the Tour of the Peak.

If I remember right these were a few of them.
GP of Essex
Welwyn - Hatfield
Archer GP
Girvan
Tour of the Kingdom
Tour of Lancashire
Lincoln GP
Tour of the Marshes
Tour of the Hopfields
Tour of the Peaks

They were all over the country so you could miss the odd one and not really be at a disadvantage. There would be a break in may for the milk race which usually had 3 GB teams in so the top amateurs were riding that.

Thanks, so in todays terms, what would be the next step up for the best riders in those races...to Conti (Div 3) to ProConti (Div 2) or to World Tour (Div 1)?

sub55

Once you get up to premier calender and national champs, all the riders are either first cat or elite .
Most of the firsts could make elite if they really wanted too. There is no distinction between amateur or pro.
Most ,but certainly not all will have some sort of sponsership deal and be in a team. Where you draw the line between amateur and pro is your definition . But the reality is it's a sliding scale, between nothing and everything.
To progress passed this level , continental cat 3`s and ever on upwards. It increasingly becomes a case of who you know and the contacts you've made over the years together with a reputation for being a team player that counts.

Rodrego Hernandez

Next step for a rider in the UK would be to a decent Conti team with a good racing program.

Rapha are more a youth development team so Endura is probably the only UK based team that an aspiring rider would head to in order to show themselves in Europe.

blackhands

In the old days of the Star Trophy the races were only open to amateurs. Most have disappeared (or not continued as Pemier Calendar races due to organisational difficulties and cost.The top UK race was the MIlk Race (Tour of Britain) with national teams including foreign teams.

There were also about 20 to 40 Professional riders in either small teams or solo sponsored. These tended to ride criteriums although they also had a few 'proper' road races such as London to Holyhead or London to Bradford (these races may also include some continental teams.