Originally Posted by
tobukog
The Masters 35+, or 35-39 field at Nationals, is IMO, a pretty soft field all around. At that age, the best guys still race 1-2/pro. The 40+ guys tend to be a lot faster -- no longer willing to bang shoulders with the pro's but still really strong and into racing bikes. Some of them have a lot of time and money on their hands, or maybe they're having a midlife crisis. But in terms of numbers, it seemed lower all around this year. Maybe some have been scared off by the number of crashes in the last couple of years.
Numbers overall seemed really down this year. Maybe because it's the second year in Augusta.
When I did it in Winston-Salem two years ago, there were 65-70 in the 35-39 field and the 40 and 45 fields sold out at 125 or 150. The 50 and 55 fields also had about 100 registrants. Though that year, many people in later fields dropped out of the crit after seeing the bloodshed in the earlier races.