Moving to road next season.

YellaBelly

As per the title, I'm going to be having a pop at some road racing next season, moving over from a couole of years of racing XC mtb. I've never raced on the road, although most of my training for the mtb was done on a road bike, and I've ridden chaingangs with other guys in my club so Im not totally devoid of roadbike experience.

Mostly I'm looking for recommendations on a decent training book. I was working to Joe Friels MTB Training Bible, and I know thereis a road version too. Whilst I have got on quite well with his program and enjoyed the mtb version, I read alot suggesting it is a little dated. Also, whilst there are bound to be some differences, I imagine the bulk of training info in his road and mtb version are the same. I cant decide if thats good or bad, since it would tailor training for the road but base it on the same principles Im used too.

Any tips for tweaking training into a road focus? What do I need to be aiming for (roughly) as a Cat 4 rider? Any advice for moving into road racing? I think Ive got the legs to not get blown out the back, but tactical nouse? Not a bit!

Thanks

imposter2.0

Depending on the level you are racing XC, you may find you are already on the pace. As for the tactical nouse, you can't really learn it without doing it, unfortunately. Fortunately, there isn't much tactical nouse going on at 4th cat level..

ollie51

Talking as someone who converted from XC to road, the biggest thing I can recommend you to do is to do some time trialing. I was and still am absolutely shocking at any form of steady state effort. I have absolutely no problems at creating a gap in race with some hills in it, but maintaining that gap is an issue. That said, most mtb'ers are the polar opposite to me and have comparatively better FTP/5 min power. In which case you'll want to hone your top end a bit more, XC rarely has any big anaerobic efforts in it, it's a very aerobic orientated discipline. Whereas the critical bits of road racing, at least at the lower levels, are generally anaerobic (i.e. sub minute efforts).

Also depending on the level of XC you raced at, get used to doing big efforts on tired legs! You'll probably fare a bit better in crit racing to start with, I definitely did. Make sure you have the endurance to do 3 hours of racing, this also makes nutrition a bit more important.

YellaBelly

madasahattersley wrote:

as a 4th cat (NEVER "cat 4" )

Thanks, I'd have given myself away as muddy MTBer before I'd even turned a crank!

Imposter wrote:

there isn't much tactical nouse going on at 4th cat level..

I'll be in good company then!

Ollie thanks for the in-depth reply about the differences between the two disciplines. It will be interesting to see what areas of fitness show through compared to pure roadies, and where exactly it's lacking too.

danlikesbikes

As others I think your in a good position as you sound like you have a good mix of fitness from riding and racing your MTB and your road riding and chain gang sessions.

Biggest thing for me moving over to road racing from MTB's was really 2 parts. Firstly I'm MTB's used to find it's me on my own just racing and chasing down others where as road racing can be slower at times (esp. at 4th level) as often people can/don't want to work to create a break or sting it out so learning when and who to go is key skill.

Secondly on an MTB course (& in training) I found the short sharp climbs a real hard effort and recovery times on the downs/single track/technical parts, these are great but on the road circuit I needed to build on the length of the effort and whilst I could draft a little there was very little room for recovery.

Think you'll find you got some good strengths and base fitness and perhaps you just need to work on tactics but if your good in groups you should be fine.

Good luck with the racing.