Am I ready for racing?

sturedd
sturedd Posts: 26
edited May 2010 in Amateur race
Back in the day about **cough** 17/18 years ago I used to do road time trialling and then turned to the dark side and got into mountain bike racing!! However I have recently got back into road riding and want to start pushing myself again. I want to give road racing a shot, I can currently do 40-60 miles at an average speed of 18mph, on my own, (and a 10 mile in about 30 minutes) would I be able to compete in a Go-Race or Cat 4 at that kind of speed? I understand that the lower category races are shorter and you can obviously travel faster in a group, so I figure my average would increase in a group. What do you think?

Comments

  • sturedd
    sturedd Posts: 26
    That post gave a lot of advice!! I might have to read through it again!!
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Do you have a racing license? Can you complete the distance? Reasonably confident you won't kill anyone with your bunch skills?

    Then you're ready to give it a go. Jump in with both feet.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • fastercyclist
    fastercyclist Posts: 396
    sturedd wrote:
    Back in the day about **cough** 17/18 years ago I used to do road time trialling and then turned to the dark side and got into mountain bike racing!! However I have recently got back into road riding and want to start pushing myself again. I want to give road racing a shot, I can currently do 40-60 miles at an average speed of 18mph, on my own, (and a 10 mile in about 30 minutes) would I be able to compete in a Go-Race or Cat 4 at that kind of speed? I understand that the lower category races are shorter and you can obviously travel faster in a group, so I figure my average would increase in a group. What do you think?

    Yes
    The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome
  • sturedd
    sturedd Posts: 26
    Do you have a racing license? Can you complete the distance? Reasonably confident you won't kill anyone with your bunch skills?

    Then you're ready to give it a go. Jump in with both feet.

    No License held at the moment, Distance, yes I think so (What sort of distances do they cover?). Bunch Skills, I am used to riding with a club group of about 10-12 riders, I hopefully wouldn't kill anyone!!

    Cheers.
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    sturedd wrote:
    No License held at the moment, Distance, yes I think so (What sort of distances do they cover?).
    If you are just testing the water, you'd prob be best in getting a "day license" (c.£10) to race on until you know whether it's really for you........but be aware if you are good enough to get a placing (top 10), you don't get any license points with a day license. Full racing license with BC membership is c.£70 (and lasts until December only).

    Go-Race and 4ths only races are usually 1 hour max so shouldn't be a problem provided you can handle changes of pace (18mph->30mph) rather than the average speed (23-25mph) in general.