Originally Posted by
spartanKid
Technically all riders must be at least a track cat3 (collegiate A equivalent) to race the bunch races at collegiate track nationals. It has always been a problem that there will be collegiate rider who have achieved their "A" upgrade because the collegiate upgrade coordinator for a region or a state is not necessarily the same as the normal upgrade coordinator, and may be more flexible with upgrades based on the recommendation from a coach or velodrome employee.
They are separate ranking systems. My kid got his A and is still a cat 4.
There were no crashes (that I know of - I was there all 3 days). The tentative pro and cat 1 road riders just road high and stayed away. I agree that may not be the est way to learn the sport, but I have not seen that it necessarily makes for it being dangerous. I expect, like other cycling disciplines, sometime the best college kids don't do collegiate cycling, while others do.