09/18/2026
Novice, Sport, Expert… Open. What’s the difference? 🤔🚲💨
In the world of cyclocross, choosing your category can seem a little confusing at first. So, here’s the quick version:
Novice, Sport & Expert are ability categories.
If you’re a new CX rider and have never raced cyclocross before, you can self-select your starting category based on where you think you can compete. A good way to gauge this is by looking at your experience in other cycling disciplines.
For example, if you’re a Cat 2 road racer, you might decide that Expert is the place for you. If you’re newer to racing, Novice or Sport might make more sense.
Once you select your category, you race in that category and work your way up through the CX upgrade process by earning points.
But then there’s Open. 👀
Open is not an ability category. It’s exactly what it sounds like: open to everyone.
You can choose to race in your licensed ability category, or you can decide to race up and test yourself against a more competitive field in Open.
And here’s the important part: racing Open one weekend does not lock you into Open. You can race in your licensed category the following weekend.
If you earn points while racing Open, those points are recorded in Open and do not count toward your licensed ability category.
And finally, we need to talk about the unofficial fourth category:
🐌 SLOPEN
There is a long-standing CX tradition of calling Open “Slopen” when the racing gets particularly spicy. There may even be some highly unofficial awards for things like not getting lapped.
Stay tuned… future Slopen competitions may be coming. 😈
Visit www.albertabicycle.ab.ca/regulations for a full review of racing regulations.
Ride fast. Race hard. Avoid the bell. 🔔
