Thinking about racing

[Deleted]

Afternoon, got back into cycling after a 12 year absence last October and joined the club. Have really enjoyed the Saturday morning rides and picked up a lot from other people in the club. Did the Ride of the Falling leaves and one or two other sportives and loved it.

I want to get more into cycling and read the posts on here about the racing that happens and the section on getting a licence.

Can anyone give me any advice regarding the races, what level of fitness is required, or anything else that could help?

I am going to start attending the chaingangs in the new year for a start...

[daniel]

There are no hard and fast rules in regards to appropriate levels for racing apart from be hard and fast.

The main difference between club rides and races is the change in speed and intensity. Certainly do the Tuesday and Thursday chaingangs, if you are comfortable (it’s all relative) with the pace and the riding in a group at that speed then your general fitness and riding ability is suitable for racing.

However the chaingang is not so great at preparing you for the quick shifts in speed which happen in a race, for this only races themselves or specific interval training can really prepare you.

If you have a turbo trainer then this is ideal for intervals (there are several threads on this subject) . For races I would recommend doing the chaingang as soon as possible to get comfortable with fast group riding then if you can do some winter races at either Hillingdon or Hog Hill to see how you find them, you should then be able to gage what you need to do to improve for the start of the season.

[Deleted]

Thanks Daniel, got the turbo-trainer which will start working overtime given the weather.

See you at the chaingangs.

[andyw]

Agree with daniel, the hardest part of racing is not the average speed or the distance, but the constant shifts in pace from very slow to very fast. Although the average speed may look comfortable at 24mph or so, very little time is spent riding at 24mph - you'll often find yourself riding at 18mph and then having to accelerate immediately to 35mph, repeated ad infinitum.
As a newbie you'll be racing with the 4th cats. While the average speed may be similar to races in higher cats, this is often due to not having the same variation in speed and the highest speeds you hit will certainly be lower.
Basically, if you're not getting dropped on the chaingang 4th cat races will be frustratingly slow, but you'll struggle to cope with the accelerations of higher cat racing bw riding just chaingangs - that will require racing and specific training as dan mentioned.
So my advice is to get racing, the sooner you start the sooner you'll know what you need to do. Don't be tempted to think that you need to do more training though if you want to be competitive - the quality of your training is way more important than the quantity. If you've already ridden sportives, you'll have stamina to spare, if you want to race you'll need to work on your speed.

[Deleted]

i disagree slightly with the above only in that you're doing the chaingangs a slight disservice.

I've stated this in previous posts i know but the chaingangs are what you decide to make of them. You can suck everyone else's wheel and take no turns or you can do the complete opposite and keep the pace high, do all the work, power up the climbs etc and have a quality workout. Given the beauty of this variation my advice would be to do chaingang after chaingang if you're just starting out

it's horses for courses really because i know Malc just used his turbo and had a great start in racing but you need to have a lot of determination and willpower if you're just going to do all your training by yourself in the garage! Chaingangs are good fun to boot - perfect way to train.

I personally didn't worry about using a turbo until wanting to move from 3rd to 2nd

[Deleted]

I think my first target will be the chaingangs. Am I right in thinking the Wednesday evening is the more beginner friendly option and then when comfortable with that moving to the other evenings?

I have been using the Turbo when the weather has been rubbish and doing some intervals like the Sufferfest workout. Had a quiet two weeks as been in Africa for Xmas, but from next week i'll aim to start getting to the chaingangs weather permitting.

Thanks for all the advice.

[andyw]

go straight into the Tuesday/Thursday chaingangs - faster, more disciplined, better training.

There's no better training than getting dropped!