Cycle Racing : How to Train, Race and Win - Softcover

William Fotheringham

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9781844427161: Cycle Racing : How to Train, Race and Win

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844427161 ISBN 13: 9781844427161

Publisher: Carlton Publishing, 2004

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About the Author:

William Fotheringham is the Features Editor at Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport magazines and he is the cycling correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He wrote A Century of Cycling: The Classic Races and Legendary Champions (Motorbooks International, 2003) and Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson (Yellow Jersey Press, 2003).

Chapter One: Getting Started

The world of cycle sport is rich and varied, offering a range of racing from the Tour de France to the lowly time trial. Here is a beginner's guide to the many sides of cycling, where it all happens, what you need and how it all works, plus handy pointers to help you find a club that's right for you.

Cycling is a sport with many faces: the high drama and suffering of the Tour de France; the 40-mile-per-hour thrills and spills of mountain-bike downhilling; the silence, broken only by the swish of tires, of a Sunday morning time trial; the mellow comradeship of a midweek track racing league.

The fact that one basic skill -- riding a bike -- offers the chance to compete in what amount to several different sports, but with the same basic training, is what keeps many people attached to bike racing for the whole of their lives. If you are fit enough, and sufficiently well organized, you can take part in four completely different kinds of bike race over an Easter weekend, for example. There are few other sports that offer such variety.

The other long-term attraction of all sides of bike racing is the fact that the basic training is in itself a social act. The only way to train for cycling is by riding a bike, and the most appropriate way to do that -- apart from when you are looking to achieve specific ends in your training -- is in company.

You can't sustain a decent conversation out jogging or while training on the baseball diamond, but you can while acquiring or maintaining basic fitness for cycle racing. And it's a great way to see the countryside -- although sometimes you may be concentrating too hard to notice much of it.

For the newcomer, with so much to choose from, cycling can be a bewildering sport, and it can also be one into which it is hard to find your way initially.

The first priority of this book, then, is to guide you through the types of cycle sport, and to help you gain some idea of what they can offer to you and how you can get started.

ROAD RACING

WHAT IS IT?
Road racing is the most high-profile side of cycle racing. The basic idea is simplicity itself -- a field of cyclists starts together and the first across the finish line wins, for which reason road racing was originally known as "mass start." But road races come in all shapes and sizes.

At the top of the pyramid are the great European Tours, multi-day races such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espa�a, run in a series of individual stages around each country with the daily results combined to decide an overall classification. With 21 days' racing and a distance of around 2,000 -- 2500 miles, including mountain climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees, they are among world sport's hardest endurance events. The Tour de France, the most important of the big three, rates as the world's biggest annual sporting event: only the Olympics and soccer's World Cup eclipse it in scale.

Continental Europe is also the home of the one-day Classics: up to 170 miles in length and indelibly rooted in their own area of Europe, they date from the turn of the century. Professional road racing is based on the calendar of races across Europe between February and October, which are used by the stars to build up to the high points of the year: the three Tours, the Classics, the other World Cup counting events, and the annual world championship road race in October. The European professional calendar is contested by about 50 teams totaling some 1,000 cyclists who effectively rank as the best in the world. There are now several professional teams and events in North America.

HOW DO I DO IT?
The North American road-racing season lasts from February to October, and is at its height in May, June and July. Road races are organized by local cycling clubs and leagues under the rules of governing bodies such as the Canadian Cycling Association and the United States Cycling Federation (USCF). In addition, a number of "independent" road-racing organizations have sprung up in recent years, organizing events on a local basis, mainly for seasoned masters: these provide a straightforward way into the sport. (See contacts on page 11.)

There is a wide variety of events for the beginner, ranging from short races (20 miles to 35 miles) on dedicated circuits on midweek evenings in major cities, to events between 40 miles and 100 miles in distance, usually on a Sunday, on open roads in the countryside. Organization tends to be low key and fairly informal, but a good standard of fitness and experience of riding in a group is necessary even at the lowest level.

Fields in races on open roads, shared with normal traffic, usually have a limit on the number of competitors. Races on dedicated circuits have no restriction on numbers. At the top end, the 100-mile-plus century rides are limited to the racing elite.

Road racing in North America is based on a category system. Racers are divided into ascending categories, from entry-level rider to elite cyclists competing for Olympic selection. Transfer from one category to another is based on points awarded according to finishing position in races. Cyclists are classified and compete according to age. In Canada, youth are riders 16 years of age or less, juniors are cyclists between 17 and 18 years of age, "Under 23s" are between 19 and 23, "Elite" and "Masters" are above 23 and have several subdivisions. In the United States, juniors are cyclists between the ages of 10 and 18, "Under 23s" are cyclists between 19 and 22, "Elite" are between 23 and 29, and those above 30 are "Masters." National championships are held in both countries annually.

WHAT DO I NEED?
To compete in road races in North America, you must be a member of the Canadian Cycling Association or the United States Cycling Federation and -- in the U.S. -- hold a valid racing license, which can be bought directly from them, or through a cycling club affiliated to them. Club membership in both countries is recommended for the beginner, as the advice that other riders can offer a novice is crucial, and also because at a higher level road racing is a team sport, as will be explained in Chapter 6. Club subscriptions average around US$125.

In the United States, a valid USCF license is needed to enter accredited road race competitions. A license costs US$50 annually, US$25 for a junior rider. In Canada, no license is necessary to participate in road races. For more information visit the websites of the United States Cycling Federation or the Canadian Cycling Association. The websites of both organizations are packed with information, including a full racing calendar, rules of racing, club and coaching guides and tips for newcomers to the sports. Full rulebooks are available for download in Adobe's portable document format (PDF).

Entry fees for road races are usually between US$25 and U.S.$50. Many races can be entered weeks beforehand, using entry forms available from cycling clubs. Many events can also be entered on the day.

Look for entry-level events where you can turn up and dip your toes in the water without the stress of formal competition. Other than that, you need a standard road-racing bike (see Chapter 2). Hard-shell helmets are mandatory.

CONTACTS
Canadian Cycling Association
702 - 2197 Riverside Drive
Ottawa, ON K1H 7X3
(613) 248-1353
www.canadiancycling.ca

United States Cycling Federation
One Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
(719) 866-4581
www.usacycling.org

TIME TRIALING

WHAT IS IT?
The time trial is cycling stripped to the basics: starting at one- or two-minute intervals, riders race "alone and unassisted" and are timed over a course of a set length; the fastest wins. It's as simple as that: a pure test of speed and strength. "The race of truth" is its European nickname.

Time trialing has two faces. Internationally, there are men and women's world time-trial championships, while the great Tours always include several time-trial stages: as a way of deciding who is the strongest in a multi-day race, the time trial has no equal.

In Britain, time trialing developed from the turn of the 20th century as a secret, isolated culture, as racing of any kind on the open road was banned until just before the Second World War. Time trials were run in lonely places at the crack of dawn on Sundays and ridden by racers dressed in black, on courses referred to by code numbers to preserve secrecy.

Nowadays, time trialing is still the most popular form of cycle sport in Britain, and growing in popularity on this side of the pond in North America. There are 10-, 25-, 50- and 100-miie races, usually over courses "out and home" on open roads, shared with other traffic, starting and finishing at the same point. Events lasting 12 hours and 24 hours are decided on the distance covered in the set time.

HOW DO I DO IT?
Time trialing is very accessible, and relatively cheap for the beginner. "Open" time trials are organized from February to October by individual clubs and area bodies under the rules of either the USCF or the Canadian Cycling Association.

Unofficial, "club" time trials are run over 10 and 25 miles, usually weekly in the evenings during the summer, by an individual cycling club for its members, who simply turn up, pay a nominal fee, collect their number and ride. Usually results will count for a season-long league within the club. Such club events are the foundation of most long-established cycling clubs, which usually have club championships at the various distances, and their own "Best All Round" contest.

As well as the more popular "out and home" distances, time trials over hilly circuits ranging from 7 to 75 miles are increasingly popular as traffic increases on major roads. There are other variants: time trials for teams of two, three or four cyclists, and at the end of the season come the traditional "hill climbs...

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