On the boycott bit - I call that the great “Masters Bluff”. We had a couple of local teams imply the same thing. I believe they skipped the first year. Then they came back.

I have always seen it like this: I was putting on 3/5’s of our Illinois cup series - if they wanted to be the “best masters racer in Illinois” they had to show up. There aren’t enough actual races left to boycott - they’re only screwing themselves by missing one of the handful of races left on the calendar.

.....and finally and most importantly- racing a bicycle is an self-absorbed ego driven endeavor. They couldn’t stand NOT racing. As soon as the races happened they forgot there wasn’t a payout. Precedent set.

In reality there here is always a vocal minority of masters racers that get upset about no payouts. They are usually the ones that were winning those payouts. The rest of the field never cared (they didn’t win them anyway). So if you pull the payouts and the “top” guys don’t show then it gives the rest of the field a chance to win - which they love. Those top guys end up either coming back immediately (because they hate the idea that whatshisname won) or they become a footnote to amateur racing and we all move on.

Seriously there are no ends to the positives of eliminating them.

Oooooo.... and if they totally disappeared then you can move that time slot into having/adding a masters women’s race!