Agreed. I think we all have made our points.
I’ll see what I can find in the fall. It pisses me off that I couldn’t stay in the bunch even though I know I should be able to.
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This is the difference between a race and an event. Most running and triathlon ‘races’ are actually events where people just want to finish and say they completed it in a goal personal time. It is not really a race for 99% of the field.
For example I know I can pretty much guarantee to finish in the top 10% of any local running race or duathlon and have podiumed in a few…but often only really racing a small fraction of the field - the rest aren’t in the race competition (and nothing wrong with that at all…but they are not racing to win, so not racing!). However I’m very aware if I entered a bike race I’d get my butt handed to me!
This is the sort of thing you want a bike race to be…and they exist, and are very popular - they are just called grand condos (or gravel events!).
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Actually, you hear all these stories all the time about pros - like when Greg Lemond was beating seniors when he was just a junior. Or Armstrong winning triathlons as a 15 year old. Or Phil Gaimon going from cat 5 to cat 1 in just one season.
- So you are talking about the top 5% or smaller group of cyclists, with literally thousands of others that never get a win at any time in their cycling “career”.
- Apples / Oranges
- Could be true for the L39GION team, but I have no info one way or the other. In any case, they are likely the exception when looking at a full picture include non-pros.
Chad, note the smiley face.
On a more serious note, I raced for 7 or 8 years. I saw guys just start to ride and train and they were instantly as good as I was after 3-4 years of consistent training and racing. I saw guys blaze through the categories - cat 5 to cat 2 in one season, cat 5 to cat 3 in a few months. I saw an ex-pro who wanted to race again go from 10 years on the couch and 30 pounds over weight to lapping masters 1-2-3 fields in just a season.
Racing is hard. The genetically gifted quickly rise to the top. They also keep coming back which is why the masters categories are so competitive.
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Long (USAC) road races are all but extinct here in Michigan. We pretty much only have circuit races and crits. Over the past few years, as road race organizers have struggled to get enough riders pre-registered to cover their insurance, gravel and mountain bike events have expanded.
Barry Roubaix has a hardcore P-1-2 62 mile race, but there are age group waves setting off all morning as well. They are sponsored by a brewery, take over the town and have a party. They sell out their 3000 entries well in advance. They seem to do a good job of accommodating both serious racers and people who want to ride in costumes.
The Iceman Cometh mountain bike race usually sells out its 5000 entries 6 months before the race. They have an elite wave, but also age groupers leaving all morning. Guess what? They’re sponsored by a brewery, take over the town, and have a party!
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Yeah, kinda I think this is it, but less from a fitness perspective. I’m AG worlds qualifier, nationals, etc, 70.3 worlds qual, Boston qualifier, all before switching to road racing in 2019 because kids and don’t let me train for three sports right now. 255 FTP when I qualified for sprint worlds, usually in the 240 range at 70kg and winning or podium most local tris in AG when racing well. Problem for me was consistency in training, years off for deployments and such.
Started road racing in 2019 and podiumed some Cat 5 races at almost 4W/kg. For me it’s learning how to race - I’m plenty fit for Cat 5 and 4 and 3 with repeatability, good sprint power, etc.
But - and this is the key - I’m not tactically smart enough to win/podium as much as my fitness probably says I could. Work in progress.
From that perspective, I’m definitely a mediocre bike racer and the barrier to performance is high even coming from 12 years of tri racing prior. I don’t get anxious before races, but literally everything else is totally different than racing tris at a high amateur level.
As many have said, fitness is just the ticket to the dance in bike racing. In triathlon, fitness and pacing (and nutrition for long course) IS the game.
And that’s why when he started this thread I commented about not skipping categories… but the audience (OP) was not at all receptive to that suggestion from many people even those with similar backgrounds.
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My club does this. Find one in your area!
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You guys just want to continue. Lol. Fine.
That’s actually very false. A race is an event even in cycling. The fact that people think they can win in bike race is for 99% a mirage. Of the 500 people that were at the race, there were only about 5 people capable of winning.
TdF, at most 5-8 people capable of winning.
But, but, but… the sprinters and climbers! Only there to appease the other teams and sprinters to show up. And it’s nothing different than people trying to win their AG.
If it makes you feel better I bet most triathletes have experienced something similar. I remember starting racing and being roasted by very young cyclists that couldn’t spend a minute on the front with me but who could respond to every move.
A lot of road cyclists get a rude awakening when entering MTB events too. It’s easy to think you’ll be fastest up the hill, only when you start and realise the XC guys are also fit.
Enjoy training, reset expectations and keep doing what you enjoy whether that’s only tri, or hopefully finding a bike race that better suits you 
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As it should, so based on my experience what I would suggest is to look back at the race and decide if you want to give it a go again, or not. If you do, pick up everything you can about race tactics and try, learn, try again.
Not sure if you’re a listener of the podcast or not, but go through some old episodes and check how many times Nate said he got dropped, made a poor choice, or had a great day and rode away in a good break (a dream, right?).
Probably the other best recommendation in this thread is trying out other types of racing / events if you really think a different format would be more what you’re after. Honestly though, maybe it’s just figuring out some race strategy that works for you personally and actually getting out racing more. Your own race experience with race prep, managing efforts in the race and so on will go such a long way.
Kind of a shame the thread took such a negative turn though.
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Most likely I will try again. It will gnaw at me at the back of my head until I get it right.
Don’t get me wrong. I love cycling and I want it to do well. I’m just perturbed by what I saw. If I were overseeing USAC, I would be very concerned about missing out on a lot of young talent and all the interest and income coming to cycling. You either adapt or stay the laughing stock of cycling on the world stage.
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Seeing as how USAC is charging something like $10k for a junior to enter their development program, I’d tend to agree with you.
I’m pretty vocal about how much USAC sucks, unfortunately they’re involved in most of the top tier events across the nation.
This is exactly what a Gran Fondo / Sportive is. Those are probably the best analogies to 5K / 10K / marathons, with races being closer to track meets.
For racing, at least when I started (decades and decades ago) Cat 4 (there was no Cat 5) crits were something you could hang in the pack starting out. You wouldn’t be competitive, but so long as it was a flat crit, you could hang in the pack.
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At least in the Bay Area, my experience has been that you get the same amount of cheering for finishing a Gran Fondo as you do for a 5K / 10K (spectating my wife’s runs). And at least compared to when I raced - I eventually made it to a Cat 3 in SoCal - Gran Fondo / Sportive’s are head and shoulders above the race crowds for lower categories.
But at the end of the day, it comes down to want you are personally looking for. At least for me, where I am in life / fitness, Gran Fondos / Sportives done with a group of friends is more enjoyable.
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I just realized Claudio Marquez was training for a triathlon event when he posted this.
Dropped on the FIRST lap of my FIRST race!! CAT 5 Floyd Bennett Field. - YouTube
Who is he? That race looks a lot more benign than mine.
Some random dude who just makes videos of his journey from cat 5 (I think he’s a cat 4 now?). You can check out his videos if you want to see and maybe relate to him through his journey. His first podium was only recently like several weeks ago so yeah don’t lose hope if you get dropped in the first few races and find some races that you vibe with
I’ve actually been talking with a promoter about the novice issue. IMO, road racing has an issue where a novice shows up, gets shelled quickly, gets frustrated, and never comes back. Turned off from a great sport because the race categories are combined, because they may not know what they need to know ahead of time, because they expect something different.
(I would say that last item is where you fall. I agree with the comments that your description of people going off in waves is not a bike race–that is a fondo or charity ride. Those are awesome and fun, but not the type of race you signed up for. I also agree with the comments that a crit or road race is not a triathlon, running race, or time trial.)
For what it’s worth, I also agree that the “novice” category is specific to experience and skills, not fitness level. I’ve seen super-fit people who ride off the front of a race and win, but they don’t learn anything about HOW to race.
However, I DO agree that there is an issue. To that point, I’m working with the board of my club to put together a seminar that will be something like “intro to racing,” basically geared to the true novice who doesn’t know what they don’t know. We also have a Beginner Racing Program (we call it the Early Birds, although this year they’re in May due to COVID) specifically geared to teach race skills. We may have another race series later this year specifically geared for the novice, depending on what another local promoter decides to do. The goal is to try to improve retention and prevent the sort of experience you had.
I’m sorry that you had a lousy experience. This is a really long thread and I don’t want to address all of the points in it, but I do agree that road cycling could try to improve, and our club is working on figuring out some ways we can contribute to this improvement. I hope you won’t give up after this one time, and I do think you would find it fun to find a club to join, do some group rides, and maybe even join a team. (FYI, I did a few races before getting really plugged into my local cycling community, and later I was talking with someone and when I told him which races I had tried he did a big air-suck and said those were really hard races. Now, looking back, I managed to pick some of the hardest races in the district… 
) I definitely think the group rides would be a good starting point for you.
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I agree with what you’re saying here about new racers getting shelled and feeling the experience of racing isn’t for them. I can feel disheartening I’m sure.
The other side of the coin is a lot of race organizers are in a tough spot. So many people don’t signup in advance because they want to wait on weather. Then the amount of time race organizers have the course for is limited. I’m sure organizers don’t want to have a field of 8 people in a race so they combine to have a fuller field.
Tough place all around to take part of. It’s not the most warm and welcoming sport if you expect to feel like a winner when getting lapped out or finished 48th out of 51. It’s a sport that requires thick skin and understanding that the history of the sport really isn’t going to change.