DanielS

I lurk/post on this forum a bit, and as a result I've gained a fair idea of how your racing works in the US. Thought you guys might be interested in how things are different in another part of the world.

Note that I speak only for the local racing scene in Adelaide ('where the fox that?' I hear you ask... well, we host the Tour Down Under, if that means anything, and Lance will be doing his first comeback race here in January!). Other parts of Australia might do things slightly differently, I think.

We're a city of about a million or so. Recreational riding is popular. Most big races will probably get 100 or so across the various grades.

So... here are the things we do differently...

* No formal system for grading/categories. Instead of cat 1-5, we call them A-E grade. One guy ("the handicapper") just decides what grade you'll be in. E grade is a very low category, most relatively young/fit people start off in D. Smaller races might only have A-C grade, and so then you get put in a different grade - e.g. a usual C grader might get bumped up to B, etc. Your grade may also be different for road races vs crits, 'big-boned' sprinters often get demoted for the road races so that they stand a chance.

* No off-season! Summertime is crit season, winter is road race season. Winter does get a little wet and cold, but not enough to call things off. Track season is summer, but there is indoor racing once a month in winter - yes, we have a world-class indoor wooden velodrome here, its awesome

* In general, no team racing allowed. In A-grade this is usually ignored. We have a separate 'teams premiership' race series during crit season which has 10 sponsored teams of 5 riders each.

* Handicaps. About half of our road races are handicaps. So there is no grading, you get set off in groups, each of which has a certain head start on the final group (called 'scratch'). First one over the line wins. These are incredibly frustrating but potentially rewarding races. The goal is to catch everyone in front of you and not get caught by anyone behind. Then pray that you'll somehow win the sprint at the end. Insane-fast double pacelines are the order of the day.... and if you try sitting at the back and not working you will get abused.

Discuss

ElJamoquio

How can you stop people from racing as a team?

Creakyknees

Do you know Cadel Evans? See if you can distract him and take his Ridley; I'll make it worth your while.

DanielS

Yeah that's the thing... they can't really. A lot of the A-grade guys are in teams and they can just work the field over. Actually, at one of the road races this year, a young guy from a very strong team won the race, and thanked his team after accepting the prize money. The commissaires were like 'ahhh.... we'll just pretend we didn't hear that'.

I would, but I'm afraid he'd cut my head off

bdcheung

EventServices

Thank you for not calling me fat, chunky, corpulent, etc. And thanks for not putting me in a caption contest.

Do you ride counter-clockwise down there?

Up here, we call that mountain biking.

furiousferret

Do you use vegemite sandwiches instead of Clif Bars?

DanielS

I dunno, what's a Clif bar?

Tarmacguy

im from down under too, and its the same here in Perth, except they are now trying to push the whole teams things, and even u can only race in a kit if it is registered...

cmh

You are missing out. Racing as a team is (at least) half the fun.

We have a handicap series in the fall here in Portland. It is really painfull.

milliWatts

I think up here in the northern hemisphere we also run our crits in the opposite direction you guys do. Something to do with the Coreolis effect.

DanielS

I can imagine. I'd love it if we could race as teams. If I can keep improving then I might be at a level in a year or two to compete in the separate teams racing series.

I think the reason for not allowing teams racing in lower grades is that not everyone would be able to get on a team, and those people would be disadvantaged.

VosBike

I can't wait to try one of those handicapped races you commonwealth folk do so often. I just need to get to racing in Aussieland/UK...goddamn the dollar.

DanielS

Hey the US dollar is spanking the Aus dollar the moment!

Handicap races are a bit hit and miss. If you get a good group that works well and are at your level it is great. If you get in a group that is a mess or is too slow or too fast.... it sucks.

In one handicap race I did over winter, almost everyone came together towards the end. I ended up sitting at the back of well over 100 riders, getting sucked along at 50 kph and taking up 2 lanes of the road. It was almost effortless, and extremely good fun.

Falchoon

Hmmmm...we certainly have teams here in ACT. Great rivalry between them all.


We have graded scratch races here. How do they work out the ability of people in the groups without grades?

DanielS

Its basically the same as the graded scratch races, but with a lot more grades. So instead of A-E grade, there might be 10 separate groups. The 'limit' group, which is the first off, might get about 20-30 minutes head-start on scratch, depending on the length of the course. And then each group starts at intervals after that... so you have an 18 min group, 15 min group, 12 min group, etc..