Am I ready for racing?

sturedd

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?

sunburntknees

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12698905

sturedd

That post gave a lot of advice!! I might have to read through it again!!

disgruntledgoat

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.

fastercyclist

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

sturedd

disgruntledgoat wrote:

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

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.