Road Bike Racing - How can I gauge my fitness level?

What kind of workout, preferably solo, would you use to judge your fitness level, preparedness, and quite possibly determine your basic racing tactics for a crit?

Also, what sort of speeds would you expect out of each level of racer?

Solo? You can't. Racing is the best training and guage of fitness even if your goal is to sit in. What speed? Depends on the course, the weather, wind, etc... a ton of variables.

If you can go out for a couple of hours and average 32-35kph, you're ready to sit in a cat 4 or 5 race, but solo riding will do little to prepare you for the boughts of anaerobic work that you inevitably will do in any race.

that makes sense. i realize that competition is the only source of REALLY knowing where you stand, but is there anything that you can do, like a time trial (on standard road bike) that would give you an idea of where you stand? i also understand that racing isn't just about sustainable speed and endurance, but accelerations too, but i just find it hard to believe that there isn't a way to be able to predict ANYTHING about a race ahead of time.

for example: in track we would do a 1000m or 1200m time trial in preparation for a 1500m race, hoping to come through a certain time each 200m. 29/29/30/32/30 would be a 2:30 1000m. then you would be able to use a chart, or just some common sense from the coach, to give yourself an idea of what sort of pace you should be looking for come race day. there would obviously be accelerations and decelerations during each race on the track as well, each taking their toll. given somewhat normal conditions, i.e. everything but a snowstorm, 90+ degree temps, or gale-force winds, you should be able to run Y pace for 1500m given X time for 1000m.

so: does nothing else exist outside of a race to tell you ANYTHING about your fitness in cycling, then?

What kind of workout, preferably solo, would you use to judge your fitness level, preparedness, and quite possibly determine your basic racing tactics for a crit?


You can't do this solo. Find some local club races and try them (sit at the back for the first few and learn). They usually spilt the group into fast/normal/newbies. You'll know PDQ if you are ready for a real crit...

so: does nothing else exist outside of a race to tell you ANYTHING about your fitness in cycling, then?

If you're looking for a pure fitness test then just do something like the Carmichael Field Test... I forget the details (it's in his book). If you can find a steady hill climb then you can compare your times against the other riders or do some basic power calculations (http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm)... I'd say on a 2km 5% hill (which is my personal test hill) you'd be looking at about 350W average in order to be competitive.

The thing is... you asked about crits. That's a different animal. Sprint, rest, sprint, rest, sprint, rest... 100's of times in a race.

Your fitness related to yourself is easy. You set up a course and do it at different times on your training. This is what TT riders do. They figure out their threshold and train around that threshold. In a TT you ride your own race, whereas in a road race, you ride the pace that is dictated by the masses.

Your fitness in regards to a course that you have never raced on. Not really. Your fitness in relation to a group of racers who "benefit" from riding in a group, not really.

In track, you can run your race, and every other racer is running their own race, there is little benefit to run in a group(except for pacing off others work etc.) whereas in a peloton, racers gain a large benefit from riding together and "sharing" the work. In bike racing there is the draft, so a racer directly on your wheel is often in the drivers seat.

All of these factors combine to create racers where no one is pushing the whole way, they are judging their effor soley upon the other racers.

In track, you can run your race, and every other racer is running their own race, there is little benefit to run in a group(pacing off others work etc.) whereas in a peloton, racers gain a large benefit from riding together and "sharing" the work. In bike racing there is the draft, so a racer directly on your wheel is often in the drivers seat.

No track (running, not cycling) world record over 1000m has been broken in the last 20+ years without the use of a pacemaker of some sort, whether it be for the entire race or just a "rabbit" who runs 800-1200m of a 1500, to 3-8k of a 10k, and is paid to do just that, at a certain pace. Why? Because there is a draft. Otherwise they wouldn't pay people like Kip Keino (Kenya) thousands of dollars to rabbit Grand Prix and Golden League races in Europe. Sorry, but I just had to correct that.

But, I understand all of your points, and thank you.

I disagree...I do not believe the rabbit is there to cause a draft. I believe the rabbit is there to run a set pace so the following runners can concentrate on being relaxed and are not worried/tense/thinking about pace... If you have a scientific report that talks about the draft caused by humans when running 4 minute miles I would love to see it.

Pacing definately helps, when all you have to do is worry about staying up with the leader, it is definately easier than trying to run all out and wondering where everyone is behind you.

If the draft was that efficient while running, then you would not need a rabbit..the racers would create their own peloton and would run much faster.

For a bike draft to work, you typically have to be within a bike length of the rider in front of you. Often the rabbit will be a couple of strides ahead.

What kind of workout, preferably solo, would you use to judge your fitness level, preparedness, and quite possibly determine your basic racing tactics for a crit?

Also, what sort of speeds would you expect out of each level of racer?


If you don't have a good grasp on finding lines through corners, you'll want to practice that as much as possible before you do a crit. Otherwise you'll go down, and that's no fun :( Of course, that only helps you if you're out in front, but prepare for the best! :) If you're in the middle of a pack, you want to hold your line so that you don't wind up hitting someone else or cutting someone else off, resulting in a crash.

sorry I can't offer much more help than that, my experience is very limited.

I have a friend on track team in college, and she swears drafting helps a lot, even at those low speeds. Of course, it may just be a mind over matter thing.

If you don't have a good grasp on finding lines through corners, you'll want to practice that as much as possible before you do a crit. Otherwise you'll go down, and that's no fun :( Of course, that only helps you if you're out in front, but prepare for the best! :) If you're in the middle of a pack, you want to hold your line so that you don't wind up hitting someone else or cutting someone else off, resulting in a crash.

sorry I can't offer much more help than that, my experience is very limited.

Someone knows about crashing in a crit ^^^ :rolleyes:

The hardest part of a crit is NOT the speed to a point (under 30 MPH) but is the corner accelerations, expecially when the pack gets strung out. Yesterday I went out for a practice crit to guage how my fitness level is after my peak about two weeks ago and about 7 days with just base milage. I was flying with the group but the corners killed me, going anaerobic and having to go 100% to catch up. Man so many people that are really stong were getting dropped :eek: . I have a ways to go before next Saturday.

Agreed 100% that the only way to base whether you are ready specifically for crits is to race them. Road Races and TTs are more simulative than crits though. If you can go out and ride 30 -- 40 milles on a hard training ride with the fast guys you should do well in RR and itts... crits it is anyones guess...

Everytime I have been dropped in a race this season (crits, 9 times out of 12) has been in a corner sometime during the race. The only real way to simulate it is to go find a .7 - 1 mile loop with 4 corners, ride it hard (big ring about 22 solo) and sprint at each corner. Do it about 50 times and you will see what a crit is like. Figure that in a normal crit the field attacks at 2 of 4 corners depending on course so count of massive sprinting twice every 90 seconds or so. Work on spin ups i.e. 90 - 110 RPM and standing and sprinting to do well.

As for speed... who knows...

Good Luck!

Someone knows about crashing in a crit ^^^ :rolleyes:
whats it to ya :D

:lol: ... I better knock on wood... it could be ME next time!

All it takes is one tiny little mistake and down you go.

would you use to judge your fitness level

My prefered method is a 3 mile TT test on a measured course once a month. This does nothting to help me race better tactically, but it does let me know where im at fitness wise. At 3 miles its a leg breaking all out effort, 95%-98% of Max Hr all the way.

But thats just me.