"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Damn you guys...

You know, when I bought my Giant OCR comp earlier this year I had no intentions of racing. Well that is not entirely true. One of the reasons for the purchase was a buddy talked me into trying a triathlon with him.

The tri fell through, mostly due to my son being born 3 weeks before the event. But we are signed up for this coming spring. I digress.

I bought my new bike mostly because I love riding, and enjoy going longer distances and faster than I had on my road modified mountain bike.

Now that I have gotten the roadie bug in a big way, and reading these forums, I am thinking about trying the whole racing thing. I doubt I will be in good enough shape for '07 but I figure I will start going to some races as a spectator (and enjoy my other hobby, photography) and shoot for trying my hand at the 2008 season.


-D

Sounds awesome. Watch out, racing is addictive.

If you really want to wait til 08, I would recommend doing one or two races this year. Pick a few really cool ones and go into it with no real importance riding on it.

Having done a few races will motivate your training in an incredible way and will teach you a lot about how to race.

Sounds awesome. Watch out, racing is addictive.

If you really want to wait til 08, I would recommend doing one or two races this year. Pick a few really cool ones and go into it with no real importance riding on it.

Having done a few races will motivate your training in an incredible way and will teach you a lot about how to race.

+1. Make your goal to finish a couple of them in '07, so in '08, you can set bigger and better goals.

Try to find a flatter RR or a circuit race/non-technical crit so you can break your cherry a little more gently - and start racing this year. Don't put off for tomorrow what you'd really like to do today :)

Why not just go for it and race this year? So you might get toasted. So what? You'll learn a lot from the experience and you might not do so poorly as you think.

Why not just go for it and race this year? So you might get toasted. So what? You'll learn a lot from the experience and you might not do so poorly as you think.


Well I am not discounting a "run for the 2007 season" I am also just trying to be realistic. This year we had our second child and with 2 kids, wife, and a busy job I only managed about 1200 miles total so far (since March when I bought my bike). Every day that goes by it gets easier, but there are still lots of demands on my time.

Currently I am nowhere near being able to hang with the peleton IMO. The best I have ever done was on an organized ride over the summer, where I held with a BF.net paceline at around 24mph for maybe 5 miles. After which I got spit out the back like a bad habit and stopped to pick up my exploded heart all over the road.

I am already training for an Olympic Tri this spring. Doing it with a buddy of mine. So I am cross training alot until then to get ready. Granted this will put me at a good fitness level, I still need work to be able to sprint when necessary and keep with a pack.

I have no pack riding experience. I am moderately comfortable in a paceline, but never rode shoulder to shoulder with people at high speed. I figured this coming year I will join a club and get some group riding experience in a somewhat less competative environment.

So I will see where I am next season. If I feel I can at least hang for a few laps in a race I will give it a shot just to get my feet wet. But my goal essentially is to be ready for 2008.

Hope that makes more sense.

-D