Cat 1/2s - How did you get there

Similar to the 5w/kg thread would be interested to hear from those who are racing at this level.

How long did it take to get there?
What kind of w/kg was required?
Did your racing style change, i.e. sprinter in lower categories and something else in 1/2?

Anything else that you think is interesting about your journey

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Cat 2 here so nothing to write about. Got most of my points in two seasons racing crits. Racing with 1’s you learn the difference between positive and negative racing! Cheers man!

I never raced enough to get enough points to hit 1/2 even though I probably could have if I kept at it. Low quality race organizers slowly embittered me to the point of quitting racing. Oh well. I’m baaaaacccckkk!

Even though I think it took only 10 points to upgrade, residing in The Great White North, the race season is pretty short and even back in the heydays of the 90’s there wasn’t that many races available inside of a 1-2 hour drive.

Just from my personal observations, the 1/2s that I knew took one of two paths after hitting the top – they either went pro (or tried) and retired within a few years, or just kept racing at 1/2 level and are now crazy strong Masters.

3 years : 1 in cat5, next year in cat4, 3rd year went from cat4->cat2
Learned to be patient, and that racing a lot ups your chances, I’ve always tried to race with harder categories or do 2 races if I could (for the experience and the lottery effect)
As much as Trainerroad wants us to think it’s w/kg, it’s a lot more about tactics. I’ve always been above 4w/kg (now at 5w/kg but a lot smarter). In the 1/2’s you can’t afford any mistakes if you want to win, and you have to be careful to pack finish.

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This is a more interesting question than pure w/kg. It depends on the type of courses you race and your race craft, i recall loads of guys who were super strong but never got results because they wasted so much energy and conversely guys who you never rated but always seemed to be there at the end of races. So its really a balance of the two but if i think back to my racing days i was at least 5 w/kg and had good race craft, was only small (59kg) so flat sprints were an issue but other wise i could compete everywhere esle. I was a very good cat 1 but a level down from the very best riders

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