I dunno. I think there are more rungs on the ladder than there were. For kids, there's high school racing, then clubs like TS (well, one anyway), academies like Steve's, then a jump to VCL B, then maybe some Island mtb and cross, then another jump to BC Cup, then VCL A, etc. If we added C races here, and maybe a BC Youth Series event (below BC Cup level) , that would be two holes filled in.Roland wrote:Even if we do succeed and build a health community of the island at the C level, there is almost nowhere to progress too. Most of the time, girls will get stuck in Cat 1/2/3/4 races with pros and guys will get stuck in Cat 3/4 races with the likes of Josh and Shawn. It was a mistake for Cycling BC to get rid of Cat 5. To get full fields at the Cat 4/5 level means traveling to Washington state.
I don't think we're misleading the kids (and C's); we're advocating for them. We can see that with a little effort, new juniors can progress quite well through the TS groups. With a C race, they'll make the next jump.While trying to fix a broken system is an admirable goal, I think you need to be honest with the kids coming in. Unless they are willing to suffer getting dropped, maybe for a long time, then road racing probably isn't for them.
One other factor, is that just because we all made it over the barriers to get involved, doesn't mean that's the way it should stay. In fact, it's arguable that all the folks who can make it over the barriers are already in, and if we want it to grow, we have to do something different. And TS is proof of that.