Road Bike Racing - Canadian Racers, Just Have A Few Questions

Hey, I have a question for all the canadian racers out there, im thinking of joining either cat4 or cat3 this coming year and was wondering what i should do. On solo rides i can ride 37kmh for over 3 hours, is that good enough for cat3?

no.


average speed is meaningless unless your doing time trials. how much racing experience to you have? probably not a lot if you're asking this question, this type of question comes up repetedly. a race may average 25 miles an hour but that might mean that its 20 mph half the time and 30mph the other half, then what?

race the lower cat first, if you're that good you'll do well, if not it will be a reality check.

i don't mean to be harsh, it's just the reality talking...

In order to race in Manitoba, you can race as an independent, but it is recommended that you join a club and race as a part of a club. In fact, I believe the forms you'll need to fill out have a spot for your club president to sign, or maybe just a place where you need to write down which club you're with. You can check out the details here:

http://www.cycling.mb.ca/

Also, if I'm not mistaken, unless you are a proven rider (in other words, you've frequently ridden with established clubs and are known and have people who can vouch for your abilities) you will start as a Cat 5. But I'll mention this ... there aren't very many racers in Manitoba, so they often run the Cat 5s and 4s together.

When you ride with a club, you'll get a good idea how your pace is. I would suggest contacting FOG ( http://www.fogcycling.com/ ) and riding with them on Saturday mornings. From what I've heard of those rides, they'll give you a REALLY good idea how your abilities stack up against other riders from Manitoba.

In Ontario the categories are Senior 1, 2, 3 and Citizen(not a real category)

To ride Sr 1 and 2 you have a UCI licence... Sr 3 and citizen you can use one day licences... but a lot of races don't have one day licences. You can't choose your category have to start at the lowest and graduate to the higher categories by earning points by placing in races.

where are you racing?

I thought average speed meant something when I first raced. I got dropped sooo bad.

Racing is not training. Start low and move up. You will learn a lot.