Wisconsin Road Races

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Frunkin

im looking to start racing this year
i have never raced ad i was wondering what a good place to start is
im 17 so i dont know if i would want to be a junior or cat 5
any help or anything is welcomed

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Psimet2001

Personally I say junior. It depends though...do you want to win, or learn? Also post over in the racing subforum. The regional one here is kind of sparse this time of year. You'll get more responses there.

Mr. Scrooby

There are tradeoffs for both. With juniors, you will be in very small fields and invariably some of the riders will be semipro talents who have been racing for years. In your first couple of races you might find yourself getting dropped within a few miles of the starting line. A cat 5 race -- or just as likely a combined 4/5 -- will be larger, which may make it easier for you to stay with the group, but until you're comfortable riding with a group at speed may be scary, and comes with added risk of crashing.

The good news is that once you are strong and experienced enough, there's nothing to prevent you from racing BOTH categories in the same day. We had a 13-year-old join our team this year and by September he was racing juniors in the morning and 3/4 in the afternoon.

Surely you have checked out the information at wicycling.org. There is a tentative race schedule, plus links to teams. You will get the most out of racing if you are hooked up with a team and can get proper training, coaching and mentoring.

Good luck, and have fun!

Frunkin

winning would be nice but for now its just learning.
i dont really know much about the junior field around here so i dont know if it will be all child prodigies who race, or kids who think "oh a bike race, fun"
the first race that im planning on doing is the wheel & sprocket crit in neenah. juniors is 30 mins+ 2 laps
and cat 4/5 is 40 mins + 2 laps. And if the race is like i think it is, it would be more of a go as fast as you can and try to hang on, as opposed to pace yourself so i think that the 10 mins would make a difference

i couldnt find the link for local teams, but i do know of a few group rides, one of which is a "race simulation" so im going to try to do as many of those as i can

John Wilke

A friend's son did his first races two years ago - age 14. He did the Waukesha and Kenosha criteriums as a junior. In Waukesha, his first race ever, he lined up next to the Junior National Champion. :eek: The guy was very helpful giving tips on starting like: "Hey, you can't hang on to the fence and you have to have one foot on the ground when you start". :D

Of course he got shelled out the back immediately ... I mean c'mon ... this is Super Week! He did have fun though and we had fun spraying him on the back stretch (it was 90 degrees that day). I don't think he knew it would be so hard, or should I say, he didn't know he could push himself that hard. :p

A few days later he did the Kenosha race and did a much better job hanging onto the draft and finished in the second group.

Last year he took off, but since as shown a renewed interest and is hoping on getting a new bike this spring.

Have fun and good luck!

jw

Psimet2001

Good points about juniors. I never thought of it that way. I figured that the reason I always got shelled in juniors was because I sucked.

...Now I know it was because I was racing pros...AND I sucked.:D

timmhaan

try both. you won't be able to race juniors for long so you might as well see what it's like while you're young enough. there is plenty of time for cat 5s.

Frunkin

thanks for the tips/eperience
so i think ill probably try juniors this spring/summer and cat 5 next summer
the other thing is junior races are cheaper :D

Medic2382

Hey, if you've never raced before a great place to start in Wisconsin is the WISPORT Citizen Race Series. It is a great way to get your feet wet, meet other racers from around the state, check out the competition and have fun. Everybody races together but there are different awards for different age categories. They have the tenative 2007 schedule out on their website, www.wisport.org. Check it out!

Hipcycler

Frunkin

hey
so it looks like if i want to race as a junior I would have a gearing restriction. Does this mean i would need a new casette or is there something else i could do.

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