Am I ready for my first race

MozBiker

Hello everyone

This is my first post so please be patient while I get used to the forum and everything. A bit about me. I am 17, weigh 73kg, 184 cm. I started road cycling in January. Before I had done a bit of mountain biking and road cycling with my mountain bike.

So up till February I was just spinning around nothing serious. 50km max. So in March I started riding with a small group and a big group respectively. The big group rides were 12 min intervals at around 38kmph and I could keep pace. Everyone in my group got dropped except myself and another rider. This on a hill(part of the interval). So I have done a lot of group rides and am steady and confident in a group at high speeds.

So the question is am I ready to race yet? I am aiming for a race on 22nd October. I am following a training plan along with one of my riding partners(he has been cycling for many years including podium finishes and various KOM classifications). So I am training under his guidance. I have done a 101km ride at 32,9kmph(in June) with the mentioned friend and then a few weeks later a 112km solo ride at 28,7kmph.

I have done a 20 min FTP test and my FTP is around 260watts so this equates to about 3.56 watts/kg. I love riding fast and am a strong sprinter(I win about 90% of sprints against my mates). I have also done some reasonable climbing before and I include hill training in my training plan. My biggest climb is 370m. This was done from an altitude of 1641m up to 2011m. This climb was 12km long.

So with still 10 weeks left to train will I be ready to race? It is a 90km with around 40-50 riders. Biggest climb is 260m with a max gradient of 5-6%. Other than that the course is quite flat with a few small hills. It finishes with a 3km descent of -3%.

Would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, advice and criticism.

Thanks a lot!
MozBiker

maryka

Not sure where you're located but don't wait 10 weeks to start racing. Racing is about tactics, positioning, responding to surges, riding safely, being comfortable in the bunch. Your numbers look fine so just get stuck in with some crits and local races if you can, if you can do a handful of those between now and this main event you'll be better for it. Also if you're in/around London, get some race accreditation sessions done too, for your safety/skills as much as the safety of others.

fenix

Just get in there and get the experience. If you can average 20mph for 60 miles then you sound pretty fit. As Maryka says you have a lot to learn. Just getting the experience is what you need now. You should easily be able to sit in the bunch from what your figures say. Spend a race or two doing that and you'll be much happier come October.

MozBiker

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate it. I am located in Mozambique. There aren't any regular local races unfortunately. There was one earlier this year. So the next race is the one in October unfortunately.

The group I ride with good is nice to ride with. We are always trying to break away. On the hills we race each other up and we always sprint for road signs and try and attack and breakaway. Then we try and stay away from the others. This might help a bit for tactics but probably isn't the same as racing. But it's the best I can do now unfortunately.

Any ideas for what I can do to improve my tactics? This in the light that there aren't any crits or races before October.

Thanks

zoomer42

MozBiker wrote:

The group I ride with good is nice to ride with. We are always trying to break away. On the hills we race each other up and we always sprint for road signs and try and attack and breakaway. Then we try and stay away from the others. This might help a bit for tactics but probably isn't the same as racing. But it's the best I can do now unfortunately.

Any ideas for what I can do to improve my tactics?

Maybe suggest to the group that you work as a chain gang rather than trying to drop each other all the time.

As long as you don't get any hero's going off the front, that will be a much better training ride for you all. Not quite racing, but it will get you faster/fitter and should improve your bike handling skills.

MozBiker

Thanks Zoomer. In general we work as a chain gang. toward the end of the ride we start playing around with breakaways and sprints. But will do that.