New to the sport.

Patrick1.0

Hi there, without wanting to bore any of you who read this thread, I'll try and come straight to the point.


I've always been in love with cycling but it isn't until a month ago that I starting taking the sport at all seriously. I am now 19 years old and I realise that things get away from you pretty quickly and that you only have a short period of time to make a success of yourserlf. I go out and ride on my own - I always trained on my own when I was an athlete, so the habit has stuck - but have already been pressed by almost everybody I know to join a club and do things that way. At the moment though, I don't feel comfortable with people suggesting that I should be regularly time trialling. When I gave up athletics I had a year of doing nothing, training wise, and have only got a few weeks of training under my belt.


I can manage 60 - 70 mile training rides and I have always loved the high hills around where I live (I am only 5.9 and 9 stone 6 pounds) but as I said earlier, I am uncomfortable with the idea of putting myself into serious competition in a time trial (something that is completely alien to my body) but that's the only advice I seem to be getting from those I know who cycle at all seriously.

What would your own advice be? My personal opinion is that I should work on building up my strength and improving my best ability which is climbing, but like I say, it's in conflict with pretty much everybody who has offered any help. Any comments will be taken onboard.

boybiker

I would suggest that you should do some time trails because its the one event where you are not out to prove anything to anyone, but once you have done it you have then got a target against which you can judge your gradual improvement.
I don't like timetrails myself, i find them painful and monotonous but like I said they do give you a useful benchmark.
Sorry I will go away now and stop talking gibberish. :roll:

Eurostar

I suppose if you have enough self-discipline you don't need to race other people. But you still need targets and a planned tranining programme if you're going to get anywhere. So you could join a club and train with them without doing any TTs if you like. How are you going to get training advice if you don't join a club? You could just get yourself some books and a power meter and do everything on your own, but why not get advice from experienced people? If you carry on riding on your own you might be missing out on some basic info about your technique.

Kléber

If you don't want to time trial, don't. Sounds like you'd be better suited to road racing, so stick to this and find a club to match. Also, time trials also tend to be for older riders, the majority of entrants are 40+.

So get a good club with a nice vibe, one where the membership is looking outwards for new members and tries to help newcomers.

mrushton

The advantage of riding with a 'good' club is that you learn how to ride in a bunch. I used to ride on my own and consequently when I did come to ride in a group I p****d people off as I was freewheeling,accelerating/slowing down etc without realising it. However you need a group of like minded people NOT a group who ride all over the road and use every session to batter one another senseless - that comes later. When group riding is done well it's a joy to be in there, but a nightmare if it's done badly.

Tom Butcher

You can train with others without joining a club - chain gangs are normally open to whoever turns up. Assuming you come from a running background I think that lends itself more to individual training - in cycling, especially for road racing - there are advantages in riding with others.

Jez mon

I would look for some groups to go out with locally before entering your first TT. It's nice to know where you stand against other riders before entering a formal competition, it's also important to get the hang of bunch riding before entering a race. I would look online for some local cycling clubs and maybe go for some rides (admittedly this can be a daunting experiance, but it does get better). I would however, send them an e-mail before going out with them, apart from anything else, if it's a very serious racing club, they won't want really a newbie going out with them and slowing them down. A lot of clubs however, run beginners/slower rides which would be good to go on.

As for racing etc. it can be quite difficult to get into, partly because you need to be quite fit, and partly because it often requires you to plan weekends 3 weeks in advance. However, antother one of the advantages in joining a club is that you get to know how fit you need to be and they give you an occasional push to get racing!

So in summery, I would highly recommend you join a club, you get to learn how to ride in a group, you'll find the miles start flying by, you'll get to see how you compare to other cyclists and you'll get good advice on the matter of racing/training. As to what club you join, I would recommends joining one with a good mix of racers, TTers and poeple who just ride for fun.