Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • XC Dilemma- Masters or Open Cat??
  • YellowBelly
    Free Member

    I fancy doing a bit of XC racing this summer for a laugh.

    Do I get pummelled in masters or reasonable finish in Open?

    Are other options available for 30 somethings?

    I hold a BC licence anyway (for dabbling in a bit of roadie stuff locally).

    I’ve even got some lycra

    bigdawg
    Free Member

    depends how early you want to get up…

    open cat isa dream for me as travelling 1/2 round the m35 and getting to a venue by 10am on a sunday morning was a bit of a hassle…

    flip
    Free Member

    If i was you i’d do open it’s more laid back, masters is very fast 😮

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    njee20
    Free Member

    Masters is very fast at the sharp end, but tapers off very quickly.

    Open is not so fast at the sharp end (but still filled with trophy-hunting-ringers) and still tapers off very quickly!

    You’re not gonna be last in either, just do whichever suits you better on start times and stuff!

    twinklydave
    Full Member

    masters are just elites who’ve had more years to train, thus making them even faster 😉

    maybne try the open cat for the first race or so to get the hang of everything, then move up if you reckon you can take ’em 😀

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Masters is very hard. I tend to just go by how difficult it’ll be to make the start time, or how many laps it is 🙂

    matthewlhome
    Free Member

    I rode a couple of Masters races last year. By getting one year older I then had to ride more laps and everyone was faster than in the senior cats. It hurt. If I race in the future, I will be doing open.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Unless of course you’re thinking of a Gorrick event where there’s a Super Master for all the ex-elites to go to 🙂

    njee20
    Free Member

    Master more laps than senior? That’s weird.

    marty
    Free Member

    is this for S(cottish)XC races*? some of the categories are a bit different up here.

    open category replaced the over 16 fun (or novice) class of previous years and generally do two laps. the change of cateogry name might attract a slightly different entry.

    masters normally sees good fields with a range of abilities (waves from the back of the field) and generally do four laps. some of the faster masters will race with the Elite/Expert race. can make it as serious as you want to.

    * um, might have guessed wrongly on this. still, worth the effort to come north and race the best XC courses in the UK… 🙂

    YellowBelly
    Free Member

    Sounds like it’s the Open for me, not Masters.

    Did the Open race at the Dragon last week, managed a respectable finish, the bloke in 1st would have done OK in Experts.

    I would have finished about a demoralising 21 out of 22 finishers in Masters had I entered that cat (and 4 laps would prob have killed me).

    Roll on Vets next year… or is that even harder?

    adt
    Free Member

    The winning masters times at nps are usually faster than the expert times

    GW
    Free Member

    for a laugh? er.. wouldn’t that be what the Fun category’s for then? (it’s also cheapest)

    moremudplease
    Free Member

    aint gonna get it easy in the vets,you should lok at their lap times,lot faster than open and its 4 laps as well

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

The topic ‘XC Dilemma- Masters or Open Cat??’ is closed to new replies.