ATTN cyclists

After battling chronic stress fractures, I finally made the decision about 2 years ago to switch to cycling. I miss running, but I wasn't ready to be a recreational runner (which is all my feet allowed me to do).

If you've run those sort of times then you have the potential to be a pretty good amateur cyclist. I know a couple of guys who had times in those ranges who compete well against cat 2's and 3's. A lot has to do with your handling ability as strategy, positioning, etc are much more important in cycling than in running. If you are in good aerobic shape, you may be able to ride away from most Cat 5 and Cat 4 riders, but if your pack riding skills aren't up to snuff, you could stall out in the 3's. Also, if you can only place in hilly road races, you may find it difficult to move up if you can't cut it in flat road races or crits.

One of the most frustrating things I found initially was that although I had the lungs to trash guys one-on-one, a group of weaker guys will almost always walk you down if they work together because the aerodynamics of pace-lining play a huge role in cycling. My advice is to find a club and try to do some group rides where you'll get exprience riding in close quarters, comfortable with getting bumped (practice this with a buddy on a grass field). Then once you feel ok with those things, jump in a race and see how it goes.

I was more like a 4:30 miler and ran low 17's for 5k (although I would probably have been faster if not for injuries), and I placed top-12 in most of the Cat 5 races I did (road races, not crits), and in Cat 4, I've been a little bit better than mid-pack. This is in Northern-CA which is one of the most competitive cycling regions in the country, so you're results may vary depending on where you live.

Hope this helps.

thanks, I appreciate it.

One additional question, what's training like for cat3/4 cyclists? I mean as a runner you get used to training pretty much 7 days a week. Would you say that the same is true for cyclists at that level? Do you do specific workouts, or just hard rides vs. easier rides? Do you do the equivalent of a long run every week?

Josh put it pretty well.

You definitely have the ability to hang in fast races. Training for cycling is initially a matter of time and patience, in re-teaching the muscles to do something different. It takes varying amounts of time to come around from person to person. One rule of thumb I heard when I started was that it takes 2 years of conditioning the leg muscles to really understand the demands of cycling. That's not saying you won't be competitive for 2 years. You may have Cat 1 potential, and be ready to race with Cat 4's after 6 months.

Josh made a great point about bike handling. This cannot be under-emphasized. Riding even in Cat 4 races, you will hit speeds you probably cannot maintain alone. It will require getting comfortable riding very close to other riders, at high speeds, on technical courses. This way, you maximize the aerodynamic advantage of being in the group. The most successful riders in any field have mastered this ability, and will put forth very little effort for 90% of a race, and inflict major damage late in the race (when it counts!).

As far as your follow-up question....training requirements depend on lots of things. The first, your natural ability. You'll discover where this gets you over time. Also, what are your goals in racing? The training demands for being able to hang in the field vs. racing to win are very different. I know guys that train 4 days a week, 1-3 hours per ride, 5-8 hours per week, that are very competitive in Cat 3 races.

Personally, I trained 8-15 hours per week last year, which was my first year of serious racing. I began the season as a Cat 3 (yeah, getting approved for a Cat 3 upgrade is fairly subjective). However, I justified my Cat 3 status, and had 5-6 top 5 finishes, including one win, and the overall win for the state's season long series. This year I upgraded to Cat 2, but reduced the training time, due to family demands (7-11 hours per week). I still have no problem hanging in the field, and even got in the winning breakaway in the state road race.

Although I trained less this year, I trained more specifically. I picked up a power meter, and added structure to every single workout. I used a periodized approach with a base phase, general preparation phase, and race specific phase. However, power meters are expensive, and quality training can happen in other ways. A good general rule-of-thumb is to do lots of long, slow stuff in the winter. Incorporate some tempo and try to get into a group ride once every 1 to 2 weeks.

In March, start to mix in some higher intensity stuff. Most group rides will start to spice up this time of year, so they can be a good place to get this done. Throughout the year, it is good to do one long ride per week. Typically 3 to 5 hours. Obviously, you won't want to jump immediately into 5 hour rides. Give yourself some time to get comfortable on the bike.

Once you get into the racing time of year, you can use the races themselves as good training. In my area I have the

opportunity to race 2-3 times per week. If these are short (45 min to 75 min), you won't need much recovery time afterward and can usually race hard or workout hard after 1 day recovery (often even the next day).

Cycling, as with running, depends alot on how many miles you can put in. If you have a ton of time to train, use it. I know guys that absolutely sucked one year, but had schedules that allowed them to train a ton. They rode 3-4 hours a day, and ended up competitive in Cat 2 fields within a year.

Bottom line, you can be successful in the Cat 3, Cat 4 levels with pretty wide ranges of training commitment.

Josh, thanks for your interesting post. You make a clear distinction between riding fitness and bike handling skills. You need to be able to handle riding in a crowd no matter what your fitness level because, as you explain, slower cyclists can work together to defeat a faster solo cyclist.

But tell me, how many times a year do you fall from riding in a group?

I was in a riding group for a while, but there seemed to be at least one crash every month. There would be as many as forty cyclists in the summer.

We would ride on the shoulders of some big roads on weekend mornings. There was inevitably some debris in the road, and the riders in the middle would often trip over debris since they couldn't see past the guys in front. The guys in front are supposed to warn of upcoming debris, but sometimes an obstacle would go overlooked and take someone down.

Also, the touching of tires is common and often takes riders down. And in races, people ride aggressively and cause crashes.

I got fed up and started riding by myself for fitness only. It's less exciting, but definitely safer. Riding in a group is dangerous, especially if there are different levels of ability.

again, thanks for the input. Anything you do in particular to improve bike handling skills (other than just riding a lot or rather riding a lot with other people)?

roadie to be? wrote:

again, thanks for the input. Anything you do in particular to improve bike handling skills (other than just riding a lot or rather riding a lot with other people)?

Find a local coach to teach you skills.

Go to

, click on COACHES, then FIND A COACH.

You must have very nice local USCF reps to let you upgrade to cat3 in your first season. I've won several cat5, and placed top 3 in several other cat4/5 races, and they still are hardlining me with the 10 race quota to get out of 5. I told them I race with the local club weekly and I have well over 30 mass start races, but they wouldn't budge. Sucks, because I could have gotten enough points to upgrade to 3...to the op-With mid 14's 5k speed, you certainly have the capacity to be a very competitive cyclist, especially on hilly courses. As mentioned, bike racing isn't the same thing as running where the better runner wins 99% of the time.I personally find a 1 hr. crit (25-28 miles) a lot tougher than a 60 mile hilly road race, but I guess that's personal. I also find it frustrating to lose to 'bigger' guys who can just fly on the flats, but would die on any hills.Cat4/5 road races are fairly safe, since everyone rides pretty separated (as compared to pro/1/2/3), but crits are a disaster. Just this weekend (in the rain), someone started their turn too far to the inside, and ended up taking out my front wheel and several others when they couldn't make the turn at that speed. Luckily we took our free lap and integrated to the front pack after 10 laps of chase.Practice riding close to the rider in front, maintaining a consistent line (for the riders behind you),and also using the brakes judiciously. More problems are caused by beginner riders grabbing a handful of brakes anytime they come within a certain distance of the wheel ahead. Keep your arms relaxed and ready to absorb bumps from other riders.

Lazy Llama wrote:

Personally, I trained 8-15 hours per week last year, which was my first year of serious racing. I began the season as a Cat 3 (yeah, getting approved for a Cat 3 upgrade is fairly subjective). However, I justified my Cat 3 status, and had 5-6 top 5 finishes, including one win, and the overall win for the state's season long series. This year I upgraded to Cat 2, but reduced the training time, due to family demands (7-11 hours per week). I still have no problem hanging in the field, and even got in the winning breakaway in the state road race.

Great ways to improve bike handling skills...

1. The obvious way...just getting into rides with groups. Stay at the back on your first few rides. Definitely do not lead through any corners. Just learn what lines are taken in various situations. The most important rules for a newbie...don't overlap wheels with the guy in front of you, and don't make any unecessarily sudden moves (i.e., to the side, or by hitting the brakes). You will overlap wheels from time to time unintentionally...don't panic. Just coast until you are clear, and resume pedaling.

As far as finding a group...cyclists have a reputation for being elitist asses. This is partially true. It can be difficult and frustrating as a new rider getting into a group ride. Unless you know someone that brings you in...and introduces you to the group...you just have to deal with it. They forget they were newbies once too. Find someone in the group that appears to be approachable, and make it clear you are starting out, and any pointers would be helpful.

2. Mountian bike/cyclocross...both sports require a bike different than road racing. Getting on some challenging single-track will do loads for your handling skills. Bike handling originates with the body...mostly, the hips. The temptation when beginning cycling is to handle the bike with the arms/hands. Mountain biking teaches proper handling of the bike through the hips. It's amazing how much this comes into play, even when racing down the straightest road in a road race.

Cyclocross is my favorite cycling discipline. Mass start racing, 95% of the course is off-road, usually pretty technical. UCI legal-races will have barriers, which usually force the rider to dismount, hurdle the barrier, and remount the bike. Good courses will also have other areas of the course that are too technical to ride, and force a dismount into a run. 60 minutes of pure adrenaline. It's a fall sport, and most groups start their series' right about now. Check it out if you have the resources!

NordicX wrote:

You must have very nice local USCF reps to let you upgrade to cat3 in your first season. I've won several cat5, and placed top 3 in several other cat4/5 races, and they still are hardlining me with the 10 race quota to get out of 5. I told them I race with the local club weekly and I have well over 30 mass start races, but they wouldn't budge. Sucks, because I could have gotten enough points to upgrade to 3...

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You're right...our local rep is a pretty flexible guy. It all depends on your region in the US. Where I race the quality of the fields are high, but rider numbers are relatively low. Reps have the challenge of managing the numbers in these fields and use some subjectivity in approving upgrades at the lower levels.

Also, a point of clarification...last year was my first year of serious racing, but not my first year of racing. I did triathlon from 2002 to 2004, and started racing cycling in 2004. The Cat 5 to Cat 4 upgrade is a matter of accumulating enough starts.

From there, it was a bit political, for lack of a better term. I was invited to compete on my brother's Cat 3 team at the end of 2004, however, I was still a Cat 4. I submitted the upgrade request with only about 5 races under my belt as a Cat 4. I highlighted in the upgrade request that I was invited onto the Cat 3 team. The team is well-known in the area, and it's reputation respected to the extent that the USCF reps know they wouldn't put an athlete on a team if they couldn't compete in that team's field. There also may have been a little race resume fudging involved. In any event, I got the upgrade.

That being said, I would not have gotten the Cat 2 upgrade in the same manner in which I obtained the Cat 3 upgrade. The reps require concrete results before moving riders into the Cat 2 category. As the Cat 2's race in the same field as Cat 1 and pro divisions, reps don't want rookie riders causing a clusterf*** in a pro field.

I have never crashed in a training ride with a group or otherwise, mostly because I don't take stupid risks. I actually avoid riding in really large groups because having to negotiate the group and traffic seems dangerous to me. I've improved my pack riding skills riding mostly with 4 or 5 buddies on my team. All you need is to get comfortable with people on all sides of you, and you don't need 50 people in a ride to do that.

In the Bay Area we have early bird races which are preceeded by a training session led by Cat 1-3's. A lot of areas often offer skills clinics which can be helpful.

Learn how to get bumped and stay up (hint: you lean into the other rider rather than away).

Learn how to touch wheels and not go down (this is tricky).

Learn to protect your front wheel (it's your responsibility).

Learn what a reasonable gap is to put your bike in. I've seen way too many crashes with people trying to shove themselves into holes where there wasn't one.

Cycling just takes a lot of auxilliary skills that just aren't there in running. It takes time, and cycling allows for that with the category system.

Here's a real newbie question, in terms of racing...

Is there a website that explains the different cycling classifications?

Cool, I've got decent bike handling skills on a mtb. I'm actually planning on doing a few low key races this fall. I'd do cyclocross but I don't have a rig and I'm a bit worried about the running aspect of it. Don't know if my achilles would permit that. This has all been good advice.

USCF Category Guidlines can be found at:

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=580

Although there are some regional variations. For instance I was able to move up from 5's to 4's with 5 races because I did a skills clinic. Things get stricter in the higher cats.

I faced a similar problem; overly mobile feet made me prone to a sequence of injuries and a bad case of plantar f. created major problems. I did a 'public' portion of a hill climb race up MtBaldy and beat most of the 3s and 4s and half of the 2s (this was before they had 5s). The next year I decided to race (join a racing club). I was in southern California and there were lots of hills/mountains. I did mainly hill climbs (finished third in the hill clib series behind two top riders who raced in Europe a little). I won the one road race I did (it had a 5-mile climb x 3 and I only ever had to actually race with a few cat4s. The officials readily moved me up to cat3. I won one Cat3 road race of the three I did and 3/4s of the hill climbs that I did).

I did not have much time (I was finishing grad school) but got in quality rides by climbing MtBaldy and Glendora Ridge Rd and some other climbs. My team helped me learn how to ride and how to race. Racing is very different and requires a lot of strategy in the face of inadequate information (you do not get audio feeds like in the Tour).

Compared with distance running, you need a proader range of skills and abilities (everyone needs to be able to sprint (both atht he finish and to close gaps). If yo do not ride efficiently (corners, drafting, riding in the wind, time trialling), you will not be very successful compared to your 'inate ability'. Also, an aggressive personality is advantageous and marks a key difference with runners, especially if you live in a flat part of the world (I thought crits were/are useless and they are dangerous as well).

Thanks for the weblink Josh.

Another question - what's a crit?

a crit is like a really short course, prolly between .6-1.5 miles, usually considered very "technical" racing cause of the many sharp turns. since you go by the finish line 40, 50, 60 times, whatever, some laps count for things like points, or money, or prizes. also, since the course is so short, if you get dropped from the pack there's a good chance the leaders will lap you, and usually you get pulled from the race once that happens.

isn't this guy's bike a little too small?

:)

I ride just for exercise, but would like to improve my performance and reduce quad cramps as well.

I ride on the road, so obviously changing from a mountain bike to a road bike would significantly improve my distances/times. Today I road 45 miles in 3 hours which isn't that good, but it ain't bad for a 49 year old on a mountain bike. My question is how much improvement would I get from pedal clips. I'm assume I'm using too much quad, and hardly any hammie muscles. Also, for that long of a ride, energy bars or gel packs are good, correct? My budget is limited and I don't really race, but I still like to be competitive with the buddies I ride with, so any help is appreciated.