There is a weekly circuit race near Grand Rapids at grattan raceway which is fun. There is cherry Roubaix, MSU grand fondo, port city crit, Zealand crit, Ada crit, and hopefully gaslight crit gets revived. That’s about all I’m aware of for road. There are some road races on the east side of the state if you want to drive. Gravel is a lot bigger now. There is a weekly time trial series through rapid wheelmen club out of Ada in the summer.
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Hah I’m not sure what to make of this. Your numbers are nearly identical to mine when I went into cross season last year. I gave everything I had to finish in the front half of cat 4 races…not particularly close to a podium.
We’ll see this year. I’m on a higher trajectory as far as FTP…265 watts in January, and my weight has been nudging down. If I can find 30 seconds a lap I think I have a shot at some podiums this year.
I think W/kg matters most to newer racers, especially those who’ve struggled at the outset. If you can’t consistently hang onto the field because of your fitness than you should really be putting in the effort to improve your W/kg or just FTP.
Of course you should still race and do hard group rides to practice and improve your race skills, bike handling and confidence in a race.
I just see this question as one with such a gradient between black and white.
For all of those people here who think W/kg is super important, it might not be. And for the others who are saying that numbers don’t matter, maybe they do. It depends on the rider and what their limitations are.
I certainly would not think that W/kg is going to be anyone’s limiting factor if they are only having an issue now and again in races. But if they are always getting dropped, all those races skills won’t matter because they won’t be in the peloton when the move happens.
I do think this is a good discussion to have as long as people are being honest. What a thread like this could do is help people understand if in fact W/kg is their limiter. If it is, work on it. However, if you are seeing that others have a similiar W/kg and you’re not getting the results they are getting, maybe you have other limiters that you can address.
As for me, I’m a Cat 4 3.0w/kg with pretty Meh results. That said I only did like 2 crits last year due to being too busy. That certainly didn’t help!
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Peak last season I was at 4.7 w/kg, but that’s at 60kg (132 lbs), and I gave up some of my sprint as I was running around 8% bf.
I’m very much a niche rider, definitely below average in crits, and average in flattish road races. Give me a mountain and I can do well. I don’t necessarily think that’s the best line to go. An ideal amateur racer is going to be somewhere around 4 w/kg, with good 5 second and 1 minute power.
Its always best to work on your strengths. The first 3 years racing I focused on crits and really couldn’t outperform the natural sprinters. Granted, a large part of crit racing is feel and race knowledge and you can overcome some of that but not all. If you’re a Cavendish or Sagan, do that. If you’re a Quintana or Froome, do that. Granted this is just amateur racing, so min maxing may sound a bit silly.
Thanks! I’ve been out to Grattan a few times and plan to go more this year. MSU is super fun too. I’ll have to try to make it to the others!
4.8 w/kg Cat 3. I have enough points to voluntary upgrade but I’m waiting for the mandatory bump. Need to learn how to race more efficiently before jumping into p/1/2. I’m also 36. We have a fun weds night training crit that’s p/1/2/3 and great to get your teeth kicked in.
Spent last year helping teammates who were looking to get the 2s to join our USA crits team.
When I was a 4, was around 3.8-4.2 and that seemed average here in CO for the 4s. Everyone is strong and can race well.
Why I love doing travel races. A small FTP bump at sea level.
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Over the past three seasons of cross I went from mid-pack Cat 4 to Cat 2 with only minor change in my FTP. What did change a lot was re-learning how to truly suffer and go deep, my capacity to go deep repeatedly (“FRC” as WKO5 terms it), and remembering how to ride efficiently and quickly offroad (although my technical skills are still below par relative to folks at the very pointy end of the race). I’m fortunate in that most of this was “re-learning” and not learning for the first time - I raced at a high level as a junior, so coming back to things has been easier.
Of all the disciplines I do I think cross is the one where there’s the most potential to ‘punch above your weight’ in terms of results vs. straight fitness, because of how important it is to be smooth and fast through technical sections. It’s amazing how much harder you have to work in traffic or if you’re slowing down more than you absolutely need to into every corner.
Don’t get me wrong - there’s still a baseline of fitness that’s essential to make it through the start in a good place, and then stay in that place through the first lap, but compared to something like an extended road climb or a TT where there’s no hiding a weak power to weight ratio, cross gives folks who can put power down efficiently instead of just put lots of power down a big advantage.
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It’s funny. Last year I really worked on my short power, and ended up really being able to go hard for short stretches, repeatedly. Short climbs, sprinting out of corners into straightaways was not a problem.
My sustained power was really lacking though, and I think it hurt me. Especially on the long slogs through muddy courses where there was plenty of time/room to put down power for extended stretches…I just didn’t have it.
So this year I’m working to rectify it. Finishing up Traditional base right now. I’ve gotten most of my ftp losses back from the offseason already…and I feel stronger at steady power already than I did last year. Planning on going through SSB, and then gen build this year instead of short power.
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4w/kg - 61kg - UK cat 2 (upgraded in '18 and maintained in '19)
Made the break once in cat 3, but found it quite straightforward to place in cat 3 bunch sprints.
I’d give Outside Inc. a read too if you’re interested in making the most of what you’ve got - everyone should be.
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So the situation in Poland is a bit crap when in relation to this system. We don’t really have a progressive cat system in which you level up and progress if you want. Instead, we have (IMO) a shitty system for licensed and non-licensed riders. If you’re a non-licensed amatour you normally either enlist to an amatour race or to a masters race (not the same as a licensed-master). Normally the difference is in the distance and duration of the course.
There is no real verification and so you can enlist to take part in an amatour race and you will still race against people with 4,5 - 5 + W/kg numbers.
So as an example, last season being around 3,5W/kg I raced guys with pro and semi pro numbers. All of us being classed as amatours 
With 3,5W/kg I normally end up in the first 30-50 percentile of the people who finish (when taking part in rolling races). For amatour crits I ten to be in the 60-80 percentile.
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Yeah our structure is sick. Even age groups are completely different (20-30, 30-40 etc). The amateur races are like P1/2/3/4/5 crumped into one race 
that’s why even if I would like to try racing I do not see any motivation to do this other than fun of losing with “horses” that are 5 W/kg and ex-pros.
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I was at 4.2 last season, I raced masters and open/expert in all my mountain bike races. Toughest race I think I finished 10th out of 200, I got a couple of wins in masters XC (40+ one was competitive, the other wasn’t) and clinched 2nd overall in my A race. That w/Kg is good enough to hover near the pointy end but I think I’d have to be at least 4.5 to race competitively in a true USA cycling XC1 category. I finished something like 40th in the one gravel event I attempted, to me that’s a different game entirely!
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It is the same in Germany - living in the UK now and got sorted into Cat3 for the start of the season and hope to go up to Cat1 again.
At the moment I am about 67kg with a 340ftp so roughly 5 w/kg.
In the end that is just a number and it is much more about tactics and position
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Dude, I’m close to that in watts but a third heavier 
If I would be 5W/kg I would dominate eveyone in my local region 
Even though the system is shit I would still encourage you to start racing It’s a great exercise in handling, confidence, keeping your cool in a fast pace group etc. Plus when you start getting along with the normal guys, you start being part of a really cool community. You then race against yourselves, not the idiots with pro numbers who claim they are amateurs like everyone else. We dont even notice these guys anymore 
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I think this is the only factor that make sense to race - the community and sense of belonging. I currently work only on my fitness and ability to finish the course of the race;) I am not sure if I will start this season, because I think with my bike handling I can and endangerment for other fellows, but next year I eye VIA Dolny Slask and Szklarska Poreba race as my goal (it suits my build, as I do not have high enoug ftp to race on flats but climbs should be better).
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keep us posted what you come up with from here!
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This guy know a thing or two. Couldn’t have said it better.
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4wkg race in Sport in the UK XC scene = cat 2/3 in the US
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2.17 w/kg. Won overall for my age group 19-29 in cat 3 last year.
Can’t decide if I want to race cat 2 or 1 this year.
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Good info
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