[Updated 3/4/20 to reflect current field structure for Masters]

Hi!

I’m incredibly excited to be returning for the 2020 season helping organize the Lucarelli & Castaldi Club Race Series. We are implementing a bunch of changes this season, and I want to provide some transparency to the thinking behind it as we kick off with our season opener.

With chip timing, in partnership with our results provider, Mainsport, the CRCA board is very excited to be able to pilot this technology with the club series. The fact that we have a recurring series in the same venue with the same population of racers and an incredibly sophisticated membership/race application (thanks Randy!) provides a very interesting opportunity to validate the application of chip timing in a local amateur bike race series.

The technology gives us a lot of interesting options to streamline the process end to end - from eliminating the need for checking in from race to race to allowing us to automate the results process. We are in the early stages of seeing how this technology works with our systems, so please be patient as we work out any kinks, and feel free to give feedback via the form here. There is also a ton of potential for more development (overall standings, live results, etc.) so stay tuned as we continue to try to make your racing experience even better.

With this flexibility provided with more technology integration, we are also going to revise our field structure a bit. In an attempt to properly serve all demographics in our club population, the new structure for 11 of the 12 races this year is as follows:

W - Women’s Cat 1/2/3/4/Novice
WDev - Women’s Cat 4/Novice
A - Men’s Cat 1/2/3 (Masters 40+ Cat 1/2/3 results also provided for Club Masters Comp. only)
B - Men’s Cat 4 (Masters 40+ Cat 4 results also provided for Club Masters Comp. only)
C - Men’s Novice

• For the Club Championships on August 16, there will be a dedicated Masters field with multiple awards and results.

• When W and WDev fields are offered on the same day, W Novice license holders must race in WDev field.

• All eligible Men’s Masters (age 40+) riders will automatically be scored in both the combined results and the Masters results. These riders will be eligible for both overall A and B field competition points and Masters competition points.

• For the purposes of our internal club competition, we will provide separate Master's results but submit combined to USAC.

For more information on the race schedule, take a look at the club racing page.

Last year, we got a lot of feedback about how it was confusing when checking in to denote what field you wanted to participate in. Thanks to the addition of the timing chips, as long as you cross the start line with the field you are intending to race in, you will be scored with that field. With these changes, we are hoping that we can better serve our Masters racing community as well as provide more a holistic narrative for our Women’s Development program with eleven races for them to compete in.

Aside from those larger changes, we are working to make the overall racer experience better, with multiple teams taking responsibility over the podium presentation and leader’s jersey presentations. Please be sure to hang out at Rambles and cheer on your fellow racers after every race!

Have a great season, everyone!