ADA23 wrote:
> Hi all, recent convert from bikeforums.com, keen cyclist looking to take
> the next step, and get involved in a club/racing.
> A few facts:
> I live in Elsternwick, 43yo male, 5'11" 90kg and dropping, no little
> guy but clocking 250Ks pw on beach rd etc. Can ride solo at 30kph and
> hold my own in bunches doing 35kph. Hills dont worry me.
> Question: 1/ Which club should I join that offers me the benefits of
> close to home, training/coaching, members of similar age, friendly? 2/
> Where to race that offers grades to suit my ability and some friendly
> competition?
> I am assuming my choices are StKilda, Hawthorn, Caulfield, Southern
> Vets.
Congrats on taking a step towards racing. You're right, you have
a number of choices, one of them is a little political! Living in
Elsternwick, Beach Rd is of course your local drag.
Your choice of club is interesting, as has been discussed here,
most clubs offer a "club race only" membership - this allows you to
race with that club in that club's races only. It's restrictive,
but it's very cheap. It's not a lot of use,
especially if the club doesn't run many races. Full CA (Cycling
Australia) licences are a bit over $200 (which is still pretty cheap -
most sports cost around that or more to register for licences,
try playing ice hockey ...)
Most clubs don't
do organised social rides as such, although St Kilda does a few
sometimes. They will list them on their websites. Hawthorn is
a small club that runs crits at Kew over summer on weeknights,
and occasionally over winter. They also ran an ITT for a while but
lost their permission to use Yarra Boulevard recently. They're trying
very hard and are a good bunch of people, but it is a small club, and
is exposed to problems if the few hard-core clubbies get tired of it.
St Kilda as far as I know only do summer crits at Port
Melbourne (Sunday mornings). Big fields, flat course with a couple
of moderatly bumpy corners that the less able bikehandlers will
whinge about, but are no real problem. They're a very social
club, often found at the Belgian Beer Barn or Cafe Racer. Sometimes
it's suggested that they're social riders who dabble in a bit of
racing to justify expensive bicycles, but that's just rumour and
innuendo
Carnegie-Caulfield is the big one, they have a very well
organised club (their president, Mal Sawford, does an enormous
amount of work, and it shows). They do offer coaching,
but as far as I know, it's aimed at elite riders and promising
juniors, or it's commercial if you're not elite - ie: you'll
have to pay for coaching from them too.
Ultimatly, it doesn't really matter much which club you join, you'd
be welcome at any club rides, whether a member or not, in most
cases. Regular training rides on Beach Rd are mostly club-neutral,
and indeed a vast number of riders that do them aren't riding
with any club or racing at all.
Neither St K or Hawthorn, that I'm aware of, offer any formal coaching
services
themselves - I've been approached by Hawthorn to be listed as a club
coach for them, and I agreed to do so, but haven't heard anything
since, so I'm not sure what the story is there at present. This would
have been a reference to my coaching service though, not a club/free
coaching arrangement.
You also mentioned the Southern Vets. Vets racing is unfortunatly
seperate to the CA racing - despite there being overlap of classes
and so many riders are dual-affiliated. Politics ... The vets do a lot
of racing and have good fields. They run summer crits at Sandown
on weeknights (Thursday, I think?) and winter road races. A vets
licence
does not let you ride CA races. It's about half the cost though. They
may not have the depth of grades that you'd want to be able to start
out
and be able to keep up. I don't know for sure though? I think they
do grades based on a hybrid of age and ability as their grading system.
I coach a couple of riders who race with them, but am not 100% sure
of how the grading works.
Re your ability - most CA races will have 4 grades, A->D. You'll find
that D grade races are going to average around 38km/h or so in
criteriums
on the flat - the Kew loop course averages are a bit slower - but don't
let that scare you off (or take it for granted!). Races are not like
bunch rides on the road. They surge, slow down etc ... very different.
I suggest you have a read of this :
http://www.aboc.com.au/perl/tips.pl?p=first_crit
which may give you some insight into racing as opposed to training
rides.
If yuo want to start out, joining Hawthorn for $25 and doing a few
of their crits this year may be a pretty good way to do it, and
if you get the bug, then next year upgrading to a full licence and
doing more different races. You can also get a day permit at
most crits over summer (expensive if you keep doing it) to have a
go at different courses - Glenvale and Port Melb are very
different to the Kew Loop, for example.
Hope this helps!
