Your first ever race

This is my first ever race. About 6 weeks ago.....

My first ever race - Salt Ayre Winter Warrior series 7th March (10th out of 26) 1 point!

I know the course pretty well as I've done quite a few TT's there over the last couple of years. It's a pan flat 0.8m loop with 2 long straights.

I'd planned on arriving an hour or so before the 2.30 start to get my bike set up and give me enough time to get a proper warm up in but the traffic was bad so I only got enough time to do about 4 laps warm up. I ended up right at the back of the bunch as we were all waiting to set off and my nerves were really starting to bite, especially as I'd felt sluggish warming up and hadn't really felt great all week.

Anyway the race was 40 mins plus 3 laps so I had 3 goals - 1. Stay with the bunch for as long as possible 2. Try not to get lapped 3. Try to keep going even if I got dropped or lapped!

I've not lost as much weight as I wanted and at 93kg I was clearly the chubbiest rider there and a day before my 35th Birthday I was starting to wonder what the hell I was doing!

As we set off, the pace was ok until the first half lap was over then quickly upped to about 25mph which I was ok with but being at the back was difficult with the big changes in speed for the corners so I decided to try and move up towards the front which I found a lot easier than I thought I would. Once up near the front I found it difficult to find a wheel to follow and often found myself riding about 4 or 5 off the front but into the wind. As the race wore on I was more confident in holding my own space and started to feel better as I realised I was ok with the pace.

Then it went a bit crazy for 3 or 4 laps when a couple of guys jumped off the front and everyone decided to chase them. Then another couple went off so everyone decided to chase hard again. I was feeling the surges in my lungs and my HR was very high. I knew I couldn't handle another 20 mins at this rate. Thankfully the pace slowed slightly once people realised a break wasn't going to get away but soon after this there was actually a split but I found myself at the back of the lead group of about 7. I had put in a decent effort to hang on and was in no position to pull on the front and everyone else thought the same thing so it all came back together as the 3 to go board went up.

As we came round with the 2 to go board I felt strong and started to move up to the front before kicking and seeing if I could get away. It was a token effort really and I shouldn't have done it but hey-ho I was excited!

I let the bunch swallow me up after about 10 seconds of glory and as a result I mis-judged my speed going round a corner and ended up on the grass and nearly on the floor! I managed to keep on 2 wheels and re-joined towards the back. I thought my chances of a decent finish had gone but the pace slowed again a little as we took the flag. I found myself being able to slip up the outside quite easily as we headed down the home straight and round the last bend. There was a group of 4 or 5 off the front as the sprint opened up and I managed to pass a couple of others on my way to line for 10th place.

Overall I am very pleased with the result but I know I could have been in better positions for most of the race and should not have attacked when I did.

I'll be there again on Saturday, trying to learn from my mistakes!

Link to the ride is here

https://www.strava.com/activities/264346004

http://firstseasonracing.com/2011/12/10/race-number-1 that was mine.

Reading it back even now amuses me regarding my comments about the other peoples bikes. How little I knew!

Mine was a 3/4 race with no points on offer so the aim was to have fun, mix it up and learn. Try and avoid doing anything too over enthusiastic like going for gaps that barely exist. I hear CycloPark has a few pinch points to be wary of.

If you do get shelled, be off the circuit on the final laps if the bunch is close.
Back markers who's sole aim is to say they finished can really mess up someones race.

https://ctoc3.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/ ... 1-step-up/

Don't worry about getting dropped, lots of people get dropped at 4th Cat level so even if you get tailed off in the first lap you won't make a fool of yourself.

My first was a 4ths only race a couple of years ago and I found it ok, the pace was easily manageable and the riding standard wasn't as bad as I'd feared. It was towards the end of the season and I'd been doing a couple of hundred miles a week over the summer so was in decent shape.

Turned up, fresh from smashing it about on a fixie in central London (and had previously rowed, so was fairly fit but there was no planning to my training - I was basically just cycling places, although I had done some group rides), had no idea what I was doing in terms of tactics but had a vague idea I was supposed to conserve energy. 4th cat only race.

After about 5 laps I got bored of the conserving energy malarky and rode hard for a bit until I couldn't pedal hard any more (maybe 15 minutes) - in doing so I pulled away a break of 4 others. They could see I was ruined and didn't know what I was doing so let me sit in behind them for the last 20 minutes or so (this was not easy given the state I'd put myself in - I was at the ragged edge). In the final sprint I jumped from slipstream to slipstream, overtook everyone and won. I can remember the surreal moment of disbelief when I passed the leading two guys who were sprinting neck and neck (and the look of disbelief on their faces as I looked back at them as I passed!).

Then I lay on the floor, absolutely ruined, and was promptly sick in front of my team-mates kids who were about 2 and 3 years old who were standing peering at me trying to work out why this man was lying on the floor and making strange noises (I'm asthmatic).

Absolutely no regrets in trying bike racing; I've tried many sports, from swimming to running to rowing to triathlon to football and hockey; bike racing is definitely the one I enjoy the most - there's just so much to it, so much to learn. Only downside is occasionally losing a bit of skin in crashes, but this is rare (once every 15-20 races or so - maybe twice in a big season of racing).

Just get stuck in and have some fun! I wouldn't recommend following my tactics though...

Stick at it. Having spoken to club mates at the same race, it is very technical and quick compared to say somewhere like Hillingdon that also has smaller fields and might be easier to stay with the bunch (should trying out other circuits be an option).

Mine was the april easter classic at Castle Coombe in 2013. Absolutely huge field (biggest ive ever raced in since).
warmed up by riding in circles in the paddock.
Sat last man for the whole race and decided I had better try and sprint so started from the back at the last corner and managed to keep going for 10th. Probably one of my most impressive results even if not the highest placing.
I think it gave me a bit of an unrealistic expectation of my sprint prowess though, I think as I went so long I just had more endurance than the others rather than real power.
So frustrating seeing a guy from the club race overweight and then smash the sprints for top 3 every time.

I have only done one road race since, which was last year but got dropped on the 3rd time up the Stockbridge climb.

I just need to work out the best way to maximise my strengths, which I assume are long climbs but not much chance there! Haha.

I really enjoyed the following races at Mountbatten and Ludgershall in my first year though!

My first race a 45 mile handicap road race in 1990. I was a junior so off in the first group with the vets and women (only senior riders were categorised back then so the group had international level juniors and women). I got myself well and truly worked up on the start line, there was no neutralised zone and I pushed off hard only to drop my chain and see my group disappear into the distance. I eventually set off on my own and rode about 10 miles of the first 15 mile lap before the second group containing the 3rd cats caught me. I jumped in with them and did a few turns of the through and off before sitting on the back. I eventually got dropped about half way around the final lap as the scratch group of 1st and 2nd cat riders caught us and blew the group apart as they forged on to try to catch the juniors. As it turned out the juniors held on that week and I crossed the line a few minutes behind the bunch.

My first season saw me struggle to even finish in the bunch, I only managed it once. Closed circuit races didn't really exist so you had to race 3rd and junior races over around 45-60 miles which, as I said above, usually had national level riders. The only crits we had were technical town centre circuits which I really struggled with. I finished every race I did that season, bar one where I punctured, despite getting dropped and rode the Junior Tour of Wales (Gwent 2 day as it was then) where I 'won' the lanterne rouge despite a top 30 finish in the prologue hill climb. I also rode in a Peter Buckley race and several other races with international fields during Manx International Week. Nowadays I still get dropped on my rare races but find it hard to find the motivation to keep going when I do.

Keep at it, the satisfaction the first time you cross the line with the bunch is worth the pain. Often it's not fitness that gets you dropped, it takes time to learn where to place yourself and when plus having the confidence to follow a wheel or take a gap so that you don't lose contact.

I was going to start a similar thread with the intention of repairing my battered ego.

My first race was at Odd Down in Bath on Tuesday last week. It started at 6:30 in the evening so I had to ride 17 miles there from work and the last mile is up a reasonable 7% hill. Despite this I recovered enough for the start. But the weather was something else. Wind, rain, thunder, lightening and I think someone said hail - can't say I noticed that though. I did 35 minutes + 3 laps. But I was well off competitive pace and dropped off the back almost immediately. So I did the whole thing mainly as a solo TT. Incidentally the guy who won went off the front in the first lap and did the whole thing on his own as well. Problem was he lapped me. 3 times. :oops: But at least I can say that I did not give up and the next day for the first time in a long while I felt I had done some hard riding.

Yesterday was my second race at the same circuit and the weather was good. I was still not competitive but I stayed with the bunch for the first two laps before dropping off the back and this time I got lapped only twice :roll:

I drop back on the exit of some corners where I can't muster the same acceleration as others and I am nervous in the bunch when entering corners. The last thing I want is to crash or cause a crash. That's unlikely when I am at the back but then I drop off. I also noticed I was taking a line out of the corners that lead me to being on the other side of the track to the bunch. Finally I just need more endurance to keep up with the blistering pace.

Thing is though, because I am so far off the pace, when the race is over people look at me as if I'm a lepper.

But from reading some of the posts above I think Odd Down must be baptism by fire. A earlier poster suggested with an average pace of 18mph you should be able to stay with the bunch. Strava reports my first lap average yesterday was 24.8 and my average over the whole race was 20.5 mph. The week before it was 18.5.

Its hard work with the evening rides as said.

I've done 30 miles before I get to a midweek evening race, so always gunna be slightly hindered by that!

First race was a 3/4 crit at Hillingdon. I'd joined a club earlier that year and everyone said I should give racing a go, so I did, booked in two races over the August bank holiday weekend. Didn't realise there were any points up for grabs at the first one but managed to finish 10th which was nice, next race was two days later at Hog Hill which I won from about 10th wheel in a bunch sprint up the hill.