Originally Posted by
Radish_legs
Do you guys know any regular joes that started riding over age 40 who became cat 1?
No.
I know 60+ year olds that can hold their own in Cat 1 and if they decided to race a RR, or SR I'd have the money on them. They are not regular joes.
Most that can, do, long before that. Could they have is speculation, but I have little doubt, they just did before.
My mechanic - was a Cat 1 in his 20s, raced against Lance. Came out and did a TT at 45 in a way too small skin suit and it was stupid. Enough to make me sure my choice not to race was a good one.
On a similar, but different note riders can start mid 20s and make it to the top, but that is rare as most that can, did way before. But you have a few that are WC in another sport and switch and seem to make it to World Tour level in a few years.
Cat 1 is a somewhat recent common designation. It used to be (80s) more closely associated with the National pool. I would meet a Cat 1 very rarely. There were Cat 2s that became pros. Actually I think there still may be. The juniors typically do Cat 1 to get into a race, and until LUX decided to have an all Cat 1 team, I saw a lot of juniors just do the junior whatever thing, and then get on a devo team, or go to college. You need a Cat 3 to do junior nats, and they can grab more cash sandbagging. Most now are Cat 1, but that seems very recent. I was looking and could not verify Lance was ever a Cat 1. I got tired of looking, so someone can show I'm wrong.