Advice on getting into crits and road racing

dru

Hi people,

Looking at maybe dipping my toe in the crit and or road racing scene this season.

Does anyone have any good reading material for advice about what level of fitness is needed etc for these sorts of races or is it best just to turn up and see how you get on?

Also, I'm training at the moment for the TT season so does anyone have any good turbo sessions that would benefit road racing as well?

Is is a case of short, sharp intervals are good on a Turbo to replicate the efforts needed in a road or crit race?

In addition to week night turbo/intervals I'm also doing the long/steady club rides on the weekend.

If it helps I am riding/training with a powertap rear wheel.

Cheers and thanks,

Dru.

Pross

Just turn up. Your club have done some Go Race or 4th cat only 'crits' on Maindee track the last couple of season and JIF and / or Forza do a lot of crits down at Llandow which sometimes include Go Race or 4th only. I did the Go Race at Llandow the season before last as my first race in 14 years, it split to pieces on the first lap and by the end the biggest group was 3 riders so it ended up being almost like a time trial in any case!

As for the training, I'll let others give their advice on that!

dru

Pross wrote:

Just turn up. Your club have done some Go Race or 4th cat only 'crits' on Maindee track the last couple of season and JIF and / or Forza do a lot of crits down at Llandow which sometimes include Go Race or 4th only. I did the Go Race at Llandow the season before last as my first race in 14 years, it split to pieces on the first lap and by the end the biggest group was 3 riders so it ended up being almost like a time trial in any case!

As for the training, I'll let others give their advice on that!

Yes, I missed the go races at the end of last year as it clashed with Velodrome Track Sessions/Accreditation at the time. I'm hoping that Jif will be running the 'lung openers' at Llandow which I beleive are novice friendly some time in early March.

Johnpsanderson

Find a local chaingang and get stuck - this way you'll be training with your peers (and quite likely riders who are at a higher level than 'novice') and riding at something akin to race pace without having to travel to a race, pay entry fees, etc. Plus there's less likelihood of a crash. Adopt the same approach you would with a race - but with more honesty - i.e. if you can't take a turn on the front in the chaingang without blowing up tell the other riders beforehand and try and stick with them as long as you can. Every time you do it you'll get stronger, be able to take more turns, start dishing out the pain to everyone else, etc,etc.

ilsassocycling

Just get involved mate!

Get yourself a good strong base over the winter and layer the power and speed stuff after that, think of it as foundations for a house. I seen and worked with many riders who wonder why they die at the end of longer races or later in the year.

Get in with a decent club run/chaingang and learn how to ride in a group, good group riding skills can hide your lack of fitness. Don't hang round at the back of races as you won't be hanging around very long, get up the front half and get used to being there, give yourself small goals each race and don't expect to finish the first few, it's all part of the experience!

If you can get to some go race and 4th races then all the better, crits would give you an insight into racing and give you a gauge of where you are and what you need to do. Once you've done a few and are finding your feet, get to a RR and do the same again...

Don't beat yourself up, enjoy it and just soak up as much as you can, learn learn learn and you could be surprised how quickly you get on...

Good luck and enjoy!

okgo

http://firstseasoncycling.blogspot.com/

mighyt give you some ideas on what to expect, I just started too.

oldwelshman

Hi Dru I answered this, sort of in another post you asked.
You have no need to ask here, you are in a perfect place to get all the advice and rides you need to go as far as you want cycling, even up to pro if you wish
Your club run chaingangs down the flats and from what I recal they do three different pace chaingangs.
You have very experienced "old " riders in your club such as Johnathan Rowles and Bernard Brown who have riddent at NAtional level before and have tonnes of knowledge, you even have the legendry Reg Pharao He got me involved almost 30 yeras ago and he is still around
On a saturday you could go for ride from the cycleadia cycle shop and there are some very strong riders there and experienced who will guide you.
On top of this you do the track sessions and you know Courtney who is one of the best and most experienced coaches around ( How do you think Matt won european medal and Luke got to ride with sky ) and he also rides the saturday rides.
You are in an enviable position to most so make the most of your resources there, I wish I was down there
If you speak nicely with Courtney you may even get a chance to go riding with some of thetop psos who have been training there recently, and I think they might still be for a week or two.

dru

so after a few weeks of training and turboing etc looks like I will be going over to andover for one of the races in February.

I've got a question about gearing, the road bike has been ridden with compact 50/34 and 11/28 cassette so far this winter. Should I run these ratios at the track race?

I've got access to 53/39 chainset and a few other cassette options (12-25) and (12-25)

Any thoughts?

okgo

Not had any issue with a compact and 11-25 or might even be a 12-25 at Hillingdon. You should be fine, but maybe ditch the 28 one for one of the others with closer ratios.

dru

okgo wrote:

Not had any issue with a compact and 11-25 or might even be a 12-25 at Hillingdon. You should be fine, but maybe ditch the 28 one for one of the others with closer ratios.

Thats great info - thanks (saves me changing the chainset and chain length)

okgo

Other people might say otherwise but I've never ran out of gears and I've gone well over 35 mph at hillingdon in the sprint.

acidstrato

you heard if the early llandow races will be held?

nothing on BC yet

dru

acidstrato wrote:

you heard if the early llandow races will be held?

nothing on BC yet

lots of people in the club (Ajax) where talking about it on the weekend but there is conflicting info coming from different people in JIF.

sounds like they are trying to organise some races at Maindy in March and then Llandow in April - will keep you posted if I hear any developments

SteveR_100Milers

Dru wrote:

acidstrato wrote:

you heard if the early llandow races will be held?

nothing on BC yet

lots of people in the club (Ajax) where talking about it on the weekend but there is conflicting info coming from different people in JIF.

sounds like they are trying to organise some races at Maindy in March and then Llandow in April - will keep you posted if I hear any developments

Ref my post elsewhere, I guess you know already about the Maindy training sessions. They are good TT training right now, though there is talk of some race simulation sessions; not sure what they did tonight as I didn't go.

If you are accredited then what about Newport Track League on Tuesday eves. £10 for your number, and £10 a race, it'll clear your lungs out for sure. Thursday SQT is also an excellent session that is open to the accredited public.

dru

Yup, I know all about the Maindy sessions, having ridden most of last Mondday night behind you althou I blew a few times (last wednesday also managed to do the early and late session and bagged another 44 miles of ride time)

The reliability ride on Sunday was fun, as was last nights training session. Ended up doing some skills including cornering and using part of the in field section at Maindy at speed, although not racing.

The usual 10 lap race at the end of the session was good, first thing I've done anythnig like that to be honest.
Started the last lap last, but came through strong to finish 5th.

Looking at my powertap data this morning, apparently I recorded over 100 surges during the drills and the race, no wonder I'm a bit stiff today!

Regarding Velodrome, I got accredited earlier in the winter and managed to go to quite a few sessions - the plan was to ride the velo when outside was too bad... trouble is, the weather outside (apart from 10 days ago with the cold snap) has been perfect so far.

Any plans on you coming down to do the 100 mile reliability on Sunday?

Johnpsanderson

On gear ratios - unless you need a low bottom gear for climbing i'd say ALWAYS go for the choice that gives you the closest ratios. I'd say you are very unlikely to run out of top gears for sprinting - and the close ratios will mean it's a lot easier to find exactly the gear you want rather than having to constantly flick up/down between two ratios that don't quite match what you want... Running compact chainset may allow you to use the smaller sprockets on the cassette, with closer ratios - running the 53/39 might may mean you end up at the other end of the cassette where the ratios change more between sprockets...

Pross

Did you ride llandow yesterday then Dru? If so, how did you get on?

dru

Pross wrote:

Did you ride llandow yesterday then Dru? If so, how did you get on?

Nope I'm afraid I didn't

I did do the 2up , 25 mile team time trial up Resolven thou instead as had already entered that with a friend

(so got an hours workout anyway!)

I'm looking to do the racing next weekend on the Sunday if the legs are up to it after the Saturday time trial I'm doing.

If not, then there is a Maindy event on the following Tuesday night that I will enter.

I have got an entry to the Abergavenny Handicap road race on April 1st thou.... that will be fun if thats my first road race!

Pross

Dru wrote:

Pross wrote:

Did you ride llandow yesterday then Dru? If so, how did you get on?

Nope I'm afraid I didn't

I did do the 2up , 25 mile team time trial up Resolven thou instead as had already entered that with a friend

(so got an hours workout anyway!)

I'm looking to do the racing next weekend on the Sunday if the legs are up to it after the Saturday time trial I'm doing.

If not, then there is a Maindy event on the following Tuesday night that I will enter.

I have got an entry to the Abergavenny Handicap road race on April 1st thou.... that will be fun if thats my first road race!

The handicaps are good first races. I did one as my first event back in 1990 when they were run by the other Aber club - lost my chain at the start line in the junior group but only had to ride a few miles on my own before I got into the 3rds. It's a shame we are only putting on one event this year as they always get a full field, I'll probably be there trying to help out in some way - I'm tempted to give Llandow a crack next week but I really hate racing there!