Quote from British Cycling:“There are one or two changes to the (British National) series in 2015, principally the absence of a separate category for masters.”
In summary riders aged 30-39 now fall back into the ability based classification system of Sport/Expert/Elite. “The Commission has felt for some time that riders of masters age (30-39 years) are still competitive in the ability based categories”, a British Cycling spokesman said.
While this is undoubtedly true for the leading Masters, riders like myself are now plunged into a Sport category field undoubtedly swollen as a consequence of the merger. 10th or 15th Master in the country sounded pretty good and achieving this goal was something to strive for. I am not inspired by a national Sport ranking.
There may still be a Masters category at the National Championsips in Essex, which is good because I have unfinished business at Hadleigh farm. Two years ago I crashed while practicing the course on the Saturday, breaking two ribs, so was looking forward to actually racing at the London 2012 Olympic venue.
I’ll admit as a 37 year old this news has come as a bit of a blow to my motivation for the year ahead. The recently released Southern XC venues and dates had inspired me to target series points. Some readjustment will now be necessary to my plans and goals for 2015. Perhaps this even means moving my focus purely to the longer marathon races before turning 40 in a few seasons. It might also be an opportunity to focus on personal cycling goals outside of racing.
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