How do you warm up before a race?

[erhan]

The question may sound stupid but I've never raced, and I will hopefully start racing this season. I don't know how the procedure is before the races though. For me it usually takes about 25 minutes to warm up, then I need one or two minute break (I start to cool down if longer), and after that I can push hard for hours.

So, I just wonder a few things like, how you warm up, what you do to warm up, how long you warm up, where you warm up, how soon to the start, etc.

[LowCel]

In the past I have just ridden around for a while. Unfortunately that didn't work well for me since every time I saw someone I knew I would stop and bs for a while. This year I plan on taking my roadie and my trainer to the races. I will spend about 30 minutes on the trainer mostly spinning but doing a few sprint intervals as well. I'm hoping to be able to time it right so that I only have to cool down for around five minutes. If I wait until the last minute to line up I'll be stuck at the back for the first few minutes.

[bandregg]

Yeap to the roadie and trainer. I've seen that same setup at every cyclocross, road, and mountain race I've been to, and the guys using it were the ones winning.

[erhan]

So riding around is not really enough... I can take trainer, but wouldn't it be risky since I have only one bike now? I mean, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to swap the wheel on the race bike just before the race.

[LowCel]

A lot of people use the trainer with their mountain bike even with the knobby tires at the races. It is loud but it won't hurt anything, just don't do it on a regular basis.

[erhan]

ok, I'll try that at home first. Thanks :)