Opted to race Master’s Open in a classic this weekend; crit Saturday, RR Sunday. In both cases, had the opportunity to earn upgrade points (whereas Cat 5 races wouldn’t). Fields had guys rated up to at least Cat 2 and a lot of experience on the local course, so definitely a step up in competition. In addition, two teams were players, one had six and one had five members, so that was a new dynamic I hadn’t dealt with in the 5s.
Crit was going well. Both teams got someone in a break, and I bridged up to the first chase group of four. They shut any kind of chase down, and essentially I was on my own (unaffiliated), with three members from one team there. I was more or less content to try to ride as smart as I could, then see if I could shake loose for a run at the podium, but dropped my chain (the course was super sketchy) with less than four to go, so that was that. Fixed it and finished on the lead lap, and not in last, so there’s that.
Road race saw one team bring six and one only three. Being unaffiliated and not from the area, I didn’t coordinate with the smaller team, so when two guys from the large team got away early, the small team didn’t have the firepower to bring it back. By the time the couple of strong unaffiliated guys got organized, it was probably too late. A couple of other guys attacked the second lap, one ended up staying away but we brought the rest back. I did a lot of work to do that, fired one attack late that gapped the field but couldn’t hold it, and just rolled across with the main field.
In the end, that was races 9 and 10, so I accomplished the season mission and can upgrade to Cat 4. I believe someone on here said “the goal of Cat 5 is to survive without crashing.” I did that, so… cool!