My own goals and race achievements

[Quillfred]

Congratulations on a race well run with a beautiful new bike to boot! May all of your time-trial successes come true.

[RoadRaven]

Thanks for your kind wishes, Quillfred The giant rides so niiiicely too - she is a beautiful fit.

Now, my latest update to keep myself/goals on track...

OK... I have ridden three races as a member now in the local club... I joined the club in the beginners grade after the TT I last wrote about here ...

I came third the first race (though I got the winnners points as those ahead of me were visitors or riding down a grade)
The second race I won outright, and yesterday's race I came third in again behind two visitors.

The second race was particulalry special. My partner rode beside me as "coach" (he's in the middle of base training and not riding in races again til the Winter series), but I won F grade, my 15 year old won D grade and my 16 year old won B grade! So we had a family hat-trick!

But based on my performance, I think I will be told by the club captain I have to move up to E grade, which is rather daunting. Because although I am strong enough to stay with them on the flats, I will be dropped every time on the hills, so guess what my focus will be in my training... yup, you guessed it... hill reps...

I was hoping to make it to E grade by the end of the year... seems I'll be there much sooner - exciting but also very scarey!

[Bike Goddess]

RoadRaven- Can you tell us a little more about the grades. Not familiar with that kind of rating! TX!

Yes, we're listening. (BTW- was sorry to hear about the cyclist's death in January )

Please do get your mileage into the BJ- every KM counts!

[RoadRaven]

Hey there Bike Goddess

The grades here are basically arranged by ability - its not a national standard at all.

The club champs and national comps are organised by age (so I would be Vet 1 or 2 if I entered a local or national competition)

Ramblers itself arranges itself on ability for the weekly races... so entry level racers begin in F. Its slower paced than all other grades and a shorter distance (usually between 20-25km).

E is a longer distance and slightly faster pace. E grade bridges the gap between F and everyone else.

The hardest move will be from E to D which is faster and longer.

D, C, B and A all ride the same distances, but at faster and faster paces.
In our club in A grade we have several national and international riders, so our A grade is a much higher calibre than some other A grades around the country and of course there are no women in A grade. I don't think there are any women riding in Ramblers B grade either - though I may be mistaken.

My long term aim is to get to D grade... if I can do that I have a chance of picking up places at club level in local competitions. If I could get to C then I would not embarrass myself at national level - however, thats a heckuvva lot of work and at my age D is (hopefully) an achievable goal.

Here is the link to the club and if you are interested you can check out times and distances to give you an idea. The home page also explains a little about the grading and what the club does...
http://www.ramblers.co.nz/
If you are interested in knowing what the courses are I can describe them for you and might even be able to find a pic.

[RoadRaven]

Hi again Nancy, talked about this with my partner last night, and he said "over there" (where you are) you would recognise the system at Ramblers as Cats...

A grade would be Cat 1

Where I am riding would be about Cat 5

Our grades for club races are unisex at Ramblers
At local and national competition, categorisation becomes based on age and gender.

[RoadRaven]

Raven- Please do get your mileage into the BJ- every KM counts!

Done... at last
1356.42 km (only about 840 miles) for 2006, over 66 hours of ride time...

[Geonz]

"Only" :-)
How many people have gone that far? Go to the grocery store and take a survey...
Something tells me your riding's got a lot of energy packed into a short distance, too :-)