There's several Junior riders in the 41, I either can't remember who they are or i can't distinguish you guys. I know for certain one Junior rider with the username that's starts with an "m" But who else is a Junior rider? Oh i only say Junior rider because of the class just in case people wonder.

So who's an 18 and under rider? If you are, how old are you and how much time do you put into road cycling, and just share anything you want about bikes, maybe even school!

If you're over 18 and you happened to stumble upon this thread, then shout something random but nice, or maybe you happened to start when you were under 18, so tell us what is was like!

Me? Well i Ride when i know i'm not busy. I plan rides on Sundays for the whole week. Most of my weekday "after-school" rides consists of Sprintervals with my 2 riding partners (who are juniors as well) or a 3 mile mountain climb which is close by to our neighborhoods. I do ride long distances 60 miles+ on the weekend. With Daylight Savings Time coming and some nicer weather, ill be able to do almost 30-40 miles a day on weekdays, and more on weekends. I'm 17 years old.

I ride with the local high school MTB team, who does road for fitness. I am 26, so I have a few years on all of them, but it is still a lot of fun. I keep up with them without much of a problem on the flats, but on the steep climbs I am towards the back ...

Wish I had gotten into cycling at that age. It is kind of fun though, listening to them talk about their classes / driving / computers. 10 years does make a big difference.

I'm 17 and am currently seeing great gains from around 20 hours a week training. Just gone into overdrive as I got called up for a 24hr team race in 1 1/2 weeks and I'm completely unprepared, so doing as much as I can handle to get the body used to tired legs. Starting my taper wednesday next week, and racing sat-sunday.

I just had my first crit season (and first ever block of racing, first time I'd raced, e.t.c. all firsts). Started In C grade, got put up to B grade, have dominated both for the season, and ended up winning the series-worth several hundred to me Baptism of fire

Road season starts in april, and the long km's are to drop a little weight so I'm the climber I was before I started sprint training for crits.

Currently racing B Grade Track-showed up last night with 90km already in the legs, expecting to fail, and won every b grade race for the night. Soon into A grade track.


And I ****ing love every bit of it!

Sounds like you are having a great time Braden!

Being unemployed I have been racking up a lot of miles every week, in between searching for jobs and living at home, I have been 200-300 miles each week for the past few months, although it has been on and off a few times, such as this week. I think of it as century training, I guess, haha. I haven't gotten into the racing aspect yet... don't know if I ever will.

Keep at it.

16, I'm a really competitive runner, so that keeps me busy. 20-30 mi. rides on weekends. I really want to start racing, as I have a biker body more so than a runners body. The goal is to get in a couple of races in this summer and see how I do.

I'm 15 and I'm a dedicated road and mountain biker. Over the summer is when I really got in to the sport, and I was just getting my fitness up with ~15 mile rides on a rented Orbea. I am now part of my high school's club and do regular rides.

Some of you may or may not be familiar with a team called Oakland Composite. A bunch of their members go to my school, so that's pretty awesome. I also do club rides with a local club in San Leandro which is really great too. I haven't started into racing yet, and I doubt that I will anytime soon.

This summer is going to be the kicker for my career, though. Kokopelli mountain bike trail tour. 240km, 4 days, no sag wagon. May the almighty power of Fred save me.

I'm an 18 year old college freshman. I picked up road cycling a few months after a knee injury ruined my track career (July of last year.) As of right now, my schedule (and weather) permits me to get in about 9-10 indoor hours a week, mostly LT workouts and intervals with recovery days mixed in. This upcoming season will be my first racing. I'm pretty stoked.

17 on Monday, hoping to pick up a road bike as a gift to myself, as of right now running is 95% of my exercise, although I do commute to school via bike every day, 3 miles round trip+7 or so added on in the afternoons to stretch my legs before I run. If I do end up buying a road bike, I'll start to phase out the ~8 hours or so of running a week with twice the amount of cycling, hopefully my aerobic strength won't be too held back by my noodly legs

I'm 19 y/o now, but when I was in school, I was pretty much skipping 9th period, coming home early and riding until I could. I can't really say I ever got in a real good year of training in. I think 2008 was my best year, and even then I wouldn't stand a chance against me now.

Ah well, we'll see soon enough.

I was 18 18 years ago. Dang.

17, this is my first full season of racing, but last year i started or "ended" my season with two race wins. I ride almost every day about 40 miles, or i take a ride to the north shore (only hills on the island) and murder my legs there. hope to continue it through the summer eventually upgrading to a cat 3, and get a job at a bike shop. I dont think people respect cyclists here, but i guess you get those types everywhere. ive been riding with my father who got me into it around the age of 8, just started "racing" and training last summer mid way through, and still trying to get used to the junior gearing.

I'm 17, 18 in a few weeks, but I guess I'm still a junior for the remainder of the year. I do about 10-15 hrs/week. Weekday rides are a little crunch, as I have to keep up w/ a pretty intense coureload at school. Even though I'm a senior (senioritis willl be the death of me), school takes priority over every thing in my life. Solo rides throughout the week. I try to do one day of hill repeats, one day of vo2 intervals (6*4'), and one day of ze cannon intervals (5*5', 1' rest), and racing crits sunday. I ride mostly with older guys (cat 3 and 4s), and most of my crit racing is/will be done in the adult categories.

We need a juniors specific subforum though.

I'm not going to tell you how old I am, but can I give you a word of advice?

I've seen too many young guys/girls with bad coaches who overtrain them and burn them out. Sure they might succeed in junior ranks, but when they try to compete with seniors they get eaten up real quick, then they make the major mistake of training even harder to be competitive.
It takes time for your bodies to adapt to intense and prolonged training, so be patient and train smart.
Remember, a cyclist reaches their best potential from mid 20's - 30's, unless they're a freak.

Im 18 and have been racing for three years. I train six days a week and burring the season Im off racing saturday and sunday every weekend. My senior schedual worked out so I have the last three block of everyday off so I can come home and ride for hours. Not a bad deal. Great sport. Good to see more juniors around.

I am 17 and this is my second year racing. I am going to cat up in a couple of weeks to a 4. I am on a local junior devo team with a coach who trains all of us and comes to all of our races!! I train every day of the week except monday, doing longer rides on the weekends and intervals, hill repeats and shorter endurance rides on weeekdays. I race almost every weekend and could never imagine doing anything else! I absolutely LOVE this sport, and look forward to moving up fast. I cant wait for years of racing to come in college and beyond. CYCLING ROCKS!! (oh yea and my race bike is a 2007 s-works frame with full sram red, specialized carbon components, and Easton EA90slx wheels or Cosmic Carbones... 15.1 lbs of pure awesomeness!)

That why my knees are killing me? Had a change of pedals but the cleat position is pretty good, plus, I went from 4.5 degrees float to shimano yellow cleats.

mzeffex?

I would think so.

16. I ride as much as I can, which is not terribly much now between school (extended hours, thanks snow) and work. And my mom is anal as hell. No riding after dark.

psh, that's nothing. My mom made me put 3M scotchlite tape on my spokes (at least I was able to get the kind that is black, but reflects white so it matches my spokes). All this for day riding.

Yes sorry about that mzeffex.

Thanks for the replies, it's nice to see other Juniors since we all share Road Cycling and the pressure of school on us together. I'm not saying adults and their careers/jobs are hard when it comes to balancing it with cycling (most likely it is, plus some of them have a family and other responsibiilities). But anyway yeah, I don't know if there is a Junior group or a Junior subforum but those aren't bad ideas.

If you ever want to vent out about a ride or anything feel free to post it here...

And are any of you guys planning to go All-out Professional? UCI and what not? So far I'm just planning to join a U.S. team when i grow up, i don't really know my potential since i've been in the sport for 11 months, and i've done one race, but have a full schedule of races starting in May till the end of the year.

But right now i have a small scale cold and i've been loaded with academic stuff, i have SAT's this Saturday so i'm probably going to be back on the bike this Sunday IF it doesn't rain.

After my Junior Prom of my school, i'll start to buy my Junior Gear Drivetrain, consisting of an Ultegra 52 chainring and a 42 middle chainring, keeping the 30 until I can get a whole new bike which will be a double setup. I'll run a 14-26 in the rear (9 speed).

I'm just blocking out some gears.. I have a 7800 crank and don't want to spend money on the 52 tooth. So I'll have a bit of a disadvantage, but I'm cheap. I don't know if I'll race road or not. I've only raced cyclocross and really like it.

I'm 16 and only really got into the sport last year during which i did 3 races late in the season. At the moment I am doing at least 100 miles a week with most of the miles done on the weekends due to AP classes and Orchestra rehearsels, practicing, and Music lessons which takes up at least 12 hours a week. My first race coming up in early April is the SC state crit. It's quite hard for me to find races that aren't more than a 2 hours drive away and there aren't any junior teams within 150 miles from where i live which really stinks. There are a few retired domestic pro riders in the local club that support me and give me advice though which is pretty sweet.

mzeffex my mom also won't let me go riding after dark, though the days are getting longer pretty soon so that won't become much of a problem.

This summer I am staying in Germany with friends to brush up on my German and hopefully be able to do a lot of good climbing. The local elevation is about 12 ft. and the closest resemblance to hills are a few small bridges so i am really looking forward to this summer.

It's since my friend crashed (my bike) and shattered part of his foot. After dark. Annoying though since I can't ride home after work, even though it's the same route I have done 5 days a week since april 09.

Well I'm 16 (17 on Sunday). I don't race or anything like that, and school keeps me really busy (Senior) so I only get to ride once or twice a week. I'm also still recovering from a dislocated knee, but I seem to be improving finally.

And I WISH I had the money to buy some carbon wheels hahaha

That stinks, i'm allowed to ride in the dark but i don't really do it unless i do a 4AM ride, which i've never done but I will try the last week of March when i get the whole week off (Spring Break)