Mountain Biking - What class should I race in?

I've never raced before. I'll be 20 at the time of the race. I'm in pretty good shape, but I haven't been training that hard.. just riding hard on the weekends and occaisionally during the week. What class do you recommend I race in? Sport? Beginner?

Don't race First timers. It'll be too short for you. Your too young and too fit to do that. I'd start at the bottom and race beginner. You'll be humbled. You'll discover your strengths and weaknesses. After you win (top 3 at least) a couple times, then move up!

L8R

So sport then? Their's different classes in the "Sport" section as well as the beginner.


Here's the page I'm registering on.. you can check out the options yourself

http://www.sorba.org/home.asp?pageid=8787


Thanks for the help so far.

No, not sport, Race "Beginner's Senior" Sport class will hurt you your first race!

You'll be fine in Beginner's class. If you race at some of the local races here in FL, www.goneriding.com, you'll see a class called "first timer's". It is usually only one lap, and too easy for a fit, experienced rider.

L8R

On my first race, I was convinced that I was too good for the novice class, so I signed up for sport. Of all the riders I ever rode with I was much faster than them, and the people in the novice line looked pathetic (I found out later that they were Super Juniors). The Sport class and Expert class started at the same time, sport riders would do 3 laps, Experts 5, I finished after the 6th place Expert rider! Go with Beginner Senior 1, win that, then move up.

-Middi-zon

I would definately start beginner too. It would be a great incentive to do good the first couple races. A friend of mine, who was in great shape btw, raced sport his first race. Needless to say he was soundly thrashed. Never raced again. I think that had a lot to do with it.

LOL....The bottom is always a good place to start.

soundly thrashed..tee hee.

First if it's a NORBA race your race age is how old you will be on Dec 31, so i would assume that's still 20 but keep it in mind.
If you can find posts of old times for the cat you would most likely race in do it and compare that's a great measuring stick on fitness and speed.
Do at least a couple in beginner cuz you need to learn how to race, race etiquette etc.
Most of all, have fun.
t

I say the first race you should do the first timers. If you've never raced before, it's a big wake up call. You'll be incredibly nervous, and will probably start out too fast, then get this horrible feeling in your gut, you'll run out of energy and do bad... all that jazz. If you ride with a big group competitively already, by all means start beginner. If you've never been in that situation before though, it's very strange the first time. Don't take this as a discouragement at all, I'm just warning you if you've never done anything like that before. I thought I was in great shape when I did the first timers a few years ago, so I thought I'd ace this 6 mile race, but I was pathetic, and there's no way I could have went twice that far to 12 miles in the beginner class. Maybe find another race in the nearby area that you can do a first timers on, then do beginners on the race that you're looking forward to, then you'll know what to expect.

Hey guys, he's only 20, let him suffer, it'll be a good learning experience. Go sport class! J/k dude. I honestly think you'll be fine riding beginners. You're young and it'll be a great experience, plus you'll be riding at Unicoi (I assume). That's a great trail. The first climb is brutal, but it's a sweet downhill coming back.

Are you planning on camping?

Have you ever been to a festival?

You'll enjoy the "poop" out of it!

L8R

Yep, we're gonna be camping. I've ridden some trails at Unicoi, but not that much.. there's tons of riding around there. Never been to a festival.. it should be a blast! I hope so anyway.. it cost me like 50 bucks just for the festival :)

Things like that are usually great fun just for the sake of being around so many people of common interest :p

well, my first MTB race ever in 1998 (i had done road races about 5 years before) i started in Sport class. i was pretty fit and all and i did quite finie finishing about middle of the pack. 2 years later i was still racing Sport although finishing in the top 10%. so i never experienced "winning" or moving up to the next class (i race in Europe now where there are no classes so i race with the pros - even more demoralizing!)

But, if i did it again i probably would have done Beginner Class the first 1-3 races.

the main reason why i signed up for Sport was my at the time new girlfriend was racing Sport and i was as fast as her so i thought i should race Sport - of course she had already raced a lot and she was racing against women - ok, i'll be honest. it was mostly a macho thing so i didn't have to tell here i was racing "Beginner" (stupid of me huh?)

advantages to racing Beginner:
* less stress
* more "comfortable" if you do dumb stuff
* fewer people to piss off if you do dumb stuff
* better chance you won't get buried and decide you hate racing and never do it again
* confidence booster to do well and maybe win
* more people that are much worse than you so you feel good if even if you don't ride well or have a bad race or do lots of stupid stuff

advantages/reasons to race Sport:
* if you feel like the Beginner course is SO short that you're not getting your money or time's worth, then race Sport --- i.e. if the beginner course if only 6miles and you know you'll finish it in 30 minutes then race Sport!

I just don't like how the classifications are set up. For example, this race I'm looking forward to this Sunday, beginner is twice as far as first-timers. Sport is twice as far as beginner. They're all on the same terrain. I don't understand why they can't make the higher classes on harder terrain or whatever. Why can't they make the sport class a 15-18 mile race over harder territory? It seems like the higher classes are geared more towards little guys that are really light and can pedal all day long. I don't see why I've got to stick to the beginners class just because I'm not one of those guys. I'd like to see a race that's a little longer than beginners, but has some gnarly downhill sections with drops and rock gardens. Alot of those weight weenies that are basically road riders on knobby tires would just crumble. Maybe a freeride race, although those two terms might cancel each other out. It seems like most mountain biking falls into three categories:

(A.) A light guy with lots of endurance and not as much strength on a light bike racing XC.

(B.) A heavier guy with not much endurance but lots of strength on a heavy bike racing downhill.

(C.) A medium set guy with medium endurance and medium strength on a bike that's a cross between an XC and downhill bike that's labeled as a freeriding goof-off.


I mean, where's all the races for us class C guys?

be happy. the races in Europe (called Marathons) are even more so: even longer distances and more climbing and LESS technical.

the race i'm doing Saturday in Italy has 3 distances:
short course: 39km, 1360 meters vert
long course: 81km, 2440 m
extreme course: 104km, 3530m

see http://riva.upsolutmv.com/marathon/hoehenprofil03.pdf

i'm doing the "extreme" course just to say i've done it. it'll be my longest race ever and should be LONG as the pros are on the bike about 6 hours and i think it'll take me about 7 HOURS!

the less technical is the part i dislike since i'm a very good downhiller for an XC rider. the more technical the course, the better i do...

Originally posted by corndogggy


(C.) A medium set guy with medium endurance and medium strength on a bike that's a cross between an XC and downhill bike that's labeled as a freeriding goof-off.


I mean, where's all the races for us class C guys?

sounds like you just need to work on your endurance and strength. if you've got awesome skills once you've got the other two taken care of you should be able to blow the competition away.

Race beginners. Unfortunately, at least for men, I see alot of sandbagging (sports riders or experts who unfairly race a lower class just to win). many don't have Nathank's scruples. However, I'm starting to see this in the female races I participate in. SO if you get spanked, find out what the guy raced in before.

Yeah sandbaggers can go somewhere unpleasant. The local race coming up, it's one lap for beginners, and last week I went balls out and did it in 1:02:55, and I've been on that trail like 100 times and have the thing memorized. Last year there was a guy in the beginners but in the next age group that did it in 51:45. That's over 11 minutes faster than my fastest time, and in the race there is probably an extra 200 yards added to the course for starting and finishing. That's crazy. No way could he consider himself to be a beginner.