Changes are afoot

from the Beeeb - A change for the better in French café culture. nice! No need to inhale Gauloise smoke if you just want to sit there and drink your coffee. Prior restraint!

Crossbabble recently reported on a pretty significant Cyclocross rules change for Nationals starting this year. It appears that men will need to be a cat 1 or 2 and women will need to be cat 1-3 in order to race in CX national championships. Given the huge growth in the fields this makes sense, though it'll have some consequences:

-Like a lot of people trying to cat up (me included) so that they can race Natz. I think I can make a case for the upgrade, but it's marginal. I've got about half the official upgrade points I need. I could have tried to do more smaller races like the VA series, but getting upgrade points has never been a priority for me. But if I want to race Nationals I don't have a choice. Hopefully, the upgrade coordinator will buy into my story.

-Which will mean more people in the Elite or Masters fields at local races...and thus smaller B fields. UCI events will still have the 2/3 (old B) race. My season is up in the air, but I'll probably race Masters if I get the upgrade to cat 2. I'd get smoked in the local A races, but it would be good training so that's an option too. This might help move some people out of the huge B fields. But it might just move them into the equally large Masters fields.

-Bigger B fields at Nationals. Could they possibly be any bigger? Probably not.

-Or maybe fewer people bothering to go to Nationals if all they can do is a B race.

Anyway it's a good rule change (even if I don't get the upgrade). I just want to be able to do some good races and soak up the 'cross vibe.