All Japan Businessman Cycling Federation

[Edogawakikkoman]

http://www.jbcf-net.org/entry_index.html

TR
BR1
ER
FR
level races.

I may go and see the next one as I'll be up in Hakuba!

A few SEO guys too to cheer for.

This OGAWA course is using half of my favorite route in Japan up the Ogawa.

 

[Trek DJ]

It will be interesting to see what changes they make for the 2010 season. As it is, the TR, BR etc. classes are completely screwed up!

 

[zenbiker]

Pardon my ignorance but what do these classes mean? TR BR etc
Thanks

 

[Trek DJ]

Well, they are supposedly rankings, with BR essentially being the top. They added a new TR class this year, which is supposed to be the team category. Originally they had a bunch of rules regarding the TR category, like each team had to field a min. (6) number or riders etc. However, quite a few teams cant field 6 men in the TR category, so the JBCF relaxed the rules.

For example, at the east Japan race at Gunma CSC a couple months ago ALL of the pro teams except Blitzen could not meet the min. entry requirements for TR so the JBCF changed that rule. On the other hand, Ravanello came with 15 riders of various levels and pretty much all but 2-3 of them were pack fodder or spit out the back.

It seems that the Japanese federations are into making pointless rules that only make entering the races more difficult or pointlessly splits up races in the name of "safety". Basically they seem to go as far as they can to ignore what racers want: appropriate length (most are WAY too short) and a decent number or competitors in each category.

In the US its a simple 5,4,3,2,1, Pro with most races combining races to increase field size such as (5,4) (3) (Pro,1,2) with 3`s usually having the biggest fields.

I would love to see Japanese federations lower the barriers to racing (same day entry etc.), but so far they seem intent on making things complicated.

 

[Trek DJ]

To further clarify (instead of ranting )

The rankings are:

TR= Tour Racer
BR1= Businessman racer 1
BR2= Businessman racer 2 (level 2, slower than BR1)
BR3= Businessman racer 3 (like a cat. 4 in the states)
ER= Entry Racer
FR= Feminine racer

There is a lot of crossover though. For example, if you look at the last results from the Fuji HC, you see that almost half of the BR1 racers placed better than TR racers (with exception of top 8 or so). BR2 guys also would have placed higher than a majority of TR.

 

[Phil]

Pete or Specialized, do you know how the JBCF relates to the JCRC? Are they rival organizations? Do they complement each other? Is JBCF considered a higher level than JCRC?

 

[Edogawakikkoman]

All our better than best riders have left JCRC and moved onto JBCF

SEO have a semi-pro team called SEO RACING. We've had one rider progress from there to the Bridgestone pro team.

Our best S class rider has recently decided not to do JCRC anymore and had his first ER race a week or so ago and came 3rd. I think that put him in BR1 for his next race.

This is the reason I think the S class of JCRC seems slower this year than previous years... racers are moving on to JBCF.

I guess JCRC is really just an introduction into racing. (low amateur).

JCRC is fast and hard enough for me!

Going to try and get to the start of the Ogawa race this Sunday.

 

[Phil]

Thanks for the extra info, Pete. Guessing they are associated with the JCF （日本自転車競技連盟） as the team members have to be registered with the latter.

Should add a link to this from the Racing FAQs thread...