Category Petition

What is a category petition?

All racers are assigned a category by the NICA League. Middle school categories are assigned by grade. Once in high school, brand new riders are placed into JV4(male) JV3(female). All other high school categories are merit-based and must be petitioned into unless the athlete is moved up or down by the league. 

A rider can petition at any point in the season. Petitions must be received by Friday at 11:59 PM one week before race weekend in order to be considered for that event 

How does this work? 

There are a few ways a petition can begin.

1. A coach will note the athlete's capability and petition the league to move the athlete into a different category

2. An athlete will fill out the petition form and initiate a category discussion with coaching. After a successful petition to Maroon's coaching, the Maroon's head coach, Assistant Head Coach, or Director will petition the league

3. The league can move an athlete by rule (see below) regarding finish %

Should I petition?

Who should petition?

• Is it your first year? Is your practice cohort in a higher category than you? Petition

• Have you had a killer off-season and want to see how you fare? Petition

• Did the athletes you were toe-to-toe with last year move up? Petition

• At practice are you way faster than last year? Petition

• Did you podium a lot last year? Petition

• Do you want to get faster? Petition

What are your goals?

• Is your goal to get better?

  • If you want to get better you need to race faster people. Petition up if you're near the top of your current category. You may not win, but you'll learn more from better riders and will benefit from it in the long run. 

• Is your goal to win? 

  • This is a very common goal. Everyone likes to win. If last year you were ~top 15 you probably have a good chance of podiums this year. Stay in your current category. However, if you were podium (top 5) last year, it's time to petition up. This is a good point to discuss "Sandbagging" - where a faster rider deliberately rides a slower category or purposefully underperforms with the intent to dominate a group they're faster than. Sandbagging is antithetical to sportsmanship and is not tolerated by Maroons coaching. If you're dominant in your category and are winning w/o competition, Maroons coaching will help you seek stronger competition. 

• Is your goal to race friends?

  • DM them, figure out if they're moving or not. Have a discussion with your peers about it. 

• Is your goal to have fun?

  • If you deal OK with stress, petition. It's fun to go hard, it's fun to be in the 'faster' categories. You'll get raised eyebrows when folks know you're JV1, Varsity, etc. 

  • If you do NOT deal well with stress you'll want to think about how a cat up would make you feel. Note, everyone feels stress before a race - it's how your body tells you that you care about the outcome. Not dealing well with stress looks like pre-race illness brought on by anticipatory dread. 

• Is your goal to chill? 

  • Maybe don't petition, just be careful that you're not so chill you end up sandbagging or forgetting to show up to the line, haha. 

What if you want to win, get better, and have fun and chill with friends? First off, you sound awesome and you're on the right team.  Secondly, you have to really think hard about which of those awesome reasons to race you want to focus on this year. 

Are there any risks to petitioning? 

• Petitioning back down is very rarely, if ever granted

• You may find yourself in a group that is much faster than you, and you'll have hard racing until your fitness catches up

Information on petitions

To begin, please review the expanding section titled Category Placement near the bottom of this page on the main NICA site  

Your current category is listed in your Pitzone. If you have questions, ask a coach.

No categories are closed to any riders anymore (in the past, for example, a 6th grader was unable to petition out of 6th grade). However, the onus is on the petitioner (you) to make the case for your move. A 6th grader could race JV1, but they would need an extensive race resume' showing all their races, results, and favorable comparisons with current racers in the JV1 category. This is an example of a race resume. If you have a resume, it's helpful to keep it updated and available. You never know when a opportunity will come knocking. 

Generally, males tend to race closer to their peers age-wise and move through the categories in a stepwise fashion. 

Conversely, females tend to move up categories more often. There are less females racing than male (3 to 1 ratio) so locating a like-abled cohort requires a more fluid approach. 

General guidelines for Middle School Riders

Middle School riders usually ride in-grade (5th, 6th, etc.). New riders almost always ride in grade unless they come with an extensive race resume'. As a rule, fast male Middle School riders generally ride in grade, sometimes fast 8th graders will move into the JV2 realm. Fast Middle School females will usually move into JV2+ categories. It's not unheard of for 7th grade females to race JV1 and 8th grade females to race Varsity (there is usually 1 or 2 each year following that path). 

General guidelines for High School Riders

All High School categories beyond JV4 are merit based and must be petitioned into. 

• JV4(m) JV3(f) (1 lap) = high school riders that will struggle to complete 1 lap in 35 minutes

• JV3(m) (2 laps) =  high school riders that will get around the course in ~35 minutes each lap

• JV2 (2 laps) = competitive high school riders

• JV1 (2(f)/3(m) laps) = more competitive high school riders

• Varsity (3(f)/4(m) laps) = the fastest cyclists in the state. Varsity winners are usualy high in the competition for overall state (including adult) titles. Winning Varsity racers are generally top 25 Nationally. Texas Varsity has secured multiple national podiums and at least 1 USAC National Championship in STXC

Ready to petition?

Fill out the form and we'll be in touch!