USA Cycling just revised the upgrade policy for 2025. Here are some observations:
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It looks like you can no longer self-upgrade to Cat 4 without first completing 5 events (races or skills clinics) as a novice. I think that’s a good change.
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Unless I’m missing something, a big change is that it’s now possible to upgrade to Cat 1 with only points scored in masters races. It used to be that you could only apply 10 points from masters races toward a Cat 1 upgrade. This makes upgrading to Cat 1 much easier for someone who entered the sport as a masters racer. I sort of wish I didn’t stop racing last year…I might have had the points. 
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Interesting…. Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t specifically say masters races are counted towards overall points but it also doesn’t restrict masters points like it did before.
I’ve been stuck in 2’s for years because I primarily race masters. I need to go back and count my points for the last 3 years because I should have enough now. Also, looks like I meet the mandatory requirements for a move to cat 1 MTB 
One feature I wish USA cycling had was a display for current points.
I think no more self selection in MTB as well.
Pretty much all of the races around me (WA,ID,MT) combine 4 and 5/novice fields so if the goal is to improve safety or skills this seems like a bit of a moot point
Mine did the same. Any 5 race was a 4/5 so it made sense to take the auto upgrade. The problem comes when they offer a 4/5 and a 3/4 because now you get guys that are like, well maybe I’ll do the 3/4 race as well and you end up with guys who have never raced a day in their life in a 3/4 race. So to prevent that situation I like that they brought back a minimum.
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Bingo. A rule in place that changes exactly nothing
Cat 5 served no purpose under the prior rule, and now there’s a point–get some experience. It keeps people out of the 2/3 and 3/4 fields a little longer. That seems like a good thing.
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This.
Another observation is that you can now upgrade to Cat 3 based on experience alone–20 pack finishes in Cat 4. I suppose that’s a lot of racing and someone will know whether they should really be in Cat 3 or stick around Cat 4 if they haven’t yet earned the upgrade on points.
True. When I started it was a mandatory 10 races as a 5 before you could request an upgrade to 4.
Me too, and I thought it was excessive. I think 5 is a good number.
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Boom!
I will do the cat1 MTB request after this local series is over in a few months.
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