I'm half contemplating dabbling in some xc racing which I havent done in quite a few years now. Just been looking at the timelaps website and trying to work out the order of xc categories and where I'd fit.

Cascading from the fastest it seems to go as follows. Where do ages come in, I presume there are age limits between Sport, Masters, Veteran? Also, do you need race licences (obviously for Elite) for Masters & Expert level?

1. Elite
2. Expert
3. Masters
4. Sport
5. Veteran

Looking at the full range of recent Southern xc & Gorrick results and comparable riders I've ridden with recently I'd be putting in times that would get me around 10th positions in Expert & Masters, and get nearer 5th in Sport. I'm 29 so what cat would I sit in?

Gorricks you can do whichever ability category you want, Masters is 30-39, vets is 40-49, grand vets is 50+. Age is taken on the 31st December of the year of the race, so if you're 30 this year you're a master.

Southerns are BC ranked, so it's slightly different in the ability cats, for expert or elite you need a BC licence in that respective category, you can do one round in sport (there's only one left!) but you won't get ranking points without a licence. You can do open.

Gorricks also have a super master category, which is a 4 lap masters race done by the quicker masters. Southerns don't have that, the masters race is still 4 laps.

Cheers Njee for info – however, what's the 'BC' stand for? Also, how do you go about getting a race license for Southern XC Masters or Sports cats? Can I simply buy a licence early next year to race 2010 Master or Sport cat races, how much are they?

Sorry for all the Q's!

Cheers.

Ben,

I've ridden Gorrick Sport and tend to come midpack (50 something) so I reckon you would come very high in Sport and be comfortable in masters.

Let me know which one's you enter.

dave

BC = British Cycling.

You can apply for a licence via their website, it's about £60/year, you have to become a silver member too, which gets you 3rd party liability insurance among other things.

You don't need the licence for masters at Southerns, so don't worry too much unless you want to do national races. But yes, you can buy a licence and do whatever you want in either category.

If you buy a licence it will be sport cat as standard (unless you're over 30, which you will be next year when it'll be masters), you should still be able to ride sport if you want (although people have had issues with that this year). The top 15 on national rankings then go to expert, and the top 5 from expert up to elite.

arse, i am now officially a master! cock!

You can do what you want at Gorricks still, and you always used to be able to do what you wanted at NPSs too, although apparently they've got a bit funny about issuing sport licences to over-30s. Don't know why, half the elite category are technically masters!

Holy thread resurrection

Can someone explain me the difference between the sport and master category

Master – for riders aged 30 to 39. … In Cross Country, Sport riders will continue to be classified as Sport unless they elect to ride in the Masters category. This change was introduced for 2011 in recognition of the high standard of competition in XC Masters racing, to allow an extra category option for those in this age group.

So given the option what class would you race in?

f you buy a licence it will be sport cat as standard (unless you’re over 30, which you will be next year when it’ll be masters),

I have bought a licence i’m 32 and it says ‘sport’

I assume that it means that those who wish to do some pot hunting can.
I always used to get quite annoyed by those who were obviously so much better than the class they were riding in refusing to tekk it and move up to their correct class.

Masters is a daft category. There’s no degredation in performance by age 30. As such, there are/were some incredibly fast masters – often Elites who’ve dropped down, leaving many of the ‘proper’ masters a bit put out.

Basically, sport doesn’t have as many fast people!

Saying that… Many of the really fast masters are now moving up/back to elite: Simon Ernest, Scott Forbes, Matt Barrett etc.

sport category i’ll stay in then 🙂

I suspect masters may be pretty quiet this year, they were thinking of getting rid of it anyway.

What category do you race in njee?