I happened to get bumped up to Intermediate after the first afternoon session. It was my third track day at Mid O this year and I think it helped my pace immensely to be at a familiar track. This is my first track year and Monday was my 9th day this year. Previously I have ridden weekends at NCBIKE, Putnam, Summit-Shenandoah, and Mid O. Now that I have tasted Intermediate, I love it. With that being said, I still think I will run Novice on any new tracks so that I can learn the line under guidance without jamming up other riders. After my first afternoon Novice session, my coach kept me on and asked if I wanted to run Intermediate behind him. Hell yeah! I could definitely identify a few riders that I think would benefit from being bumped back down to Novice to learn the track better. I would say the top third of the Novice group were a bit faster at that track than the slowest third of the Intermediate riders. If you feel like you should move up to Intermediate, ask a coach to follow you and they will let you know.
