How fast to be before doing a cat5?



Cbass--I know what its like brining in new cyclist, and if your thinking I’m being condescending, then that’s a mistake, maybe a little sarcasm in there. I work in a shop, I sell road bikes to a lot of new riders, and to every one, I extend an invitation to ride both with me, and with the groups that I ride with. I know that the best thing you can do as a new rider is to get out with people and learn from them. The number one problem that I see is people that buy bikes, and then wait to ride either in a race or with people because they want to be fit. If they go out and ride alone, then they get a feel for what they can do and then in the group rides they already have a mental limit. The best thing is to get out there no mater what and ride. You'd be surprised. The majority of new riders that go on group rides with me as their first ride end up doing 40 mph descents because they don’t know enough to think they cant. The exact opposite happens when they ride alone for a while. That was my original point, and it applies to racing as well. You cant worry about whether or not your going to be competitive, you have to go out there and do do do.

gooders-- I haven’t sent any emails. Is Brighton the Brighton Il, I used to live close to there in Elsah and in Alton. If you’re in the local HS, I could use your help trying to find an old friend that goes there.

Roadie_scum-- I’m glad you’re sponsored. I hope you don’t mean by your local bike shop club. Anybody can join the local club and suddenly become "sponsored". If its another way, then I hope one day I can race you, If so, then I've come a long way myself as a cyclist. Suffering only makes you better, so good luck, but don’t run me off the road in a race, that’s totally unethical. Just because your angry at somebody doesn’t mean you go out and harm them. I hope you currently have the moral standing and sportsmanship that your not riding people into the dirt on purpose. This is a serious subject. In the few races that I have been in, there is always one or two guys that insist on having it their way by physical force, and more often than not, there is a crash because of it. By the way, I don’t see how my responses were in anyway disrespectful to the sponsors or sporting public. Now excuse me, I have to copy paste this to word because no, my spelling and grammar arnt that great.
 
Rompinrhino said:
Roadie_scum-- I’m glad you’re sponsored. I hope you don’t mean by your local bike shop club. Anybody can join the local club and suddenly become "sponsored". If its another way, then I hope one day I can race you, If so, then I've come a long way myself as a cyclist. Suffering only makes you better, so good luck, but don’t run me off the road in a race, that’s totally unethical. Just because your angry at somebody doesn’t mean you go out and harm them. I hope you currently have the moral standing and sportsmanship that your not riding people into the dirt on purpose. This is a serious subject. In the few races that I have been in, there is always one or two guys that insist on having it their way by physical force, and more often than not, there is a crash because of it. By the way, I don’t see how my responses were in anyway disrespectful to the sponsors or sporting public. Now excuse me, I have to copy paste this to word because no, my spelling and grammar arnt that great.

It's a totally different subject, but if you're racing a top grade and acting like a tool, and you won't stop when warned, I'll make you ride in the dirt. Not crash. Ride in the dirt. They're different things.

And disrespectful to sponsors and the sporting public?? How about "if my little comments kill his esteem, then good, ecause I dont want to race any crybabies who have to run home to mom because they cant stay with people." That kind of attitude is disrespectful to the sporting public at large.

As for sponsors, they're relatively minor. I've got no problem with that. You got issues with someone joining a club?? That's not how I got what I've got, but really, you oughta cut people some slack.
 
Hey Rompinrhino, maybe I didn't understand your motives in what you were saying, it just makes me mad when I see things that look like what I saw you saying. It is also hard to convey sarcasm, tone of voice, etc. from the computer screen, sometimes I forget that. I fully understand what you are saying about "just getting out there and racing" I would have to agree with you to a point.

What threw me off was the comment "You'll never be competition for Tiger Woods or Lance or any superchampion, so why play at all" from the first post and the responses from you to others' reactions to that sentence. Anyway, I'm sure the sarcasm comes out more when talking face to face than it does on the computer. If I read that comment over now, I can see how there would be sarcasm in it.

I guess the best part is that either way, Sparknote got a good response from lots of people, right Sparknote? and now he's out riding and will be racing soon if not already. Keep at it!

BTW, are you saying that you used to live close to the Brighton in Utah or the one in England?

Cheers!
 
Cbass said:
Hey Rompinrhino, maybe I didn't understand your motives in what you were saying, it just makes me mad when I see things that look like what I saw you saying. It is also hard to convey sarcasm, tone of voice, etc. from the computer screen, sometimes I forget that. I fully understand what you are saying about "just getting out there and racing" I would have to agree with you to a point.
Cheers!

I agree with all of this. I'll try to keep it real - keep it nice.
 
Just wondering...how fast are all you guys? Everyone who posted onto this thread, including romprhino especially hah, how fast actually are you guys? Have any links to some of your results?
 
Cbass-- I can see how it can throw people off, I should have worded it better or at the least, threw in some emoticons. I used to live in Brighton Illinois.

Roadie_scum-- I still see riding people into the dirt as a problem. You would still be causing a potentially dangerous situation. As far as clubs go they are good for some things. Joining the right club can teach a new rider many new things, I agree. I have other feelings for them as well but that is an entirely different subject that I'm not going to get into here

Sparknote_s-- I'm glad your finding progress in your riding, and taking all of this in a decent maner. Sorry about all of this. As far as results go, my best of the season was my 6th race, Bicycle Johns GP, heres the link to the results. Mens 4/5 I placed 12th, and of course they screw up spelling my name. :-/ How fast am I? When riding alone, I try to keep my speed at about 24. Hills and other things of course play a factor. Group rides are quite a bit faster. Its hard to say how fast I am. There's a lot of different factors that go into it. On all of the rides I do, they follow the same road out of town. There is a stretch of road that I time trial on, but I've never kept track of time, just speed. Its flat to slight ups and downs. I can hold 28-29 on it into the wind, its about 8 miles, maybee, i'm not shure. I'll pay more attention to it next ride I do.
 
Rompinrhino said:
Roadie_scum-- I still see riding people into the dirt as a problem. You would still be causing a potentially dangerous situation.

Mate, l wouldn't do it if I thought it was going to be unsafe. That means I wouldn't do it with riders in your grade (or almost any other time except the situations mentioned above). It isn't dangerous with a good bike handler (or at least, any more dangerous than anything else that happens racing).The main thing it does is slow people down, which is both amusing and necessary if someone is half-wheeling on a training ride or pulling too hard but not long enough in a break.
 
sparknote_s said:
Just wondering...how fast are all you guys? Everyone who posted onto this thread, including romprhino especially hah, how fast actually are you guys? Have any links to some of your results?

Sorry, I'm not gonna link to my results. Occassionally I say something intemperate or that could be misinterpreted, so I use my real name sparingly on the internet - you never know how people are going to twist your words, or which of cycling's VIPs you will accidentally offend.

I've got top 15 in national level inter-varsity competition, top 1/3 of the bunch in club A grade road races (equivalent to a small cat p/1/2 maybe?), finished national road series races and won B grades (cat 2/3?).
 
The only thing I would suggest is to not wait an entire year to race. I'd jump into it much sooner. :D

My first experience with racing was watching a (cat 5) criterium put on by one of the local bike clubs. I was hooked the first time I heard the peloton whooosh by! After the race I found out that they held the same race every tuesday night. Needless to say I was racing the next week. (I think I fell off the back of the peloton during the end but what a rush).

Since then I've raced in a variety of different road races and crits, learned that cycling is more teambased than most people think, and placed 13th in my State's Criterium race at the cat 5 level. I've got my first time trial on the 29th and I'm hoping to do 40k in under an hour. (it's an ugly out and back on mostly flat course with a couple undulations with a horrible headwind one way and a killer tailwind the other)

I guess what I'm trying to say is I've only been riding my bike (well this is my second bike) for about a year now and I've had a lot of fun racing. Just remember that the only real oponent to beat that matters is yourself.
 
As for my results, I don't think any of them are posted anywhere, I just found them out at the race venues. Road-wise I have only raced a couple of Cat 5's and a few triathlons. I placed a little higher than mid pack, generally around 10th or so in the cat 5's. In the better of the two tri's I placed 4th in my age group (21-27yrs old). I don't consider myself fast by any means, especially on a road bike. I am much faster on a mountain bike, but haven't actually RACED mountain since '99. I raced the Expert class and finished 35th at the National Championship race in Deer valley. Before that I raced Sport for quite a few years (5 or so) and finished consistently top 3-4 with a few 1sts in the Cannondale cup series and 13th at nationals (sport class).

On a road bike, I generally average 22-23 mph on any given normal ride (i.e. a few climbs, descents, etc. for about 40 miles). Other than that, I really like climbing, and there is no shortage of it here in Utah.

RompinRhino, I had no idea there was a Brighton, Illinois. Now I know.
 
There are clubs that have crits every week? Is this a normal thing for clubs to do? What areas have lots of races?
 
sparknote_s said:
Maybe in a year or so I'd like to enter a category 5 race. But I only play sports to be competitive, so I want to make sure I won't get dropped by the pack in my first race. How fast should I shoot for before racing in category 5?

Base it on a rolling hill 20 mile loop with 12 mph wind, going at a pace that doesn't make you winded, but isn't just tooling around either.

I would buy a book on training and a heart rate monitor. Put in lots of miles and follow the suggested heart rate zones for training. Participate in group rides to get some bike handling skills and learn the important skill of sucking a wheel. Do some time trials to test your progress. I would say you need to be able to do 23-24 MPH for ten miles just to have the stamina to stay with a pack.
In a cat 5 race try to stay at the front. If you stay at the back you'll get involved in one of those spontaneous crashes that happen for no reason in a cat 5 pack.
 
Yea, clubs do put on races and practice crits. In Southern Ca, there is a practice race or large group ride almost every day, but cycling is a rather large comunity here as well. Go to your local bike shops and talk with the guys in it to try and find out more. Also, look online to try and find an events schedule in your area.
 
haha, seriously. A lot of stuff does happen out here, but not to the extent people think it does. And only a few places are really dangerous. Thinking of moving out here to race? lots of people do.