My first big fat race...

andysol

Aye there was a bit of glass on the far side of the track as well a plenty of stones and tree debris. Fortunatley i didn't suffer any "p----s".
Andy

bonkstrong

amaferanga wrote:

So how many laps did the OP last?

The OP wasn't there, he's racing on the 18th Feb event.

It sounds like it was a great day. It sounds like there was a fairly sizable bunch too for me to aim at sticking with, the nerves are starting to mix with a little excitiment now too.

bonkstrong

Well well well my fellow roadies, what a brilliant day it was on Saturday!!

I set off from home in calm wind and miserable rain and arrived at the circuit with a sunny sky and a "stiff" breeze (by "stiff" I mean it was bending the BMC racing flag at the start finish line horizontal, the very erect and proud looking wind sock also alluded to the fact it may also have been windy).

I got the bike out, pumped up the tyres, signed on and off I went to warm up 25 minutes before the start - I managed to get a couple of laps in before heading back the the Mrs and car for a last minute gulp of water before joining the other 14 Go-Cat riders lined up at the start. We had a 1 minute start over the 4th cats and kept them at bay over the first 2 laps. I then tagged on them for laps 3 and 4 (Mrs. says 5 but i'm sure it was only 4) before getting spat out when going into the headwind. I joined a small bunch that also go spat out and we rode together with a few dropping out on the way. I finished a lap down on the main bunch in the end and can't wait to get out again.

My biggest mistake of the day was forgetting to put my bottle cages back on before the race so I had to do the full thing without any liquid - not easy for a large unfit fella to do!

As daft as it sounds I'm really glad I entered a race so unprepared, it's given me a great target to aim for this season and I know what specific areas I need to work on. Riding in the bunch I was comfortable doing 170bpm, but after coming into the headwind I got pushed out into it on the wrong side and had to do the entire straight at 198bmp, I couldn't recover and was off the back at the next acceleration. I didn't warm up for long enough or hard enough, I didn't have enough liquids, I couldn't keep my position in the bunch well enough to take full advantage of it, I'm still 2 stones too heavy to haul ass in a race.

But all those things above are easy enough to work on. I've joined a club and will be out on the chaingangs. I want to be at least finishing in the bunch by the end of the season and I now think it's possible.

Thanks to everyone there for being so friendly and everyone on here for the advice. And a HUGE thanks to the Velo29 guys for putting such a great event on. I'll gladly take the trip up from Leeds to do it all over again!!

thetool

Sounds like you had a blast and admire the way you went about your first race.(Very funny article) have my first crit race end of April,hope I have as much fun as you did.

islwyn

Hey dude well done for biting the bullet! That's great - I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm still at that ooo errr ummm stage... My club's holding some 'Race Training' events at Hillingdon for novice's like me at the end of March so I hope after that I'll be up for it!

Glad you're looking forward to the next one.

Herbsman

I don't see 'hill' mentioned anywhere on this thread. Does your weight really matter much if you're racing on a flat circuit? Obviously being slimmer will make you more aerodynamic but if I were you I would probably concentrate 100% on training before even thinking about weight loss; with sufficient training you will lose weight anyway.

bonkstrong

Herbsman wrote:

I don't see 'hill' mentioned anywhere on this thread. Does your weight really matter much if you're racing on a flat circuit? Obviously being slimmer will make you more aerodynamic but if I were you I would probably concentrate 100% on training before even thinking about weight loss; with sufficient training you will lose weight anyway.

The goal is to have fun racing, of course weight loss will happen as a by-product... a very welcome by-product I might add!

I'm sure a few pounds here or there won't hurt or impede performance at this level much, but my fighting weight is around 13 stones and I'm currently at 16 stones. It's like strapping a 20kg weight to your bike and seeing how it feels to pull away from the lights. Once up to speed it doesn't matter at all but the constant braking/acceleration/braking/acceleration really takes it out of you - having ridden bikes whilst both thin and fat, I can assure you it's easier when you weigh less - obviously it makes more difference on the hills, but from what I've found a flat circuit doesn't necessarily mean you're cruising at a constant speed..

Herbsman

BONKSTRONG wrote:

Herbsman wrote:

I don't see 'hill' mentioned anywhere on this thread. Does your weight really matter much if you're racing on a flat circuit? Obviously being slimmer will make you more aerodynamic but if I were you I would probably concentrate 100% on training before even thinking about weight loss; with sufficient training you will lose weight anyway.

The goal is to have fun racing, of course weight loss will happen as a by-product... a very welcome by-product I might add!

I'm sure a few pounds here or there won't hurt or impede performance at this level much, but my fighting weight is around 13 stones and I'm currently at 16 stones. It's like strapping a 20kg weight to your bike and seeing how it feels to pull away from the lights. Once up to speed it doesn't matter at all but the constant braking/acceleration/braking/acceleration really takes it out of you - having ridden bikes whilst both thin and fat, I can assure you it's easier when you weigh less - obviously it makes more difference on the hills, but from what I've found a flat circuit doesn't necessarily mean you're cruising at a constant speed..

True, I was a cycle courier and even 7kg packages would make it noticeably harder to accelerate from traffic lights... never even considered that aspect of racing!

cyco2

It's a pity that in order to encourage riders of your size and enthusiasm they should have Big Races. Where under weights have to wear a weight vest so every body is say,16 stone. It think it would be a great fun way to get new totally unprepared riders in to racing again. I guess somebody could work out a factor for how much weight you carry for how wide you are to get over the windbag resistance. Lots of permeations can be had with Big Races I think.