So you want to race: What to expect at your first bike race

Racing
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Thank you soooooo much for responding… never thought about it like that… lol… I was focusing so much I didn’t realize I wasn’t drinking anything… lol… I have another race coming up so I’m going to identify points where I can take a drink…

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For your race in particular, I don’t think it would have helped. A 30 minute race you almost don’t even need a waterbottle, because it’s going to be over before you really need it.

I’m betting like you said it was a mix of other factors. It could’ve also been that you had not eaten enough throughout the day prior to racing.

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Agree…for 30 min race you won’t need carbs/fuel or fluid provided eaten/drunk normally day before.

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Thank you for responding! I think I learned what carb-loading actually means. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Subscribed to your YouTube as well.

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Thank you Robert. Looking back, I probably didn’t.

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Agreed - For a 30 minute race I’d have a bottle with me to sip on pre race in that time between leaving my car and the start but I rarely if ever would drink during a race that short unless it was super hot. In a race that short, if its calm enough to drink, you don’t need to drink :wink: Even the pre race sipping is more mental than physical. Hydration is really a day before thing.

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if you do race a 30m crit with a bottle make sure you have a good bottle cage that won’t lose a bottle on bumpy stretches :upside_down_face:

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Here’s one of my races from a month ago. Field slowed and I drifted off the back to take a swig. Saved me from a pileup and I was able to latch back onto the group 2 turns later.

I couldn’t help but laugh at my own rubbernecking after the fact.

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It has less to do with hydration or more to do with cottonmouth/dry throat.

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Glad you avoided… that looked pretty bad… :laughing::laughing::laughing: re: rubbernecking

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Got’cha… it was hot that day, but point made…

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Another race bottle tip - if it is a race you are going to absolutely need fluids during (e.g. Longer or hot), even if one bottle would be enough, consider two bottles instead of just one, even if that means just two half bottles. Bottles get dropped or pop out of cages fairly frequently in races. “Two is one, one is none” as the saying goes.

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Got’cha…