What Does It Take To Be A Racer

The Tour De France is just around the corner and just a month ago we were able to experience the Amgen Tour of California in our own home town.  Seeing these amazing riders compete in such an epic way may fuel your own thoughts about taking your cycling to a new level - racing.  What would it be like to be a racer?  How do you start racing?  Cycle Folsom's Aaron Terrazas is a racer on Team Revolutions and has given us some great insight into these questions.

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What Does It Take To Be A Racer by Aaron Terrazas

I had no real aspirations to become a racer when I first started road biking, I just wanted to lose weight, get fit and not get dropped. As my fitness increased I began to think about racing; it looked fun and terrifying. I started doing some research, talked to friends, read articles, watched YouTube videos and thought, "why not try it, if I don't like it, I can always quit".

So what steps do you need to take to get into racing? What does it take to get started and be competitive?

Get a Coach

Regardless of how serious you intend to be, I would recommend getting a coach. Having a coach to focus your training and guide you. A coach will not only help you improve your fitness, they will also provide you with direction and focus during your race season. Without direction, folks tend to flounder, and drop out.

Work On Your Fitness

Spend the winter season training, working on your fitness and learning as much as you can. I find that folks who don't train before the race season, tend not to last long in racing because they get discouraged after a few races. There is so much to learn, and while the level of fitness among racers various greatly, the serious racers are on a completely different level of fitness than your average / above average club rider. 

Find a Team

It is very important to have a group you can connect with, work with and be mentored by. When you race, it's very difficult to win a race on your own, unless it's a very small field. Bike racing is a team sport, with strategies, race plans, lead out trains, domestiques, climbers, sprinters, and each serves a role based on the type of race. 

Get Your Race License

You need to register and get a license to race. Get your USA Cycling license for the season: https://www.usacycling.org

Racing Categories

The women's racing categories start at Cat 4 and go up to Cat 1.

The men's racing categories start at Cat 5 and go up to Cat 1. 

There are several different types of groups for each category. Juniors (kids), Cat 1,2,3,4,5 (19-34) and Masters 35+, Masters 45+, and Masters 55+. The non-masters categories are the categories that can go pro (Cat 1).

Beginner Race Program

Every Sunday morning through the month of January,  before race season officially begins, classes for road racing are provided for beginning racers called the Early Bird Races or Beginning Racer Program (BRP). There are various classes provided throughout the state, but the closest one to us is in Fremont. Instructors run through various skills you will need to know for racing like sprinting, cornering, bike handling and more. Instructors will take you through drills and at the end of the class you will get to race a Crit for 20 minutes. Each class with a race is worth 2 points which count towards your 10 upgrade points to get out of Cat 5 to Cat 4.

These classes really are essential if you plan to race.

Do You Need a Race Bike

If you don't have a great racing bike, it is ok, try racing out first before you invest in a good race bike. Racing could also be a great excuse to get a new bike. If you do want to buy a race bike, here are a few things to consider.

Aerobikes are great for crits and flat races, but they tend to drop anchor on rollers and climbs, and many do not corner as well as an all round light race road bike that handles well, responds great on climbs and sprints. Consider purchasing wheels specifically for racing that you can use for all of you races (have a separate pair for training). I have a set of tubular all carbon 50s that I use only for racing, anything deeper would probably not be as great for a climbing race.

Types of Races

Criterium Races (Crits) 

These are fast paced short lap, usually 1/2 mile to 1 mile in length, with multiple laps around a closed small circuit within a 20-40 minute period. These are great for strong riders who might not have the fitness for a long endurance road race, are great sprinters or like to be in the red as riders attack and maneuver for position. Crits are known for bunch sprints, tight corners and crashes (crashes will happen in all race types).

Circuit Races

These are basically the medium between a road race and a Crit, where you race a longer lap of several miles for an hour or more several times. Usually these are not as fast as crits.

Road Race

These are the longer endurance races, which can be longer circuits of 4-9 miles; these are done several times (40+ miles). The duration of these races differ from race to race and category to category.

Time Trial (TT)

These are solo races on a time trial bike (TT). The duration can range from 6 - 20+ miles. These are basically, how fast can you go for 20-40 minutes.

Stage Race

These are typically a series of races over a few days that can have a combination of all the different race types.

Winning Races

Bike racing is one of the few sports where most people never win or podium. There are pros who spend their entire careers never having won a race because their jobs are to support their team leader. So why race?

Racing can be challenging, scary, exhausting, fun and require dedication of time and focus. Most of us who are older are certainly not going to make it to be pros or ride in any world tours, so racing is just something we do on the weekends because we love cycling, competition and pushing ourselves. Most of us don't take it too seriously (some do), and let's face it, we aren't getting paid or sponsored, at least not those of us who are Masters (older), so the most important thing it to just have fun.

Snelling Road Race, 26 Feb 2011

There were all kinds of reasons not to race Snelling: the weather (cold rain & snow predicted earlier), flooding (last year the course was flooded), my fatigued legs, and my recent cold. The weather was cool, but not wet. There wasn't any flooding, and I wasn't as sick as I was a week or 2 ago. But my legs did feel dead, but that's racing, right? I lined up with everyone else for the Masters 35+ Category 5 race; myself (Brian, Folsom Bike) along with Jeremy and Jeff, both Cycle Folsom notables and racing for Bicycles Plus. Turns out Miles is racing for Team Revolutions; today was the first time I've seen him since he had a little spill on a wet road back in November.



The first of four, 12 mile laps, was very tame with the peloton moving around 18-20 mph. I pre-rode the course a week earlier and knew some of the corners were tricky and possibly had sand on them. I went to the front for the first set of 15 mph chicanes to pick a clean line. It wasn't my intention to be off the front, but everyone else was content riding slow. The peloton was one compact group rolling through the finish after the first lap.





On the 2nd lap, a DBC rider went off the front, but no one was willing to chase him down. Jeff made a little effort over one of the small climbs and I followed his wheel. Without much effort we had a gap. We ended up catching the DBC rider and briefly had a 3 man break. I was feeling the fatigue in my legs and every time the DBC guy pulled through, I was at my limit. I didn't want to blow myself up on the 2nd lap, so decided to drift back to the peloton. A few seconds later, Jeremy comes cruising up with another guy with some distance off the front of the peloton. I tried jumping on their wheels, but again, I was at my limit. This ended up being the winning move. On the first time check the 4-man break had 50 seconds. On the 3rd lap I tried to get the guys at the front of the peloton organized in a rotating pace line to chase them down, but after two rotations it fell apart. Both Body Concepts and Peninsula Velo had 4 or more guys (none in the break), but neither team could get organized. By the end of the 3rd lap the break had 2 minutes; everyone else was racing for 5th.





On the 3rd lap the peloton had a crash on the back side of the course. On the 4th lap, a pro woman Tibco rider in a solo breakaway passed my Cat 5 peloton [Later I read that it was Erinne Willock and she soloed the win]. We were slow. She looked like she weighed 90 pounds, but was riding faster than us into a headwind. Eventually the Cat 5 peloton would get passed by the Pro Women's peloton, but this was right before the fast part of the course and we were literally right on their heels. Just before heading into the corner before the bumpy road, the same corner other guys in our group crashed, the Pro Men's peloton raced up the side of us. Great, 150 cyclists all going into the same tricky corner. Relief, no one crashed. But then my Cat 5 group got neutralized to create a gap behind the woman's group because the finish was about 3 miles away. Because we were neutralized, everyone moved up to the front and were then able to recover, and this was right before the finish. Sure enough, with about a mile to go including one corner and a small hill, we were set loose. Guys nearly started sprinting from a mile out. The pace shot up to 28 mph. I stayed near the front in the top ten, but there was no way I was going to take any wind at that speed from that far out. I picked a good line through the final right-hand turn and kept my speed. A guy in front of me went way wide which was fine, but then he cut back across the course. I literally had to grab a handful of brake, fishtailing my back wheel like a power slide, but was able to quickly recover and get back into a sprint. I was gassed, but kept pushing to the end up the hill. There was a Rio Strada guy in front of me, so it was my final goal to sprint ahead of him. The official results were not in when I wrote this, but I counted about 7 guys in front of me, plus the break away of 4, so that would put me somewhere between 10-15. Not bad considering my legs were cramping over the small climbs on the last lap and a half. Miles also had a strong finish just a few places behind me. Jeremy went on to take first with a solo break from his break-mates; Jeff would then sprint from the 3 man chase group for second. Way to go guys!



El Patron raced the Masters 35+ Category 4 race which was on the course at the same time as my race. Apparently he got in a 2 man breakaway and finished second.



No need to sprint for a finish when no one is in sight around you...



Thanks Krysta for taking the great photos!

Chad and Patrick also raced. You can read about their events in the Cycle Folsom Meetup discussions.

Weekend Racing

More Cycle Folsom Ride Leaders and members are racing this year. While the Peloton Group was heading down to Pocket for wet 78 mile jaunt, and the Gruppetto Group was tackling the local Folsom Cols, Performance Ride Leader Phil and new Cycle Folsom member Mark, both riding for the Folsom Bike Race Team, had a wet and wild ride at the Cal Aggie Criterium in Land Park on Saturday. Check out their race reports in the Cycle Folsom Race Report discussion.

Since I'm new to racing (Folsom Bike Race Team), I headed down to Fremont for the 4th Early Bird Criterium. I think this is a great program that combines a skills clinic followed by a criterium. I almost didn't line-up for the race. Some guys got a little too squirrely in the clinic and there was 2 crashes. Not a good sign, but I ended up lining-up along side Cycle Folsom member Jeff racing for Bicycles Plus.

The sun came out after a wet morning and the race turned out to be uneventful in a good way. I tried to stay up near the front for most of the race to stay out of any trouble. I few guys every now and again would take a flyer off the front; I felt the need to shut 'em down. At one point Jeff and I ended up on the sharp end of the peloton. All in all, it was a good practice race; no crashes. Sunday, February 13th will be the real race. I hope I can mix it up in the sprint.



More photos on Flickr, thanks to Krysta.