Newbie links/info

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I am interested in getting into racing around here in Illinois... Where to go - what to do - all the normal regular stuff....What is the catagory break down.... ANy help would be greatly appericated...

where at in IL

You would start out as a CAT 5, or if you live in Northern IL, the citizens class. You can get a license for next year from USAcycling, or ambikerace.com, or just pay for a temp. license the day of an event. Races can be found at these websites, ambikerace.com, or stlbiking.com As far as what to do, just start riding, and riding lots with some intensity.:) This website is good, especially for beginners. chicagobikeracing.com

Lemont,IL - And thanks for the info... I have been riding since I bought the bike this past winter... The reason I bought the bike was so I could do some cross training.. I Road Race motorcycles professionaly in the AMA Superbike series and found that I needed to do something so that I had more endurance... Well the bicycle really helped - But now that my season is dying down I kinda want to do something competitive.... I'm doing my first 100 mile ride next weekend - i'm interested to see how that goes... Up till now the longest ride i've done was 50 miles...

Scott:

Welcome to the sport.
There are a few races left this weekend in the Rockford area -- including a road race Saturday with a race class for "beginners"
http://www.abdcycling.com/racesevents/2007/FallFling/07_FlingFlyer.pdf

If you want to pop a little further north to Wisconsin, there is a summer long series of races for "citizen racers" which includes everything from beginners to cat 3's and above on an almost weekly basis from April through September (with a number of races and time trials in the Madison area and a few in SE Wisconsin).
Info on the series can be found at: www.wisport.org (http://www.wisport.org)
Hope to see you in the pack soon!

Nate