Freakonwheels

Ever since the Olympics I've been really inspired to take up a sport. The Olympics really had a lasting impression on me. I've always regretted the fact that I've never really been bought up around sport. I'm only 17 so I don't think I've left it too late to get really good at something. I was thinking of taking up tennis but I'd have to learn that from scratch, and cycling comes more naturally because I have the physique for it already (solid legs, little upper-body). I'm not going to jump the gun and say that it'll be easy or anything but my plan is to train the rest of this year and next, then join a cycle club when I move to a different city to study, and then hopefully I'll be good enough to enter road races and hopefully do well before too long. I know that entering races and doing well is a good way to get exposure.

I guess I should say that right now my goal is to get good enough to do well in races, not necessarily to go pro. That would be further down the track. Like I said, not jumping the gun.

ProFail

So, you realize that going pro involves dedicating your whole life to cycling to become and also-ran who makes next to nothing, right?

apricissimus 

Well, don't get too ahead of yourself. But by all means take up cycling! It's fun, and even if you don't become a pro, there are many benefits that you'll enjoy.

But whatever you do, don't be discouraged if you're not as good as you'd like to be right away. Don't even think about races. Just ride, and get some good miles under your belt first (as in 1000+)

AndrewP

Dont just try to increase your average speed, but try to achieve max power output for short intervals. You will need this for ctching breah-aways, or keeping up with the pack on the hills. Good luck.

Machka 

Have you raced yet?

MMACH 5

Join a local club as soon as you can. There are likely other riders there who can help guide you in the right direction. They might even be able to get you the right connections to start you on your way.

Good luck.

Freakonwheels

You sound like you speak from experience. Bah, don't hit me with all the heavy stuff just yet aye. I'll rephrase and say that my goal is to become a good quality cyclist and do well in races and stuff. I do really think I can do that. As for the dedication, I know that I'll have to be dedicated. That means regular training, which I can do. I've only just started training but my training throughout this past week has been valuable. This is all in another thread, but last Sunday I did a time trial (with a headwind) and got 45:33 minutes. After a week of training, aided by good conditions and recently pumped up tyres, I managed to improve by just over 5 minutes yesterday when I repeated it.

I bet a lot of people say the same thing I did I suppose...but I reckon I could actually follow through.

atbman

+1 join a club. To find your nearest - https://www.bikenz.org.nz/Article.aspx?ID=746. A good one will have:

1. Regular rides
2. Training runs
3. Coaching
4. Races

Explore the above website (Bike New Zealand) for more info about coaching, racing, etc.

Good luck

Tapeworm21

That's what keeps this sport alive. You'll see a bicycle race on tv, and INSTANTLY you're telling yourself, "dude, I can do that!"

Little Darwin

You do know there is a Road Racing forum right? It is a subforum of Road Cycling. Browse it for a while and you should gain a lot of useful information.

I have never raced, but from what I have read, you should probably get into a club, and racing sooner rather than later because getting used to riding in groups and races is almost as important as the conditioning in working yourself up through the ranks. Accelerating and slowing rather than constant high speed seems to be the norm. I get this just from the Road Cycling forum, I don't read the racing forum.

To race at the lowest level (Cat 5) requires little more than a legal bike and a few bucks for a license. I believe racing at the next level (Cat 4) requires nothing but completing a certain number of Cat 5 races.

So maybe you should start racing in the Spring, find others to hang out with to guide you through the process and be realistic about your initial expectations.

Good luck!

caloso

And start hanging out in Cougar hunting grounds. You're going to need sugar mama to support you.

Freakonwheels

Thanks everyone.

I forgot to just say - I should be able to do 1000+ no trouble before too long. The course I do throughout the week (at the moment I'm just repeating the same one), would be roughly 10 miles there and back, so I guess we're looking at about 2 years to do about that much.

d2create

Even recreational weekend riders do 3k miles per year.

MadeInItaly

When you are good enough to go pro, they find you...

Freakonwheels

Wait, hold on, I calculated it wrong. My first calculation of 1000 in 2 years is wrong cause that's only assuming I do it once a week. If my calculations are correct now, if I did the course, say, 5 times a week like I have been, that'd be 50 miles in a week. Multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, I believe that would be about 2600 miles, per year. I'd say it would be closer to 9 miles than 10 (it just falls a bit short I think) so it might be more like 2300-2400 miles per year.

That's better isn't it?

caloso

I'm a 41 year old on the verge of upgrading to Cat 3. I have 6700 miles or so in the last 12 month period. I'd ride more, but with little kids, house, job, social commitments, etc., it's kinda hard to get out as much as I'd like.

[just sayin' ]

apricissimus 

Yeah, it shouldn't take long to get to 1000 miles if you ride regularly. I'm no racer and I'm at about 1500 for the year so far. But if you're starting from scratch, I figure 1000 miles is enough to get the basic skills and feel for the bike down before you start really training.

Ultimately though, I just pulled that number out of my ass.

Freakonwheels

That's still a good effort. I think I'll definitely have to review my course and stuff. Just remember I'm only at the beginning of my training and still figuring all this out.

Rosso Corsa

+1

If you want to race and do well you have to live on your bike. 30-60 miles per day would get you into cat 3 quick enough if they were focused enough.

You realize that the pros ride for at least 4 hours a day (roughly).

You can't win races overnight, but don't be discouraged. Just ride and learn as much as you possibly can through club rides, races and people.

apricissimus 

But don't kill yourself doing 50 mile rides every day right away. Work up to it. Probably common sense, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Freakonwheels

I think I'll finish out this year doing my initial distance of about 10 per day about 5 days a week, and then next year look to increase. I'll look at the next few months as just my initial "warm up" period. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Machka 

That'll get you nowhere fast. If you're comfortable with 10 miles a day, you can start increasing your mileage. Pick 2 days a week, and increase your distance on those days to 12 miles until you're comfortable with that distance, then increase your distance to 15 miles a day and do that till it's fairly comfortable, then increase to 20 miles a day ... by Christmas you could be up to 50 or 60 miles a day on those 2 days a week.

Keep the remaining 3 days a week fairly low mileage (10-20 miles a day), but make one a really intense day.

If you can't do the distance, you can't do the race. If you want to race in a year's time, it would be a good idea to be comfortable with 100 miles a day.

Freakonwheels

Good idea. That's perfectly doable. I'll pick two days and try to do 20 on those days. I'm so comfortable with 10 that I think I could do 20 easy. I don't have a proper distance-measuring device but 10 miles takes me about 40-45 mins so if I rode for about double that time on the two days I picked that would be about the 20 miles...