Frist Road Race Ever!!

[alpinerabbit]

Oh, and not crash!!

Yeah, that. Reason why I don't even think about it.

[Andrea]

If the pace feels really slow, attack like heck.







Ok... maybe not in your first race, unless you're just feeling saucy.

[ASammy1]

Go Wahine, go! I have nothing to add that the wonderful peeps of TE haven't already mentioned. I just want you to know that we are rooting for you.

[Red Rock]

I just wanted to say congrats! May you have a great experience. As well as fun going as fast as you can.

Red Rock

[smilingcat]

Everything all the racers have said some are bit contradictory playing around with water bottle upfront...

One thing others forgot to mention. Braking, don't clamp down hard cause someone is always going to be riding on your wheel. If you do have to brake, feather the brakes and go easy.

On the tight turns lean your bike, put pressure on inside hand and press down on outside foot. And try not to lean too much of your body into the turns. Expect someone to jump coming out of a turn. Expect someone to jump on a climb or at the top of the climb.

Oh stay in your drops unless you want to lock up your handle bar with someone else and crash.

tuck behind a big strong rider and make your ride easier.

If you get a flat, sit-up, don't slam on your brakes. slow down gently and let everyone pass you.

Go to a pre-race meeting and make sure you understand the rules. Especially true with crits. check in, staging area, start area, free lap? any preems etc. It may seem like a lot to remember but it really isn't.

Lastly are you attached?

And most importantly have lots of fun.

[aicabsolut]

Oh stay in your drops unless you want to lock up your handle bar with someone else and crash.

I don't get this. In a road race, it can be more comfortable to ride on the hoods most of the time, moving to the drops for descents and corners. Plus, it can help you see a little farther ahead, unless you're a very short person, in which case, you might want to be in the drops to try to peek through below the other racers' hip level.

There's no reason you can't obtain enough lateral room to protect your bars. Unless your bars are much wider than your shoulders, you are more likely to be bumping bodies or bumping bars with bodies (like getting a hood end rammed into your butt cheek) than you are to hook your bars together before a crash is initiated (when you're already on the way down, lots of stuff can become tangled). I would worry a lot less about your hand position for protective measures than about hand position and your ability to control the bike and see what's going on in front of you. If everyone is protecting their front wheel, then they should be riding at least at bars' width with everyone else, so hooking bars becomes a minor concern.

[aicabsolut]

To clarify, look at this pic. This is a training ride, and not a race, but it doesn't matter if it's a double paceline or 3 wide or 4 wide or whatever. (We had a tighter, rotating line on another road, but I guess everyone was working too hard then to take pics). Even if we got as close together as possible, we would hit elbows, shoulders, hips, etc. before we could easily lock bars together. There are many good times to be in the drops, and I think crit racing should largely be done in the drops, but many people prefer to be on the hoods for a variety of reasons, and that's ok, if they can handle their bike well.