Cycling BC Announces Updates to its Category Upgrade Policy for Mountain Bike Racing
Cycling BC is pleased to announce revisions to its Category Upgrade Policy for Mountain Bike Cross-country and Downhill racing, taking effect December 1st, 2024. These updates were developed in collaboration with Cycling Canada and in consultation with key stakeholders in the mountain bike community, including athletes, coaches, and commissaires. The key motivations behind the change are to enhance safety, ensure fairness, and support a consistent progression of riders across all levels.
The updated policy introduces a points matrix for Mountain Bike racing, awarding upgrade points based on a rider’s finish placement and the category’s field size, similar to how upgrade points are awarded in other cycling disciplines.
As a result, athletes can earn upgrade points for top-ten finishes and must meet a certain points threshold before upgrading to the next category, whereas previously, the criteria only allowed for an upgrade after 2 wins or 3 top-five finishes. Categorized racing relies on an effective upgrade policy so that riders can compete and be grouped with riders of comparable ability levels, enhancing safety by minimizing occurrences of riders being passed on a downhill track or having mixed ability levels racing in the same field.
Much of the rest of the policy and application process remains the same. Athletes can submit an objective upgrade request at cyclingbc.net/upgrade-request free of charge; a subjective upgrade request can be made for a fee provided the athlete has demonstrated competency with results and provides a letter of support from an NCCP-Club or NCCP-Performance certified coach.
To review the updated policy, please go to https://cyclingbc.net/membership/category-upgrades/
MTB Downhill athletes in the U17 Male and U15 Male categories who are considering an upgrade are encouraged to submit their upgrade requests between December 1, 2024, and the purchase of their 2025 membership. This timeframe will help alleviate congestion in processing upgrade requests for these categories during the season.
If you have any questions about the category upgrade policy, please schedule a call with Ben Chaddock.
Contact:
Ben Chaddock
Head of Coach Development
Cycling BC
604-737-3034
ben@cyclingbc.net