"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - How long until good enough for 1st race of the season?

I have been doing some indoor training so I'm not in terrible shape but I'm obviously not in racing form yet either. If you have a decent base, how many weeks should you train before your first race- I'm talking weeks with short and long interval sessions (pain!)
thanks

Only one way to find out for sure...

You might also want to get in some A group rides with other racers. If you get dropped, you weren't ready. If you don't you were.

As many as there are bettween now and the first race in your area. Thelonger into the season you wait to get started the harder it is to get started. so take whatever fitness you've got, and go test it out. The ego pride competition aspect will push you to work harder than you can train on your own. So even if you get dropped you'll get better training than staying at home.

In my personal situation I only had one week of doing any real intensity before my first race last week. I debated with my coach whether to go, because I thought I'd be OTB. He told me to,and I finished comofrtably mid pack. Yesterday after one more week finished 5th.

You may actually suprise yourself, particularly if you have been putting agood base in this winter.

As many as there are bettween now and the first race in your area. Thelonger into the season you wait to get started the harder it is to get started. so take whatever fitness you've got, and go test it out. The ego pride competition aspect will push you to work harder than you can train on your own. So even if you get dropped you'll get better training than staying at home.

In my personal situation I only had one week of doing any real intensity before my first race last week. I debated with my coach whether to go, because I thought I'd be OTB. He told me to,and I finished comofrtably mid pack. Yesterday after one more week finished 5th.

You may actually suprise yourself, particularly if you have been putting agood base in this winter.

+1 you never know until you try. If you end up OTB, then chalk it up as a learning experience and that you got in a good workout. It was getting dropped in crits where I found out how much I enjoy TT. Once I was OTB, I'd just pick up the highest pace I thought I could handle and hold it for the rest of the 40 min. race. I was much happier doing that than sprinting my bleep off every freakin' corner.

I've never raced, but I think I'm in good enough shape to do ok. I've been spending my saturdays and sundays for the past month training on the local group rides with the local cat 1's at 30+mph. I've tried a few training methods, and this one has given me the best results so far.

I've never raced, but I think I'm in good enough shape to do ok. I've been spending my saturdays and sundays for the past month training on the local group rides with the local cat 1's at 30+mph. I've tried a few training methods, and this one has given me the best results so far.


Dude, do the Sanford/ LAke Marys crits next weekend. If you can ride with local fast guys you've got the fitness to race. Now there is more to it than just fitness, and even if you're training with Cat 1's you may still get dropped in a Cat 5 race. But the only way to learn how to race is to race, so come out and give it a go.