Road Bike Racing - First crit for my Junior son, advice?

My son is 13, so he gets to race the lower level junior class (10-14) for this year, or what's left of it. We have him registered for his first race this upcoming weekend. It's short, just 8 miles, and the course is supposed to be flat. I have never raced myself, so I'm doing this all seat of the pants. I've ridden quite a few miles with him, with our "normal" route being about 32 miles with 1400 feet of climbing, and typically average about 13.5 - 14 MPH. He has ridden a metric century, but we've never really hammered and unfortunately the last month has been so busy with camps and whatnot (I hate it) that we haven't had the chance. His bike is an Allez, and he's riding Shimano shoes and SPD-SL pedals. He's 5' - 4" or so, and lean at about 112 lbs. He's pretty good at maintaining a fairly high cadence. Based on what I see him ride and compared to my cadence, I'd say he averages about 75 - 80. Online registration for the race is closed with 9 riders in his class, so I figure maybe 12 total? That's the background.

In my view we have 3 goals for this race:

1. Not wreck.
2. Learn all we can, including how he stacks up.
3. Finish.

I plan to get there early and ride the course with him for a few laps, make sure he's warmed up but not sprinting. Am I on the right track with my approach? Any other suggestions for us?
Thanks!

In the junior classes there is usually quite a bit of range for the levels out there, especially with the age range being 10-14.... So you have a good plan, let him know that to go out, have fun, and see what happens. Tell him to stay with the group if he can but not feel pressured if it gets too fast, and if he can hang, then be ready to ride as fast as he can at the end.

Not sure what the rules are there, but I know our juniors have some rules about gearing and components on their bike and are required to get the bike checked before and right after the race. You should check with the racing organization that sponsers the race and see if there any gearing restrictions. Any one else know about this??

Make sure he fully understands that he may not finish, and not to be disapointed if he doesn't.

There usually are restrictions of some sort. At the last race I watched around here, I think a 24' rollout was the max allowable for the juniors. They can put a plastic thing on the cassette to block off gears that are too high, but I don't know much more than that.

I was lucky to have a neighbor with extensive road racing experience who took us under his wing and taught the rules of the road, bike handling, etc...in an area and at a time when there weren't many options. You might want to contact a local club. These days, many have excellent and inexpensive junior programs with really good coaching. In the meantime, in addition to what you're already doing, make sure he rides with elbow bent a bit at all times so he can adjust to bumps from other riders, rough road surfaces, etc... Inside pedal up, arms relaxed when cornering. Keep an eye out for metal surfaces when you're checking the course (manhole covers, grates, etc..) and painted surfaces if it's a wet day. They're very slick and the cause of many crashes even with experienced riders.

Thanks guys. I found the gear restriction, but haven't figured out how to solve it yet. They can't have anything higher than a 45/12 or 52/14. Can't find a 14 cassette or a 45 chainring. Hopefully they have lockouts or whatever. If anyone else is interested, the rollout measurement is 26'.

Thanks for the advice all. Stonewahl finished 6th out of 10 and seemed really excited when he called to tell me the news. twahl is now snoring on the bed and I hope to get details later.

I race Juniors (I'm a bit older, though, at 17) around DC, which race did your sons compete in? In Juniors there's usually a big disparity in strength and smaller fields so everything gets strung out into little bunches. This is my first year racing and it's just a ton of fun.

Good luck to all of you.

There usually are restrictions of some sort. At the last race I watched around here, I think a 24' rollout was the max allowable for the juniors. They can put a plastic thing on the cassette to block off gears that are too high, but I don't know much more than that.

Look at the back of the RD for the two screws marked H and L. Tighten the H (high limit) down until you cant shift into the two bottom cogs.

I race Juniors (I'm a bit older, though, at 17) around DC, which race did your sons compete in? In Juniors there's usually a big disparity in strength and smaller fields so everything gets strung out into little bunches. This is my first year racing and it's just a ton of fun.

Good luck to all of you.

Hi B10,

We were out of town for a couple of days, so hopefully you catch this. Jason got to race in the Cobblestone Classic, which was down in Ashland VA. Not too bad of a drive, and it was best we could do with the timing involved. Course was a flat 1-mile, and the 10-14 class was supposed to do 8 laps but they were running behind with trying to get some of the cars towed away. People never learn, do they? So anyway, they shortened that class to 5 laps, although they thought it was 6. Jason's computer showed 5.02 miles though, and we were pretty sure it was just 5 laps anyway.

There was one kid that was beginning to lap the field, then a couple that rode together, I guess 3 of them, then my son and another kid, and then the rest were all pretty much sperated. Jason finished 6th out of 10, and his average speed was something over 18 MPH. Jason blew his breakfast after the race, which kinda made me proud, told me he gave it all he had. Sort of my fault though, I didn't feed him right, but it didn't discourage him, he wants to work hard and get better.

zero - that's what we ended up doing, I was afraid that the adjustment wouldn't cover the two full gears without a screw swap, but it did. I may still look into building a custom cassette for him, but that worked for now. The course was almost dead flat so he only used about 3 gears anyway.

I was in the Cat 5 Men at Cobblestone. Saw the last three laps of the junior race. Everyone looked good. Congratulations to Jason!

Did you see that guy in your race that like sprinted the first lap, then died? I was sitting there wondering "what the hell is he doing?" when he came around the first lap.

No, I only saw the end of the race. Sounds like me in my first couple high cross country races, doing the first mile in like 5:20. Way too excited.