Road Racing

Ratface

Hi I am new to road racing and have a few fears, such as how to cope with traffic on the open roads, climbing and going down hill, when to change gears etc etc etc

Pretre

Unsure what you mean by "traffic on the open roads"? I'm unaware of any races that are held on roads that has the traffic still on them & I very much doubt they exist.

Try posting in the Training or Amateur Race forums

jibberjim

Pretre wrote:

Unsure what you mean by "traffic on the open roads"? I'm unaware of any races that are held on roads that has the traffic still on them & I very much doubt they exist.

There's lots of races on open roads with the traffic on them.

The traffic you don't really notice - you stay on your side of the carriageway cars coming towards you stay on their side - and the bunch shouts the presence of them in case anyone is overtaking.

You very rarely get cars overtaking the bunch or the bunch catching because of the convoy of cars in the race make that impossible. If there's a blockage on the road - you slow down, you should the warnings and let the lead car deal with it - you must never pass the lead car. But that's relatively unusual.

If you don't know how to climb, descend or when to change gear then you're probably not ready to race as there's nothing different there to when you're riding a bike anywhere else - join a cycling club.

Monty Dog

I think the OP is just confused regarding general road riding and actual racing

Pokerface

Pretre wrote:

Unsure what you mean by "traffic on the open roads"? I'm unaware of any races that are held on roads that has the traffic still on them & I very much doubt they exist.

You obviously haven't done any road races in the UK then. There's no such thing as 'closed road' races here unless you are on a circuit or a town centre crit!

But normally there is a lead and following car to the bunch. But the roads are still open to traffic.

To the OP - if you want to learn the basics of road racing, join a club and go on club/training runs. You'll learn most of what you need to know from that. The rest comes with experience.

Pross

Ratface wrote:

Hi I am new to road racing and have a few fears, such as how to cope with traffic on the open roads, climbing and going down hill, when to change gears etc etc etc

Assuming you mean racing then ignore traffic, make sure you stay on the correct side of the lane and leave the escort to do their job. Climbing - nothing to fear other than making sure you are fit enough to hold the pace on the climb, descending just hold your line and concentrate on the wheel in front whilst staying aware of anything further ahead of you. Change gears when you feel uncomfortable due to either struggling to turn the gear or spinning too fast. Don't get bogged down in too much thinking and just ride plus get some group riding experience if you don't already have any.

Anonymous

I think the OP meant general road riding rather than racing...