Due to the shockingly short lifecycle of the average bike racer, bringing in new Cat 5 racers (and finding a way to improve retention) is vital to the health of the sport. Seeing just 36 M5 racers at last year’s Zach Koop Memorial Crit at Orchard Beach is a definitely a concerning data point. The early morning start time for that field probably doesn’t help and we toyed with the idea of shifting the calendar around, but with the overlapping field structure designed to allow racers to do multiple events it really only makes sense to start with lower categories and work our way up over time.

On the bright side, relative to last year’s final registration numbers the M5 field is actually in the best shape this year (other than the Juniors A field where we made racing free to all participants and have seen a resulting boost in registration). Otherwise all of the Men’s categorized fields are running a touch under half of last year’s turnout, with Masters and Women trailing further behind. Women’s fields tent to fill later than Men’s, on average, and there is a new schedule conflict with Woodstock moving to a Sunday race so turnout for the Women’s field may be a bit light at this year’s race (we’re still giving equal prize money either way because, duh).