"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - "All I wanna do is race daddy"

To quote Barry Pepper as Dale Earnhardt in '3'.

I decided recently I want to start racing.

Right now I am trying to get my weight down to where I feel I can be competitive.

I am currently 6'2", 218# (down from 232) and I want to get down to 180.

I had planned to start training this year, and start racing next year.

'F' it. I just registered for my first race. The Claremont(NH) Criterium on July 14th.

It is a flat .5 mile course.

My main goal is not to be dropped off the back.

I came from Texas and have always been pretty decent on the flats.

Most of the folks up here seem to be skinny little climbing monkies :D.

So I guess we'll see what happens.

Wish me luck.

Most of the folks up here seem to be skinny little climbing monkies :D.



http://static.flickr.com/35/112350083_6d6f61a822_o.jpg

Yeah, so what's your point?

No offense to Bongo of course.

Where is Botto anyway? Is Botto still banned?

Crits are so common, and you can race heavy in crits. Get after it!

good luck! exciting that you're just doing it instead of thinking of doing it. you'll do great, let us know how that goes.
I just checked it out, looks like fun!

+1
You're past the biggest hurdle that keeps most people out of it.

Go out and work on hard intervals, corners, and sprints.

Oh, and be prepared to be addicted.

Most of the folks up here seem to be skinny little climbing monkies :D.


http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ctran/images/monkey1.jpg

Most of the folks up here seem to be skinny little climbing monkies :D.


http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/animals/images/1024/black-spider-monkey.jpg

Most of the folks up here seem to be skinny little climbing monkies :D.


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b312/rolland_22/029_bad_monkey.jpg

+1
You're past the biggest hurdle that keeps most people out of it.

Go out and work on hard intervals, corners, and sprints.

Oh, and be prepared to be addicted.


<Rubbing hands together> I can hardly wait.

+1
You're past the biggest hurdle that keeps most people out of it.

Go out and work on hard intervals, corners, and sprints.

Oh, and be prepared to be addicted.

During my first road race the other weekend, I remember zipping down the road fairly effortlessly at around 30-35 mph or so in a peloton of close to 70 riders....the sound the peloton makes zooming down the road is pretty impressive, and was cool to be apart of it.

The other cool part was going down the road at a sustained 40+ mph on a fairly fast section of road (max speed of 42.5 mph).....no real steep downhills or anything (1-2% or so) on that section, but we were just flying. That was awesome.

Here's my favorite skinny-monkey climbing workout:

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/2734/boratdance5vxpf4.gif

:lol:

I wouldn't let your size hold you back. I'm pretty close to your size, and am at least competitive. Obviously lighter is better, but with a big enough engine you'll do fine. And actually getting out and racing will get you in shape faster.

Biggest challenge you'll have in a crit is accelerating your weight out of turns. Learning to be smooth and carry your speed through turns will help immensely. I try to let just a very small gap develop in front of me going into turms, so I don't have to brake, and I can start accelerating out of the turn before the guy in front, smoothly rolling into that space.

Also being up front (first 5 places, but no on the front) will make it easier to go through turns carrying your speed. In the back of the pack getting whippsawed by the accordian effect requires much greater energy expenditure (i.e. the first guys through are doing 28mph down the stretch, and your still doing 10 mph waiting for people to clear the turn.)

The accordian effect will hurt you at your size, worse than others because you'll have to work to accelerate your mass. So being upfront becomes all the more important.