Road Bike Racing - Have my first race on Saturday.

And I've never raced before. The guys on the cycling team kind of put me up to it. I'm kind of nervous still about my ability to handle in large groups. I'd be starting in C since they don't have a D race (College team).... soo... does anyone have any suggestions for how I should attack this?

BTW I didn't read the sticky. I'm an idiot :(

Attack as soon as the race starts. Blow yourself up. Once you're pulled after being lapped, use your spare time to hop on a laptop and read the sticky at the top of this forum.

Stanford doesn't have a D's field anyway, C's and D's will be raced together. However, they will be scored separately, so you could race D if you wanted to. There really isn't much benefit to doing that though, D's points don't help your team.

BTW I didn't read the sticky. I'm an idiot :(

lol too funny.

The short answer is if you've ridden with a somewhat competitive group (non racers), you'll find the race hard but bearable. If you've ridden with racer types then the race will be more consistently fast but no harder than the hard parts of a (racer type) group ride.

This goes back to botto's steps on how to race.

cdr

Yay, the race was really fun. I didn't expect to do well, and I didn't, but it was a great learning experience. I placed 32 out of 41 in the Men's D category. I'm just glad I wasn't last :)

I took the advice about attacking out of the gate, and I noticed that it was leading to me feeling burned out. So I just waited for everyone else who continued attacking to burn out and just passed those guys and held my position throughout the race (some of the teams are obviously not used to hills). The rest of my team is in the C category, so I didn't have any teammates to count on, although I did form up some pacelines with random guys here and there for the sole purpose of not being last.

It was fun, I feel great about it, and I'm going to do it again soon. So yay :)

Excellent to hear Zinn-X. Makes me feel better about my first race that will happen in the future.

quick question about this race -- any idea where we can find the pics? There were some photographers there, but I didn't get any cards or anything.

thanks

I'll ask my team manager if you'll ask yours. I was wondering the same thing, and I'll let you know if I find out. :)

Good effort Zinn. Also good to hear you'll be going back for more punishment.

Thank god they decided to open up the D's field, both C's and D's were huge. Both packs got pretty spread out too, it would have been really ugly if we had all been together.

I'll ask my team manager if you'll ask yours. I was wondering the same thing, and I'll let you know if I find out. :)

couldn't get an answer from anybody. Maybe stuff just isn't up yet (the race did just happen).