Winning a road race

DavidJB

Pseudonym wrote:

not too old by a long shot, but on 75 miles a week you'll be lucky to hang on to the bunch until the end of the race, let alone win....

Seriously, at this time of year you should be knocking out that kind of distance on a single day. I know there will be loads of replies now from people saying how they won a premier calendar race on 20 miles a week, but realistically, you need to be doing double what you are doing now and mixing up the effort levels as well.....

Cool story bro. 75 miles every ride...best training EVER :roll:

t.m.h.n.e.t

DavidJB wrote:

Pseudonym wrote:

not too old by a long shot, but on 75 miles a week you'll be lucky to hang on to the bunch until the end of the race, let alone win....

Seriously, at this time of year you should be knocking out that kind of distance on a single day. I know there will be loads of replies now from people saying how they won a premier calendar race on 20 miles a week, but realistically, you need to be doing double what you are doing now and mixing up the effort levels as well.....

Cool story bro. 75 miles every ride...best training EVER :roll:

It's pretty obvious that isn't what he said.

Herbsman

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

DavidJB wrote:

Pseudonym wrote:

not too old by a long shot, but on 75 miles a week you'll be lucky to hang on to the bunch until the end of the race, let alone win....

Seriously, at this time of year you should be knocking out that kind of distance on a single day. I know there will be loads of replies now from people saying how they won a premier calendar race on 20 miles a week, but realistically, you need to be doing double what you are doing now and mixing up the effort levels as well.....

Cool story bro. 75 miles every ride...best training EVER :roll:

It's pretty obvious that isn't what he said.

Maybe he's on drugs and is suffering a delusional episode.

amaferanga

BigMat wrote:

I ride maybe 130/140 miles per week, the majority being commutes to work and back (10 miles each way) and can compete at 4th cat - in fact I find myself more comfortable at longer road races (100km) then hour long crits - seem to get stronger as the race goes on. A lot depends on your underlying physiology I think. Some people will need to ride hundreds of miles a week and do 75 mile training rides, others will get by on what they can realistically fir in to their busy lives (I'm sure I'd be better if I could do more miles / longer rides!)

If you're competitive in 4th Cat races then why are you still a 4th Cat? :?

alex1rob

So how many miles should you be riding? I'm doing about 130 per week and could ride pretty comfortably in the cat 4

okgo

Down to individual.

You could win a 4th cat crit on 50 miles a week as long as the intensity was right. In fact I reckon 2 x hour threshold type efforts a week would have been fine training for 4th cat crits.

oldwelshman

okgo wrote:

Down to individual.

You could win a 4th cat crit on 50 miles a week as long as the intensity was right. In fact I reckon 2 x hour threshold type efforts a week would have been fine training for 4th cat crits.

Hm may be possible but then they would be fucked riding a 3rd cat race with 50 miles a week

okgo

Honestly I didn't do much more qaulity training that 50 miles a week. If that. The rest was pointless commuting. Didn't do me any harm at 4th or 3rd level.

amaferanga

Winning a 3rd/4th Cat race often comes down to who has the best 30s - 1min sprint since the racing is more often than not very negative. So if you are blessed with a good sprint then all you'd need to do is ride smartly in the bunch and then get yourself into a good position on the final lap. So some folk could do well with ~50 miles a week of quality training.

P_Tucker

Winning a 3/4 race usually comes down to who's prepared to risk £4k of bike and a potentially serious injury in the arena of death that is the last km of a chipper race. I've seen VULTURES circling Castle Combe FFS.

Also the ability to put out about 22ow for an hour, plus good 30/60s power as above.

lawrences

If I'm 19 I've been rowing my whole life but have never raced my road bike am I also cat4? Or am I some kind of junior category?

okgo

At 18 you become an adult in the UK, so yes you'll be a 4th Cat. Not sure what rowing has to do with it though?

lawrences

okgo wrote:

At 18 you become an adult in the UK, so yes you'll be a 4th Cat. Not sure what rowing has to do with it though?

Ok.

The rowing part was to give an idea of general fitness level, Though I'm sure I will be one of the slow ones for a while.

okgo

Depends if you're a good rower or not

Quite a few rowers do well in cycling, but as a general rule of thumb rowers tend to be large, and large and cycling are hard work (I know this and I'm no rower), so to really succeed in hilly long stuff would probably be tougher for a 6,3 14 stone rower than smashing crits?

lawrences

okgo wrote:

Depends if you're a good rower or not

Quite a few rowers do well in cycling, but as a general rule of thumb rowers tend to be large, and large and cycling are hard work (I know this and I'm no rower), so to really succeed in hilly long stuff would probably be tougher for a 6,3 14 stone rower than smashing crits?

Lucky for me I'm a shit rower then still 6' 3 but I only weigh 75kg so too light to be a good rower and too heavy to be a lightweight rower.