velohenley

Im a junior cat 5 racer in georgia. I just started this year. I have found that in my races im only racing cat 5 and not people my own age. I feel I am limited by my junior cassette because I keep up on other cassettes. This is almost an unfair advantage but rules are rules. So, what can I do to improve?

waterrockets 

Learn to spin. Race in junior races. Race hill climbs...

Not much else you can do about it. Plenty of juniors beat adults on your gearing. Just keep learning and improving. You'll surprise yourself.

(don't blame equipment on losing cat 5 races

7bmwm3gtr

Hi there, if you don't mind, telling your age would help a little more.

Aside from that, plenty of other juniors have felt that way but have gotten used to it. There are 15 year old juniors who can keep up with the Pro/1/2's. A lot of people will say train your way to be able to spin a fast, efficient cadence.

Work on your speed skills, get used to a fast yet steady cadence. Work your way gradually until you can comfortably spin at least over 90RPM. Then, work on your drafting so the gear limitation barely matters anymore. eventually you'll get used to it.

Bob Dopolina 

I'm running a 53/39 on a 13~26 cassette (climbing cassette) while I wait for the 12~23 to arrive. I can spin it up to 55kph at our weekly worlds so you should be able to hang in a Cat5 race if, as others have mentioned, you learn to spin. That is the whole point of gear restrictions for juniors.

Youngin

Ride more and you'll do better. I found that lots of volume over winter really helped me step up my game quite a bit. Get more comfortable spinning your legs, I'm able to put out higher wattage and higher speeds than my team because I don't murder myself with too big of gears and I ride more and train harder. That's all there really is to it. Equipment doesn't matter.

Fat Boy

There are several juniors in pretty much every Cat 4-5 race in Southern California. I've honestly never seen gearing be an issue one way or another. You gotta be one strong junior to push an 11 or 12 cog effectively. Generally speaking, I can't. CDR has a blog about getting stuck in the a crit in the small ring and I think he won it. That's a lot shorter gearing that you have to deal with. Learn to spin your legs

There's a junior in SoCal that recently won a Pro,1,2 race. The gearing didn't seem to hurt him much.

carpediemracing 

I won a group sprint but it was the 3rd group. My top gear for much of the race was a 39x11, equivalent to a 53x15 (which I think is one cog bigger/easier than the 53x14 Jr gear limit). Because of my gearing I changed my tactics.


The first race I ever won was as a Junior in a Cat 4 race (back then the lowest category was Cat 4, there were no Cat 5s, but many riders stayed in the 4s... it's probably equal to a current Cat 4 race). It was the last race of my third season.

kensuf

The problem is you. Sorry, but that's all there is to it.

As a junior, you can use a 52x14. At 120rpm that's good for 35mph, which should be more than enough to win most cat5 races. So if you're getting beat, learn to spin.

I know a couple of guys who made it to cat2 (and one or two that are cat1s) on junior gears.

saratoga

There's a 14 year old currently winning almost every 3 race here in FL. The races don't sustain 35+ so it doesn't seem like running out of gear is an issue.

jsutkeepspining

i got second in my last cat 4 race doing 37 in the sprint. i was on junior gears.

topflightpro

I am friends with two juniors who have been consistently beating me for a few years now.

I guess it was a little closer four years ago, when they were 11 and 12 years old, but now that they are 15 and 16, it's well established that they are faster than me. They're both cat 3s and the 16 year old will be a 2 by the end of this year.

The thing that sucks most about them is that they are still so small they provide almost no draft.

AzTallRider

There is a junior on our team doing well in Cat 2. He is a real spinner - comfortable in the 150 range when the speed kicks up.

One factor juniors will use against us old guys is the ability to recover faster. You should be able to attack older Cat 5's into oblivion.

jwible

Where in GA are you? There are a bunch of guys that race junior up to 2/3 on the same rigs.

We have a 14 year old who continually kicks my butt. He races Cat V mainly and junior only at the big events.

velohenley

I'm from Columbus so i race all where ever I can find a race.

velohenley

Thanks for the replys.I know now I need to work on my cadence.

Creakyknees

This is a photo of Daniel Parks, riding solo off the front of a P-1-2 field in Dallas last year. He won the race, nearly lapping the field. On junior gears.

It's not the gears that are holding you back.

save10

i would dislocate a hip if my cadence went to 150

AzTallRider

I'd bruise something that should not be bruised bouncing up and down. But that used to happen between 110-120, and now I've pushed it up into the 120-130's. I know folks my age (57) that can crank it in the 150's. And of course that's almost routine for trackies.

Should be no problem for a junior!

happybday29475

I'm an old fart. How can I place when I'm racing against juniors?

I get so intimidated when I see 18 year olds in my class at the start line.

I would so trade 40 years for a silly little gear restriction.

shovelhd

A lot of the successful Juniors I know came out of BMX, where you have one gear and cadence is king.

I'm 54 and can spin up to 160rpm any day of the week, and 180rpm on a good day in a focused effort.

jsutkeepspining

Also, just to help you out on how/when to train with junior gears. i ride junior gears for almost all training races and group rides, but often for hard solo days will use regular gears. in my mind being able to hold the desired wattage is the point of my workout. the group rides and races help fine tune my spin and ability to hang on while spinning fast.

brianappleby

A few names to look up:

Gregory Daniel
Yannick and Robin Eckmann
Taylor Phinney (awhile ago)
Mac Cassin
Lachlan Morton

Most of these guys aren't famous, but one was wearing a pink shirt on velonews a few days ago. All of them have completely destroyed me and most of the P12 field on junior gears at various times in recent history. The reason you can keep up on a regular cassette outside of races is that you aren't racing. Racing is harder than group rides.

Homebrew01

Back in my younger days there was a 16 year old junior in our 1-2 criterium and he did just fine. George something-or-other. I heard he got pretty good and went to Europe.

merlinextraligh

Do fast pedal drills. Easy gear, 120 rpms. Start with 5 minutes 3 times, work up to where you can do 10 minutes smoothly.

Do your sprint work outs in a low gear, concentrating on how fast you can turn the pedals over.

Do speed intervals, such as 1 minute on 1 minute off in a gear you can hold at 120 rpm.

Do those for awhile and your cadence will improve.

brianappleby

Also, there are ways to win without having to sprint in your highest gear.