pseghesio

Hi all I'm pretty new to cycling, and have fallen in love with it. I recently purchased the 2014 Trek Domane 2.0 and it's treating me very well thus far. I'm 23 and have grown up playing sports, so I am a fairly competitive guy and am in rather good shape. I just have a few questions. 1) I am interested in maybe participating in racing down the road when I become more comfortable with riding. I'm not too sure where to start though. Can someone point me to some common cycling programs? Also, if I do get into racing, would the Trek Domane 2.0 do well in racing conditions? Should I start out by doing charity rides? groups?

waterrockets 

Welcome. Great choice: Racing is a lot of fun.

Give this thread a look-see, and pop back in here with more questions: https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-bi...s-tip-two.html

And your Trek will be a fine bike in a race.

furiousferret

Welcome aboard! Where are you from? Personally, I find the best way to get to see if you'll like it and understand the concepts of racing are competitive group rides. The sport is much different than what outsiders perceive it as; its good to learn the dynamics of pack riding early to prevent bad habits in the future.

pseghesio

I am from Healdsburg, CA. I know there's a lot of group rides around my area, so I think I'll definitely look into that. I've always worked out by myself, so let alone being new the sport, and new to group ride will definitely take some getting used to. But I also want to keep that competitive edge in doing so.

spectastic

+1 on group rides. sticking behind the wheel was a little nerve-racking in the beginning, but it's a steep learning curve.

caloso

You might drop by your local bike shop and ask them about group rides and any local race teams oriented to new racers. If not in Healdsburg, then Santa Rosa I bet.

save10

Healdsburg - thats NorCal/NCNCA country

NCNCA.org is the racing association there is links to all the races there
looking at the calendar it looks like there is a beginner's clinic on May 18th in livermore so you might want to check that out. and if you dont start till january....Earlybirds are in January and its a whole month of race clinics and practice races.
also in northern california there are races almost every saturday/sunday. and in many of the cat 5 crits have mentors in them...i'm pretty sure the crits in the Red Kite series do so that can help really really new racers. the mentors are always super helpful so you can ask them questions before and after. and they have a race debrief with everybody after the race.

pseghesio

Awesome thanks a ton. I'll most definitely check that out. As far as a workout program, any good sites where I can find one to further prepare myself in the meantime?

save10

read that entire thread that waterrockets linked. seriously. that race thread is really really useful with all kinds of stuff. also you could just go the the Red Kite this weekend and race cat 5's....just sayin

pseghesio

Ya, I took a gander at it and it all seems really helpful. As far as racing cat 5's this weekend, and as much as I'm dying to start racing, I've never ridden in a group so I'll probably dip my toes into some group riding first. Seems to be the first step from what I've been reading.

TMonk

Doing a group ride or two first is probably a good bet.

As soon as you are comfortable riding in a group, enter a race!

Homebrew01

Good idea.

You need to be comfortable riding elbow to elbow with guys at speed and around corners. One step at a time to help everyone stay safe.

tetonrider

thanks for spelling that the right way. lately i've seen some people write "looksie."

shovelhd

Welcome aboard. You're doing this right. Get some group ride experience first. If they have grade levels, I'd start with the B's or equivalent. Watch the other riders and how they ride in the field. Be smart about your endurance. Don't be the first one to the summit only to get dropped on the way back down. You will probably learn a lot from your first group rides. If you have questions post them here. And by all means, if you are fortunate enough to have a Cat5 clinic in your area, do it.

pseghesio

Perfect, thanks again everyone, this is all a big help. That thread from waterrockets is great as well. I looked into some local group rides, and I believe I'll join one this weekend! I'm still kind of unsure of how I should be training individually. As of right now, I've been riding about 30 miles with a kind of interval system going (well more like riding really hard when I feel it's appropriate and then recovering at about 70% or so of my max for about 5 minutes). I'm doing this about every other day, and then a recovery ride between those days. I was doing this for about the past week or so to get a feel of what my body can handle right now. It seems to be handling it pretty well, but I feel like I can take it to the next level. I'd really like a more set training schedule, and after looking around, I am still kind of unsure where to find one.

shovelhd

You can hire a coach. You can sign up for Internet coaching using a set plan. You can use a sample plan out of a book. You can use a computer assisted program like trainer road. Or you can just keep doing what you're doing because what you're doing is fine for a beginner. Keep in mind that when you up the time and/or intensity, you need to up the rest.

furiousferret

Remember there are two types of group rides; competitive, and non competitive. The non competitive ones people work together and use the draft as a unit to go faster, or have fun. Competitive rides people still draft but its treated like a race; many more moving parts. I'd start out in a non competitive ride. Bear in mind, the non competitive groups can be tough as well, but they are more open to mentoring newer riders.

Ygduf

this is a good point. Our lunch group rides are competitive. Sunday long-ride group rides are not. They are on the hills or whatever, but it's otherwise a cooperative ride with a few contested points. I have taken people on both, and both can be instructional. The difference and how to ride in them is of primary importance.

Nobody likes a guy less than the guy who shows up to the cooperative ride and throws down an attack on the flat stretch down hwy 1.

botto 

I wish I thought of that.

save10

technically by linking to the new to racing thread you've already been given credit for that