Road racing

[nammynake]

Been riding for a couple of years but no racing, just the odd sportive. Quite fancy trying out racing next year but a lot of racing seems to be on flat circuits. I prefer hilly rides and I'm better suited to them. Are there any options in this regard. Based in West Yorkshire.

Thanks

[Grandfondo]

Are you in a club?
If you are go out with the fast guys and see if you can hang on!

[nammynake]

Grandfondo said:

Are you in a club?
If you are go out with the fast guys and see if you can hang on!

No, I tend to ride solo. Went out with my local club but they were slower than I usually ride, and they only have 1 group. I'd have to travel further to join a faster club. There are some serious clubs in North Leeds that I might join soon.

I have no illusions...I'm nowhere near fast enough to think about racing yet, but I like to have something to train towards. At the moment my only gauge of progress is Strava...far from ideal!

[gazza285]

Road racing is for losers.

You have one week to buy a new bike.

http://yorkshirecyclocross.wordpress.com/2013-14-e...

[Jimbo.]

nammynake said:

Been riding for a couple of years but no racing, just the odd sportive. Quite fancy trying out racing next year but a lot of racing seems to be on flat circuits. I prefer hilly rides and I'm better suited to them. Are there any options in this regard. Based in West Yorkshire.

Thanks

If you want "hilly" then you'll be wanting road courses, and for that, don't you need Cat 3 or Cat 2 minimum? Which means you'd have to do a few circuit races with the Cat 4s.

[McFsC]

No, there are quite a few 2/3/4 road races. Not as many as E123, but still enough to have a decent year of racing.

[andySC]

Road races with hills not too far from West Yorkshire.

Eric Biddulph Memorial....Birdsedge.
Holme Valley Wheelers 2 day....Holmfirth/Honley (evil!)
Danum Trophy...Doncaster.
Peak RC Evening RR...Barlow Triangle circuit
Sheffrec CC....Barlow tri'

They'll keep you going, from memory they're all 2,3,4 races except the HVW 2 day which was a E1234 last year. Join BC next year & think seriously about joining a club (specifically a club that promotes races). Many organisers will give preference to entries from riders who belong to promoting clubs.

Bunch racing can be great fun, always hard & sometimes frustrating & expensive. If you are fairly new to the whole game there's lots of written & un written rules to adhere to, with this in mind getting involved with a local club would be a good 1st step.

[anonymous-user]

Good luck. I would recommend a few circuit races first, just to get you used to the whole thing. You may not think you will be nervous but its funny how strange it all seems at first, even though its all a relatively straight forward affar, turn up, sign in etc etc, everyone knows each other, you end up looking at other peoples bikes, I overheard conversations about training weeks abroad and thought I might be out of my depth here... I do tend to overthink most things though...

Dont be under any impression that 4th Cat racing isnt tough just because its the first rung of the ladder, there will be a good number of people doing interval sessions on rollers/trainer beforehand and at Castle Combe the average speed is close to 40 kmh for an hour straight from the gun which hurts. I can imagine the pace wont be as high on road races with climbs but then the delta between the fast and the slow people will be greater as you cant just hide at the back of the bunch and get dragged round!.... sure if you can climb that helps a great deal but you may find yourself be working on your own compared to team/club members working together so the tactical side of things is best first observed at a closed circuit race unless you really are confident!!!

I'm like you though, I like riding solo and dont always find that I can make regular club rides, I was however quite intimidated by the bunch and the cornering speed. You have to hold your line and no matter how good you think you are, its terrifying having riders either side of you as you take corners at 35kmh, I get nervous, back off and promptly get dropped...

Good luck, report back!!