hehehe Go dees!! :D

Racing question
 

Thinking about doing a race or two around Melbourne. Never raced before. 41 yrs old, been riding for about 3 months, pretty good shape, riding about 150-200 kms a week on beach rd. Have been riding with a group of mates on a Sat morning and planning to do round the bay with them. Wondering what the options are, should I join a club, ride with a club or just turn up at a race. Probably more interested in road race, audax and TT than crit (worried about crashes). Being winter here, have heard that there is not much racing going on. Any thoughts on training goals?

Advice anyone?

"That's a neat suspension seatpost..........oh wait......"

:roflmao:

Carnegie, and probably all the other open age clubs have 'one day' licenses which are $30. Fee structures and race schedules are on the web sites. Vets clubs (over 35) don't have day licenses, but are much cheaper to join for the whole year: about $125. What side of town are you on?

http://www.carnegiecycling.com.au/
http://www.blackburncycling.org.au/index.html
http://www.skcc.com.au/
http://www.hawthorncycling.org/home/default.asp
http://brunswickcyclingclub.com/
http://www.coburgcycling.com.au/
http://www.footscraycc.com.au/

http://www.easternvets.com/
http://www.southernvets.com.au/

Actually, winter is road racing seaon in Australia and there's races on most weeks, run by different clubs or combines. You need to have a licence to race, and these are available through the clubs. There are two racing bodies in Vic - CycleSport Vic or the Veterans Asssociation. Check the links that 531 has posted or look up www.vic.cycling.org.au for more info on CycleSport Vic. I think 531 and Aussie both race with the Vets Assoc....

One thing about road racing around Melb is that most races are held out of town (due to permit & traffic issues), and there is a fair chance that a circuit may have bigger hills than what you will find on Beach Rd, so a few runs up into the Dandenongs etc won't hurt at all. :)

Go and have a crack at racing though, you'll can have a ball even if you don't win (personal experience :D )

I live in Fitzroy and my girlfriend who also rides, is near Brighton.

Any tips for a first race?

Thanks for all the links and advice everyone!

the common advice is to keep toward the front in order to stay out of trouble, but I reckon it's best to keep near the back, coz you don't wanna make a mistake in your first race and bring down the whole pack. :) Just keep a very close eye on weaker riders in front of you that look like they're dropping off the pace, coz you've gotta be ready to ride around them. Make a note of which guys are opening up even the slightest gap in front of them, coz they're usually the guys that will get dropped first.

Try to watch the whole pack, and don't get stuck only watching the tyre in front of you.

Races are usually harder than Beach Rd., especially criteriums, mostly coz they sprint out corners like they're going for the finish line. Veterans racing is obviously easier than open age. "A" grade vets is very hard, but there's a bit of a drop off to to lower grades. The difference between the open age grades is much less dramatic.

There will probably be the occasional very fast surge, and you might think you can't hang on, but bust your balls to keep up, becasue the pace will drop back and you'll get a chance to recover.

Be honest with yourself when they ask what grade you wanna race in; you don't wanna be dropped on the first lap of the first race, and you probably don't wanna look like an arsehole by winning your first race beating the poor old 'F' grade vets on your own by 20km :D

The best tip is probably to not shoot your load in the first 15 mins. You might feel good, and you might get excited, so it's a common mistake for new riders to blow it all in the first 1/4 of the race. The pace often hots up toward the last 20mins, so if you've gone hard too early you might have nothing left. But if you don't care about not finishing, then......:)

so.... was that a tip for bike racing or with his GF??

I've just negitiated with the wife about what she's gunna bring back from the States. Sidi's Genius 5 Mesh Road Shoes and Look Keo Carbon CrMo Pedals. :beer:

Good work wattsy! That sort of bling will help to see you fit right in at Noosa later in the year. :)

Go with a bunch of friends. Cyclists are snobby and socially ********. If you don't automatically know the secret handshakes, they'll spit on you, just like the first day of Primary School.

Training goals over Winter? One word. Guinness.

I saw Pedrosa get up and try to ride out of the kitty litter, to find the left h/bar not where it should be and promptly dropped it again.


Bloke here took delivery of his new 2006 Softail today...Screamin Eagle pipes, drag bars. Awesome beast, deafening in our concrete car park!!!

Hehe. The equipment will look swish...Just a pitty the lycra is gunna reveal the lumps:eek: :)

Pedrosa made it back to the pitts and the start line for the restart.

Bl**dy Harleys. Owned by fat old men trying to re-live their youth.:rolleyes:

100% correct on this count too...

15 mins??!! Jeez, what are we, endurance athletes, or "giving"?? Crikey. :D. I guess 15 mins could include showering and changing. 15 mins is a long time to be away from the shed or the telly

I have a couple of friends who ride Harleys (not fat old men, more the tattooed & scruffy variety harley riders) and one bloke - who looks like the stereotype outlaw biker (and who's girl who loves her Harley Sporty) rides a BMW Paris/Dakkar style bike after owning many Harleys coz he'd "rather ride a bike that fix the f***n things!" :D

Well I'm fat and old but don't own a Harley, so where does that leave me?

he took the restart tho and was in 5th when he dropped it at turn 1 on lap 9.

dont looking like a ******


Anyone got some video of the crash? trying to get the race off bt but no seeds. (i thought this would have been popular)

hehehe riding bikes like the rest of us??!! :p

Since theres a fair amount of IT geeks in TAT, anyone going to the Gartner data centre summit tue/wed in sydney come say hello and I'll sort you out for freebies.

Sports Tonight on Channel 10 will probably show the crash....on late though.

They don't call them "Milwaukee vibrators" for nuthin.

^ :lol: :lol:


Oh, and on a completely different topic - I see that Stuey O'Grady has been confirmed for the CSC Tour line up! :)