So you think you want to race? Part 5: Toeing the Line

[There are plenty of places where would-be bike racers can learn about how to get into the sport. Trouble is, most of them are unintelligible, boring, outdated, full of holes and/or just plain wrong. NCVC's David Kirkpatrick is none of those things, so when he offered to write a series for GamJams designed to pave the road for the aspiring pelotonista I happily agreed. So if you're a new racer or just about to become one, this series is for you. Leave feedback, questions, suggestions for other topics or additional resources in the comments and David will respond to them there.]

So you think you want to race?
Part 5: Toeing the Line
by David Kirkpatrick, NCVC

Having just begun my “official” yearly training plan, I suppose it’s time to think about that first race.  Nothing keeps you going through alternately (even simultaneously) boring and painful winter training quite like looking forward to racing. 

There are four critical aspects to racing: long term preparation, registration, short term preparation and execution.  Long term preparation covers your training plan, which we’ve already covered, so we’ll focus on the last three.

Registration can be a bigger challenge than you’d imagine.  All of your training goes for naught if you keep getting shut out of races, which can happen if you don’t register right when registration opens.  It’s a pain and as much of an incentive to upgrade (or get older - higher category and master’s races fill up more slowly) as anything else.  Racing is administered nationally by USA Cycling, and without one of their licenses you can’t race, so step one is to get a license.  This is easy to do online at www.usacycling.org.  Licenses run from January to December.  If you are only going to do a couple of races a year, you can get daily licenses on site at races, but this is a pain for you and everyone else.  If you’ve joined a team, make sure you include your team on your license application.  Apply for your license in January and you will be sure to get it in plenty of time for your first race.  You always need a license to race and you always need to show it at registration, so make sure that you keep it someplace where you will always have it on race day. 

MABRA (Mid Atlantic Bike Racing Association) is the regional administrator for cycling, and once you get your license from USAC, you will pretty much be dealing with MABRA and not USAC.  MABRA sets the event calendar, makes all the race official stuff happen, handles upgrades, etc.  The race calendar is published early in the year at www.mabra.org.  At the MABRA site, there is a link to “resources,” on which there is a link to join the MABRA email list.  This is your best route for staying tuned in to race notices, learning when registration opens, etc.  Join that list.

Most races handle registration through www.bikereg.com.  Go there and set an account up for yourself so you don’t have to do that in the melee of trying to register for your first race.  BikeReg also shows a pretty comprehensive calendar of events in other regions and publishes most event results, so you’ll wind up at their site a lot.  Bookmark their home page.  When registration for a particular race opens up, you’ll want to be sitting at your computer, ready to go.  As I said, it’s a pain.

Winter training race registration is generally handled exclusively on site on race day.  Both the Trade Zone and Cold Toes series do things this way in order to handle the vagaries of weather – they don’t have to deal with refunds if the weather stinks.  Information about both of these series is made available at the MABRA site and on the email list as the season draws closer, but if you are going to these races (and you should), plan to get there early, especially if the weather is nice.  They can and do sell out, and it’s a shame to go all the way there and not be able to race. 

Once you’ve successfully navigated the license and registration end of things, the focus is on short term preparation and execution.  Your first several races, maybe even your entire first year of racing, will be totally integrated into your training plan, so no accommodation is made for these races in terms of training.  You “train through” these races.  The only change you might want to make from your normal riding is to use your racing wheels, if you have them.  If you do decide to break out the race wheels, make sure to adjust your derailleur, as not all wheels use the same limit stop settings and cable tension.  Get at least one ride on them before you race.  Apart from that adjustment and pumping up your tires and maybe lubing your chain, don’t make any last minute adjustments to your bike.  Last minute adjustments turn into 11th hour catastrophes.  Make a good visual inspection of your bike to make sure that nothing is out of order, but seriously, the day before a race is no time to be fiddling around with your bike.

It’s a good idea to get yourself a dedicated gear bag for race day, which you’ll pack the night before a race.  My race bag has a few permanent residents: first aid stuff, sunscreen, spare contact lenses, a box of baby wipes (absolutely indispensable), some energy bars, drink mix, spare inner tubes, a multi-tool and a photocopy of my license.  The night before a race, I pack my helmet, shoes, jersey, socks, arm- and leg-warmers, gloves, directions to the race and sunglasses and leave the bag by the door.  You may have noticed that I didn’t put my bibs in my bag.  I almost always wear them under my pants, with the shoulder straps down, when I go to races.  Getting all butt naked at the race site on a frosty cold morning isn’t my favorite thing.  If you are prone to gobbing on the chamois cream, you may want to put your shorts on at the race.  Please also note that after the race is over and I have cooled down, I am the first guy to get out of my shorts.  Festering taint gank does not a happy racer make.  I also put my trainer next to my bag to remind me to take it.  I haven’t yet forgotten to take my bike but if you are prone to such acts, you might leave your bike by the door as well.

The night before a race, your goal is to have a good healthy meal with which your body is familiar and you know you can digest easily.  Don’t worry too much about the fine print of what you eat, just make it something healthy and familiar.  Be sure to stay hydrated throughout the evening, and if you are drinking beers this means water equal to the amount of beer you’re drinking on top of the water you should be drinking otherwise.  There are plenty of apocryphal stories of racers showing up with pounding hangovers and having a career race, but that’s not really the kind of thing you can count on.  Try to get a good night’s sleep, but don’t get too freaked out if nerves keep you up a bit. 

Get up plenty early on race day, since you’ll want to eat your substantive meal at least a few hours before the race starts.  Once again, the menu choices should be limited to those which you know will be easy to keep down.  Stay hydrated throughout the morning with a mix of water and sports drink, enough so that your pee is colorless.  Leave the house with plenty of time for a pit stop, some traffic or a wrong turn or two without completely stressing yourself out.  Keep sipping while you drive.

Once you arrive at the race site, go straight to the check in/registration desk, sign in and pick up your number.  Make sure to pin your number in the correct orientation on your jersey, and try to get it so it doesn’t flap in the breeze.  I’m sure some smart doctoral candidate out there is writing a thesis on pinning numbers to jerseys, and I will be first in line to read it when it’s published.  After your number is pinned, hit the trainer or the road for a good warm up.  The general rule is that shorter races require longer, harder warm ups and vice versa.  A half hour should do for most training or Cat 5 races, but be sure to get a few hard bursts of a couple of minutes in there.  You want to be sweating when you hit the line, which you should plan to do about ten minutes before the race is supposed to start.

A word about the Trade Zone and Cold Toes series: in round terms, these races are run on weekend mornings in the late winter and early spring, and are an awesome way to get your feet wet.  The courses aren’t particularly technically challenging and so are excellent for easing in to the demands of racing in a group.  Generally, they are pretty low key affairs and a lot of fun.  At Trade Zone, you can race both the B and C races (you’ll have to register and number for each race separately) in one day, and all of these races count for the 10 mass start race experience requirement to upgrade to Cat 4.  Perhaps the best benefit of these races is that you can watch the A race while you cool down, and see how the heavy guns fire. 

Whether your first race is a training race or not, I’d advise the simplest of all strategies – stay near but not exactly at the front, keep your eyes open and try to hang onto the group no matter what.  Try riding on the front to see how much extra effort is required there, then drift back and see why you don’t want to spend too much time back in the pack.  Work on getting comfortable moving back and forth in the group, approaching turns from different perspectives, etc.  Your goal isn’t necessarily to start winning right out of the gate (although winning is never a bad thing), but to get some experience and get comfortable.  You might find that the group rides you’ve done are more challenging than C training races or Cat 5 races.  I certainly did.  This should prove to you that your training isn’t too far out of whack and give you confidence to keep working hard.  The key is to get over that initial nervousness and find your place in things.  Your first race will seem way shorter than the time it actually takes to ride it, and once you finish you won’t be able to wait to give it another go.  

--
Also in this series:
So you think you want to race? Part 1: Questions demanding honest answers
So you think you want to race? Part 2: Your first group ride
So you think you want to race? Part 3: Han Solo or Attack of the Clones
So you think you want to race? Part 4: The Training Calendar

-

David Kirkpatrick captained the NCVC Cat 4 team in 2008 and saw 6 of his teammates upgrade to Cat 3, due in no small part to teamwork, strategy, planning and a lot of the other stuff David writes about here. You can follow some of his less structured rants about cycling at flamencochuckwagon.blogspot.com.   

Comments

[crispy]

David,

I'm really enjoying these, both because of how closely they resemble my own experience, and for tips and tricks I can use this season. Keep it up!

[Chuck Hutch]

Wow, getting registered for races is like that? I had no ideal. That sucks. You would think that there was some easy solution so that everyone could race and the promoters would get more money.

[Dave Kirkpatrick]

Oh, to be a Cat 1 with a team director to deal with my registration. The registration issue is sharpest for Cat 5s, as there are the most of them and they have field size limits. Logically, you would expect that if more people get into racing and don't get discouraged by constantly being shut out of races, then more people would move up to the higher categories and fields would be more full all around. The guy in PA who just came back to life often offers two Cat 5 races to get more people in, which I think is smart but, speaking as someone who is trying to organize a race for next year, is also challenging.

As a race promoter, the black ink all comes from the lower category men's fields. The rest provide plenty of red. I can say for sure that my planned race would be financially impossible without novice men's fields.

[emcb1230]

thanks for these articles, David.

Any truth to the rumor that the cold toes aren't happening next year?

[Dave Kirkpatrick]

There's some evidence of that, which would be unfortunate if true. But as they say in Maine - tough saying not knowing.