A few of the races I want to do this year have a vets 50+/women option and a 4th cat option too. I’ve just had a long conversation with a race organiser about what option I should go for… When I did a vets 50+/ women’s RR last year, I was up against cat 1 (claire thomas) and had no chance of keeping up (I was 30mins off the back!) Whereas when I’m up against 4th cat, its much more of a race for me, not just instantly spat out of the back.

So, should I go for the 4th cat one and maybe end up being the only woman in that race or accept getting my arse handed to me on a plate and go for the vets/women option?

I’d have thought 4th cat men would be quicker than many 1/2 women frankly.

I’d go for 4ths as you’ll have more people to race, much more interesting.

You’ll be safer in a V50 race that’s for sure!
We get loads of Triathletes riding 4th Cat races and they haven’t got a clue.

The whole point of 4ths is that they don’t have a clue. If they were any good they’d be 3rds already.

I’d like to think anyone racing 4th cat would have a clue, and have experience of group riding. 4th cat isn’t novice racing, go race racing is for novices.

I’m a 3rd cat and our local weekly summer series regularly has an E/1 cat lady who rides for Motorpoint. She occasionally gets top 10s, but not often. She does a lot better than me when they race on the twistier crit type circuit though!

I’d go with the v50/womens race. Although if there are a few races try out the 4ths and see how you get on.

At my local crit circuit we have training/coaching races for 4th cats. The take up is good and after a while they begin to join in with the higher categories who train on the same night. This works well and we have few crashes. Some 4th cats, I think, are too embarrassed to think of themselves as novices and go straight into racing. Not good. (IMHO)