I’ve just logged into my Si Entries account to register for the Coniston PMBA Enduro and I’ve been automatically allocated into vets, even though I’m only 38, and will be only just 39 on the day of the race. Is this an error, or are you a vet in the year of your 40th birthday, regardless of your actual birthday date? I thought I had another year in Masters so PLEASE SAY IT ISN’T SO!

Horrible isn’t it. I did my last grand raid last year in the ‘Men’ category. This year at 30, I’m a senior. Not happy!

Awful Nick, I feel like I’ve just been cheated out of a year! 😀

are you a vet in the year of your 40th birthday

I believe this is the case, old timer.

I’m 43 BTW, and it doesn’t get any less competitive.

Yes, you become a vet the year of your 40th birthday, so if you are like me, you almost go into it a year early.

My whole racing life has been in masters, vets will be a shock when it happens!

Yes, you become a vet the year of your 40th birthday, so if you are like me, you almost go into it a year early.

Me too Hob Nob, my b’day is on the 14th December. I’m going to start a petition.

I’m not quite in denial yet – i’ve got next year to go.

Quite looking forward to it to be honest – I hover near the podium in masters & still end up on it sometimes, so should smash it in vets for a bit!

I might feel differently this time next year…

If this weekend at fod is owt to go by vet means fast as the number one vet handed a pwning to nearly every other rider regardless of age…

What Wrightyson said. Seems pretty competitive in the Vets, it’s funny I had a good few years off racing and the same faces are going quickly, just with less hair and more wrinkles.

Me too Hob Nob, my b’day is on the 14th December. I’m going to start a petition.

Why!! Mate of mind moved up from Masters to Vets this year, has jumped lots of places in the results 🙂
Embrace it and take it to the old buggers!

If you think about it though it does make sense, it would be daft to start a series as a Master and end it as a Vet, so you get put into Vets at the start of the year instead, keeping it consistent. I raced my last Masters race this year! Onwards to Vets for 2017!

If this weekend at fod is owt to go by vet means fast as the number one vet handed a pwning to nearly every other rider regardless of age…

Thing is with the vets, the seriously fast ones are a lot rarer than in masters, which seems to be full of absolute pinners, wherever people race.

You enduro folk are lucky, no such thing as masters in xc or cx, so us mid-thirty mid-life-crisis fools get beasted by 20 year olds every weekend 🙁 😆

I found in DH that if one was at the slow end of the field, one beat more of the masters than the vets on account of there being quite a few not so serious masters competitors, but fewer slow competitors in vets. I imagine this effect would be even more marked in grand vets (small field, but most of them quite quick) but I haven’t competed in that. I will be in super vet the season after next, but according to British Cycling that isn’t a DH category, so I will have to race XC (!).

If you think about it though it does make sense, it would be daft to start a series as a Master and end it as a Vet, so you get put into Vets at the start of the year instead, keeping it consistent. I raced my last Masters race this year! Onwards to Vets for 2017!

Yeah, I’d never thought about that Ben, it does make sense. Oh well, guess I better pull my finger out in regards to training for 2017 then!

Its even worse when you hit V50.

Thing is with the vets, the seriously fast ones are a lot rarer than in masters, which seems to be full of absolute pinners, wherever people race.

Also fewer newbies and casual riders making up the numbers though, so probably easier at the top end but not further down the pecking order.

I stayed mid-pack despite getting much fitter. But then the general standard of enduroing has risen a lot in the last couple of years, I think.

Also fewer newbies and casual riders making up the numbers though, so probably easier at the top end but not further down the pecking order.

I stayed mid-pack despite getting much fitter. But then the general standard of enduroing has risen a lot in the last couple of years, I think.

True, masters is normally the biggest category by a substantial margin – the time disparities between riders at the sharp & lower end is generally huge.

A quick scan over my results this year meant i’d have won quite a few races & podium’d pretty much everything bar the anomalies. I might actually try & do some proper training this last year & go all in for a year of glory as a first year vet 😆

Definitely agree the standard of Enduro wizardry has increased in general too. There are a lot of people taking it very seriously!

@dark side

So Grizedale in 7th Jan 2017, and age is your age on 31st December 2017, so although its more than a year off thats just how it works. As a sandbagger on age, you’ll win now right?