First Race tips?

Yes I’m registered for field 2 for Pickle Juice. I’m on a team, but no teammates in attendance. That said I’m not convinced Cat5 riders are experienced enough to form a plan and be able to adjust on the fly if things don’t go according to plan, I certainly wouldn’t be.

I like the idea of pushing the pace a bit to try and split up the field, then attack from the front group if I make it up there, if I can’t make it stick solo then to do smaller attacks to get responses and tire some other riders out.

Here’s my calendar: - TrainerRoad

Check out the last few Tuesdays for an idea of what our practice events are like.

Race the novice/cat 5 field - do not self-upgrade to cat 4 before you’ve done any races. There are a handful of reasons for this that I can go into if you’re still considering it, but please trust everyone’s opinion on this - stick with the entry level category, it exists for a reason

I do not think an early solo break away is a good idea for two reasons. First - it won’t work, everyone chases everything in lower level races, particularly early in the race. Also - 4 w/kg is not strong enough to solo away from a cat 5 field. Second - a solo break defeats the purpose of trying a race. You’re there to learn and gain confidence, not to ride a 40 minute solo TT. So even if it would work I wouldn’t recommend it

If you’re super confident in your form stay near the front of the field (top 5 or top 10) and figure out how to stay there while doing as little work as possible. Go for a late flier with 1 to go, or after someone else has attacked and been brought back.

Overall - don’t stress about your result. You are there to learn

If you want more practice go participate in GV30 (or green tree if its happening) - its not really like a race but its probably as close as you can get in the general area of those races. Living within riding distance of both those races - I’m curious which AX ride you’ve been doing - sort of guessing as it being the instigators ride - which while fast, is nothing like a race. If you want an AX ride that’s more like a race (but still, not really a race) I’d suggest the TNT ride - although I’m not sure how regularly its running right now

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Definitely sticking in Cat5 this year, no need to jump ahead. Instigators is AX by pace but is definitely more a group ride than anything. We averaged 22mph on rolling terrain this Thursday but it was a big pack where people didn’t have much time on the front just because there were so many of us. I did do a finishing effort on Detwiler rd and jumped into a leadout for another guy, but it wasn’t a race so I wasn’t really trying to turn it into one. I’m normally used to doing high tempo solo rides where I can hold a fairly high speed just because of a higher FTP, but this is totally different to a race with surges and attacks. Doing Instigators I spent a lot of time at the back as sweep and it was super annoying/challenging having to constantly surge to hold the group and then brake, I felt like I was just going back and forth and back and forth

GV is a good event I hear, I do the NE Airport ride since its a 15 minute ride from the house, some of the same suspects go there as to GV, same for Greentree in NJ, but i think GT and NE are a bit out of the way for you to have done them. I live in 19116 so most of my riding is local to there…also think I follow you on Strava, you’re Mark right?

This is actually better practice for the types of efforts a race will require - so it isn’t all bad. Short spiky power is necessary for most crits, so rolling through the washing machine at either the front or back of a group isn’t all bad.

FYI you have this set to private so can’t see anything on that link

Yeah - I haven’t done either. I used to do GV regularly - it won’t physically prepare you for racing (way too smooth, way too easy to sit in) but it will help teach you how to ride through a group and maintain your position. Since I should be vaccinated and safe in about 3 weeks I’ll be rejoining GV occasionally - so if you’re heading up to try it send me a message on here and I’ll see if I can make it that week

Sounds good. I changed my profile to public if you wanna take a look at those tuesday rides. They are definitely more varied in power than my solo loops

Solo:

Tuesdays:

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GT still going. Am told about 15 +/- guys are showing up so nothing like a few years ago.

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Got about 2 weeks left till the race. This week planning to ride outside as usual. Next week will be doing the Tuesday night practice crit and then not sure how to spend the rest of my time or if it really matters. They expanded the Cat5 field to 55 riders on a .75mi course

My goal is to stay in the front 10 for safety and the best chance to attack or respond though I’ve been told by several people that Cat5 is a :poop:show and that attacks don’t really tend to stick and there is not enough skill for a coordinated effort.

There IS a guy from another team who is super strong also in the field, and we kind of know each other, so he’s the only person I could really team up with and if we manage to get off the front and stay off, my honorable side says to end it in a side by side drag race which I’d likely lose, but I don’t think it’s right to play the game of chicken see who goes first and who drafts who in the sprint if we work together the whole day

This is all assuming I don’t get taken out by another newbie, but I’m fairly confident in my ability to dictate the pace and make my way through a group of riders, fairly…

Cart <——— Horse.

One step at a time….and there are about 167 more before you get to that one (if you do).

But it is a bike race, not social ride. Use whatever tactics you need to use to get the best result. As long as they are within the rules, it is fine.

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I def need to be more selfish when it comes to racing. It took me over a year to stop being a pull hero at the practice crit cause I wanted to help everyone go faster lol

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One big thing to work on is being disciplined about taking advantage of “free” opportunities to move forward, Whenever the pace eases up, and it will often as the pace in a race is rarely steady for long, you’ll have an opportunity conserve your momentum and move forward with very few watts and you may even be able to literally coast to the front. Group ride etiquette is not to do this but its a basic technique in racing.

The key racing is not how many watts, its how few watts.

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I’d say that your objective your first few races shouldn’t be results-focused. Riding in the top ten in the bunch and trying to hold position, good plan. Learning which moves to follow, which ones to ignore, watching how riders get away - and fail to get away, judging the mood around you, learning to read a bunch… if you get a result, great, but the learning starts now. You won’t always be playing with the same set of strengths and weaknesses through your racing career…so being a student of the game right from the start will only stand you in good stead down the line.

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I am in a similar position. Always considered myself a runner, but over the past few years I have spent a decent amount of time on the bike (almost entirely on the trainer with zwift). During that time my FTP has increased to ~4.6 w/kg on my own training and zwift racing (fwiw running seems to help a lot more with the bike than vice versa), but I have zero racing experience and minimal experience riding outside in general. I have a pretty nice gravel bike (trek checkpoint) that I plan on putting to use this spring/summer/fall for long rides and maybe even some racing. I’m hoping gravel races are a little less intimidating than crits? I’m sure I will run into some of the same issues if not more. Good luck!

I saw the post before you took it down and my advice would be no: at least try a practice crit. No matter how strong you are, riding in a pack with other fast riders and navigating corners at speed close to others is probably something you should practice before going out with a group of 50 people. I think if everyone did this then newbie racer would be much safer

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Thanks! Yea I was trying to make a poll and it wasn’t working out for me lol
I have experience in other races just not crit racing, so my weakness is that group aspect and I wouldn’t want to be the reason someone gets hurt. At least til I felt more confident!

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There’s probably a local practice crit you can do. We run 2 locally, Tuesday is a race pace one and Thursday is a no drop for new riders to learn how to paceline and build confidence. Even if you do a fast group ride that isn’t crit styled but you can practice holding wheels and stuff it will help.

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Yea I have more mtb racing and do some cross races also. Not too much of riding in a bunch with those except the beginning of the race. Thanks for the insight!

Granted these guys are going faster than us but there is nothing in this video you won’t see a little of in any crit. Yes, you will now and then literally rub shoulders, even in Cat 5. Racing in a group is a skill!

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I’ve previously mentioned the friendly ‘taps’ on this forum. I’ve witnessed and received a few. They seem to divide opinion. Might not be common in a Cat 5/Novice race but they do happen.

These riders are pros so I appreciate that things are different.

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I’m glad I asked cuz I want to just “send it” but I don’t want to be that guy who ruins someone else day, or even mine for that matter!
There are plenty group rides around me, just gotta get out there more often. I have to see if there are any practice crits happening also :grimacing:

Being an MTB racer you likely have way more control skill than people around you but you also need to know how to read other riders and navigate corners next to other people.

We bump shoulders at our practice crit often, usually draws a smile from both parties. “Rubbing is racing”

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