How much do you win?

Johnpsanderson

I don't tend to take myself too seriously so when I was once asked by my girlfriends friend: "have you won lots of bike races then?" I wasn't too upset that my answer had to be: "no, none, in fact i haven't ever won anything". Which was a bit of a lie actually, as i'd once won a prime in a crit. But I wasn't going to go through the tedious process of explaining what a prime was....

Anyway - the point of this is: how much is success spread out across the field? I guess in road racing it is defined by the race - no-one becomes a 2nd cat without at least some form of result. But what about 4th cat racing - or time trials? And if it's a select few, it then begs the question - why are the rest of us playing at it?

A personal postscript to this is - since the question was first asked i've achieved a little more to crow about. Thank god for handicap awards! :-D

jgsi

Johnpsanderson wrote:

I don't tend to take myself too seriously so when I was once asked by my girlfriends friend: "have you won lots of bike races then?" I wasn't too upset that my answer had to be: "no, none, in fact i haven't ever won anything". Which was a bit of a lie actually, as i'd once won a prime in a crit. But I wasn't going to go through the tedious process of explaining what a prime was....

Anyway - the point of this is: how much is success spread out across the field? I guess in road racing it is defined by the race - no-one becomes a 2nd cat without at least some form of result. But what about 4th cat racing - or time trials? And if it's a select few, it then begs the question - why are the rest of us playing at it?

A personal postscript to this is - since the question was first asked i've achieved a little more to crow about. Thank god for handicap awards! :-D

or indeed for age categories.. .. but that apart just doing it just for the sport of it and a reason to keep buying kit for the bike.

acidstrato

i won a 4th cat race and that was the last race I got points in

SBezza

Not done much road racing, but I have won at least one TT since I started 3 years ago. Road racing has an element of luck involved as well, which might not always go in your way.

With a TT alot of riders either try and beat age standards, or just try and beat their PB's, most of them probably realise they will never be an event winner, some will be unbeatable on age standard awards though. They just enjoy the social side of racing as much as the racing itself no doubt.

greeny12

Unless you're racing on a day license, I guess the thing about 4th Cats is you can only ever win once, after which you automatically move up to 3rd Cat with your 10 points.

So in the course of a season quite a few people get the chance to win, as they improve/get fitter and the better riders move up and out. This certainly seemded to be the case inthe Surrey League races anyway

I also know of quite a few 3rd Cats who content themselves with a win a season but make sure they don't do too well, so they stay nicely in that category instead of the even more competitive 2nd Cats - the cycling equivalent of massaging your golf handicap!

ozzzyosborn206

this year i won 2 road races, 3 crits and a handful of TTs all just local ones though, have been in the team to help several team mates to win this season, one being mid pack with a team mate on second to last corner to leading him from there to the front to take the win, and in the southern region champs we dragged the break back to set up our teammate for the win, which was almost as good as winning ourself, this is part of the reason i raced it as i knew i probably wouldn't win it myself i knew we had one of if not the strongest rider in our team

Richj

In 3 years of racing (I'm 31) 3/4 cat road races all over 50 miles I never got a single point. Would often finish just outside the top 10 but when it came to the sprint I'd just go backwards. This year I did one 4th Cat only crit, it was only over 40mins and to my surprise I won it. Entered more crits this year and found I was a lot more competitive placing a few top 10's and a top five in a 2/3/4. Think I've found my niche

So all in all cycling has been a rather unsuccessful hobby.

Talking to a club mate (who is currently a 3rd Cat) he has raced for over 25 years since his teens, he's been up and down the rankings several times getting up to a 1st Cat license (three times I think) when elites didn't exist. I assumed he would have had a lot of wins over that time, but he's only had 16 and 8 of those were in one of his come back seasons when he was a 3rd cat and moved up to 1st in one season. Made me realise wins are rather hard to come by.

FransJacques

A guy who started racing recently posted his blog on Amateur Race forum. He made a good point about playing to your strengths in terms of course. I like medium hilly courses that make a selection. I hate really hilly course cuz I'm 83kgs but I don't like fully flat courses like Flattingdon (why is 'Hill' in the name?) where only those who are willing to risk their health and the health of their competitors wins.

I do like car circuits like Thruxton which have long enough straights to at least make people hurt. I've won the grand total of 2 races in my life. 1 a 4th cat, 1 a 3rd cat. I have a few 3rds. That's road. CX is harder b/c it's balls off the full time and the creme rises to the top. It much easier to sit in on the road and do well than in CX or MTB. CX and MTB are threshold sports not unlike a TT. But at least there are great races within races in CX.

Lots of words, not much content. But if you want to get a good placing, I can't think of anything easier than a Band 4 or 5 Cat 4 only race. A first year rider in tennis shoes culd place top 4.

amaferanga

Never won owt (not BC anyway - won a couple of TLI races, but they don't really count). But had several top tens this season in going from 4th - 2nd Cat. I'm too much of a grafter when I get into breaks so never save anything for the finish (I'd rather a break stayed away and I got 3rd or 4th than save myself and get caught by the bunch) and not really a sprinter so unlikely to win a bunch sprint, though I can usually get something if it's an uphill finish especially.

Seasons winnings this year probably exceeded £200 though....

peejay78

i win extremely rarely at open level in a time trial, tending to avoid chippers. i win frequently at club level.

it's got to be about the times, really, and the steady improvement, year on year. i take great succour from results in really difficult races, like the National Hillclimb Championships, where a top 25 finish is worth far more than a 1st place in an evening ten.

Beyond that i ride and race because i love cycling.

wjcrombie

i have been racing 3 seasons now and have won at least once a season. Last season was my worst with just one winter crit victory due to a broken arm destroying my season. The year before, I won a RR, the nocture 2/3/4 crit and a few other minor things....
In reality with most road races only 10 of the starters have a chance of victory, with everyone else trying for some points. I usually do about 15 Road races and crits in a year so managing one or 2 victories in a season is not to bad....although some people may argue that if i raced more regularly i would probably end up 1st cat and winning would become a LOT less regular then...

Herbsman

What was that blog post about 99.5% of bike racers being losers? Not entirely accurate if you look at an entire season, but the point was that only a small percentage of racers can be winners, thus most people who race will not win. If it was only about winning though there'd be no point though would there?

oldhairylegs

I promised my club-mates that I would finally shave my legs if I ever got a win.

Pretty unlikely to happen in this lifetime at least, although I did come dangerously close to having to break out the razor with a 4th place and a few other points finishes this season.

But as others have said, we do it cos it's a great sport - and we love it.....

okgo

I think it depends on organizer and series and what not.

I won the 4th race at Hillingdon today and nobody gets anything. There is a Bike Fit on offer from Wyndymilla which goes to a random person in the start list, so maybe it just differs over the year and series you enter?

sunburntknees

okgo wrote:

I think it depends on organizer and series and what not.

I won the 4th race at Hillingdon today and nobody gets anything. There is a Bike Fit on offer from Wyndymilla which goes to a random person in the start list, so maybe it just differs over the year and series you enter?

So they had 50 entrants at £9.50 a pop, plus series registration fees and they didn't give you a penny for winning? That's a bit tight!

Congratulations by the way!

jibberjim

sunburntknees wrote:

So they had 50 entrants at £9.50 a pop, plus series registration fees and they didn't give you a penny for winning? That's a bit tight!

Prize money is for the series, and is pretty generous.

bexslack

I suspect I'm the exception to the norm in winning far more in prize money than I pay in entry fees, but that's really only half the story!!!... If you knew what I spent on:-

1) ensuring I have the best equipment
2) my coach
3) osteopath and physio appointments
4) travel and accommodation

You'd discover that I'm probably more "in debt" to the sport than the rest of you!

xixang

my racing "victories" have consisted of 2nd (out of 6) in a 4th only, then 2nd again in a 3/4 race a couple of weeks later (mainly due to a crash and restart). Since then lucky to actually finish anywhere near the front but stuck with a 3rd cat licence even though I only ever got it by luck in the first place. In fact if I'm being honest I struggle to actually finish road races these days despite my best efforts with training, and yes I know how to train as I'm a qualified ABCC coach - I blame physical limitations i.e. wheezy chest (doctors description). Both my "results" were in crits. Oh and I did win a TLI national crit championship several years ago, but there was only 2 in my age cat :oops:

Pross

I've won various club awards but never come close in an open event. Even when I felt I was an OK rider I used to be happy to be in there at the end but points only went to 6th place then so even harder to get anything. 9th in a Go Race last year is my best official result but I did win the club junior road race title when one of the other club riders went on to be a national champion and rode the Giro!

celbianchi

I have been racing for 8 years now and have won 12 events (mix of road, TT and hillclimbs). Last season was my most successful with 7 of those 12 wins racked up. So if we exclude last season then 5 wins over 7 seasons tells the story of how infrequently most of us get our hands in the air.

Rodrego Hernandez

Time trials rarely have a good prize list, products donated by sponsors / benefactors but they are cheap to enter.

Road races are more to enter and at a high level are good money. I've raced in the UK and between a team of 4 split several hundred pounds after a 2 day stage race. The same can be said for races abroad although the primes do tend to be better there. International races can have great prizes, have been in a split of a £5k pot after one stage race but these are tough to win.

On the whole, local races are terrible for prizes, even the Smithfield crit only has prize money for the Elite race.

If we were in it for the money, we'd all have packed in years ago!

wjcrombie

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

On the whole, local races are terrible for prizes, even the Smithfield crit only has prize money for the Elite race.

If we were in it for the money, we'd all have packed in years ago!

Not quite true. The smithfield 2/3/4 race had £250 for the winner.... admittedly it was quite expensive to enter, but at least the winner was well rewarded.

I do agree that the prize money is not exactly good enough to earn a living on...

ozzzyosborn206

rodrego, you must have race at a fairly high level to have had a share of a 5k pot?

Rodrego Hernandez

wjcrombie wrote:

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

On the whole, local races are terrible for prizes, even the Smithfield crit only has prize money for the Elite race.

If we were in it for the money, we'd all have packed in years ago!

Not quite true. The smithfield 2/3/4 race had £250 for the winner.... admittedly it was quite expensive to enter, but at least the winner was well rewarded.

I do agree that the prize money is not exactly good enough to earn a living on...

The last couple of times I went to it there was nothing for the 2,3,4 race so it's good that they give prize money now.