Originally Posted by furiousferret

Just remember, outside a small circle of riders no one really cares what category you are. Hell, we had a guy win Nats a few years ago and hardly anyone cared about that. If you're looking for prestige or attention do an Ironman. People eat that stuff up, even you suck at it.

You can always just yell at people and occasionally tell the guy next to you 'In Europe... (insert cycling elitist comment here)' and if they ask you if you raced in Europe just say, '****ing dopers, man'. They'll all just assume you're a 1.

They're also not going to have much sympathy if you're over 40. Half this forum is over 40 and many do well in open aged races. Age isn't really considered a disadvantage until like 50, and even then there are some fast 50 year olds. If there aren't a lot of Masters races in your area its going to be hard to cat up via p12 races though.