need advice on picking a new team!

[Eden]

8 to 12 hours per week is plenty for a beginner! My workout weeks for this year rarely went over 9 hours and I've been a very competitve racer this year. The secret is making the workouts targeted, rather than longer.

If you have weekends free any of the area teams that appeals to you should work out fine. Some of us (including my team) do ask that if you join you do 1 team ride/weekend during the winter training season (if you intend to race road, people who will do exclusively cross or mt. bike, can be excused from this). We believe that it not only lets you get to know your teammates, it give us the opportuntity to teach you and makes you a safer, stronger more confident racer when the season starts up.

Go to as many of the women's rides and meet the team rides as you can. You'll get to know the personality of each team - yes there definitely are different overall feelings and you'll find a team that feels like a good match.

[velogirl]

Emily, have you considered starting a team for women? Are there so few women racers in FL that you always race with the men?

[ehirsch83]

Velo,
Down where I am there are usually only a handful of other women(on average 3 or 4 show up, sometimes it is only 2) and they all race for national teams(they are all really strong, they have been racing for 3+ years and riding with the boys that whole time).
So it is a hard place to start out, at the crits the women either race 45+ or cat4,5. All choose the 45+ because,even though faster sometimes, they are much safer racers then the 4,5s.
And as you might guess, racing with the stronger guys has then discouraged women newly interested in racing from coming out to race.

[velogirl]

Emily, maybe you could talk to the promoters and convince a few of the races to have a dedicated women's race? for many women, it only takes a race or two to get hooked.

[cwodiva]

Hey Emily, I don't know if you checked out this website:

http://www.floridacycling.com/

It lists races all over Florida. I race cat 4 here. Sometimes they group us with cat 1-3 women, sometimes with 45+ men, sometimes with 55+ men. A few have separate cat 4 women's fields which is great. It just depends on the race. I came from Georgia and the fields are much much harder here in my opinion. I've been a bit frustrated getting dropped in every race, but I am getting faster, and soon they aren't going to drop me. Just keep with it and don't give up. I'm hoping they'll start doing more cat 4 women only fields, the few they did have had at least 12 girls.

I'm debating if I'm even going to Stuart next weekend, just because they'll be racing us with the pro women's field. ugh! We might still go since dh might race, and if races, that means I"ll probably race and try my best to stay with them.

Steph

[Andrea]

First off, I want to say it's awesome that you're racing with the guys (whatever the reason for that may be)! I'm the only woman on my team who races, and I'm planning on racing in at least one men's crit before the end of my season just to get a feel for a larger, more agressive field than what I'm used to in most women's races.

It sounds like team B would be a good choice. Personally, I am on a team where I've watched the men race each other into the ground during a crit rather than help each other out. It's pretty pathetic to see them lose races because even though they're strong, another team was able to work together to control & beat them!

[spokewench]

I would pick the team where you are most comfortable with the guys and their demeanor. It is of the utmost importance to get the right mix of guys that will accept you as part of their team. Team camraderi (Sp?) will be the most important if you are the only woman on the team.

I can attest to that since I have been the only woman on a man's team (mountain biking) quite a few times.

spoke