"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - $$$

ok suppose your racing budget was rather pathetic as well as your racing. would you spend the money on a power meter, gas and entry fees for more races, or a full OCP outfit. Maybe the answer is more obvious to you guys than it is to me.

What do you meany by full OCP outfit??

I would go for a PowerTap this year and start training now for next year.

--Steve

powertap is a very nice tool. However to use your Powetap to improve you need data. The best data is gathered from racing. (not only the data the PT collect, but also the data-read experience- you capture in your brain).


So unless your already doing a full slate of races, I'd definitely spend the money on more races, and train with an HRM.

Besides, what's more fun, going to races and being out there competing, and hanging with teamates and friends,

or sitting at home diddling with Cycling peaks?

How many races would you miss out on by buying a power tap? If it would cause you to miss a bunch of races just use the cash for them instead. No reason in training hard for races if you cant enter them anyway.

I say save the money for races or emergency repairs if you are really that low on funds.

race more, you'll learn more about how to race successfully and have alot more fun than any measuring device that you might spend your limited funds on.

I voted for a Powertap before I read everything. I'd probably change my answer to more races, but how many are you already doing?

Races. At the low end, you've got so much room for improvement that training efficiency from a power meter will make very little difference over just doing the intervals you know you should be doing anyway. You can work on the engine yourself. Racing will work on the driver and the engine.

a powertap is just a tool for training. It's not a necessity by any means. I don't use one and perform well in races. Race more, you'll find out what you need to work on and actually gain experience which in my mind will get you better results than just being able to post your wattage on BF.


Good luck.

lol thanks guys, equal votes for both . . . very helpful. really though, appreciate the input and some interesting points made. by the way, I usually do a training race and saturday race weekly. I had to drive a total of 4 hours (PA to NJ) to this past weekends race though and my 4runner is quite the opposite of fuel efficient.

How much TIME do you have?

This seems logical, but I'm a racing newbie:

If you have a lot of time demands (wife, kids, job, whatever...), you want your training to be as efficient as possible, so get the Powertap and use it to maximize your limited training time.

If you don't have a lot of demands on your time, you should do the extra races, because you will learn tactics and gain valuable experience.

I've been through this, sort of.

My vote would be toward getting a coach, which isn't an option. Power meters are helpful, but only if you know how to use one (and probably beyond the Coggan book..).

I raced more before, then started working with a coach. He helped me decide which races I would do best at and/or would be most beneficial. Racing for the sake of racing isn't neccessarily going to make you better/smarter/faster. A power meter just takes it a step further. That said, after the coach, the power meter made the *biggest* difference in my training and thus racing and riding i've ever seen... And by a lot.