By Mallory Williams
For me, road racing is about the feeling of the wind on your face as you spin through the peloton or sprint ahead to catch the cyclist ahead of you. The burn in your legs, the pounding in your chest, and the voice in your head telling you to slow down, despite the accelerating feeling of joy pushing you forward. This is bike racing. In this article I will tell you some tips and tricks that will help you get ready for the awesome sensations you can only experience racing your road bike!
- Have a bike that fits. If a bike doesn’t fit you it will decrease your enjoyment of cycling as well as your performance. Being uncomfortable when you bike is no fun so making sure you fit your bike is a very good idea! An easy way to fix the problem is calling in to Fresh Air Experience to book a bike fitting appointment. Bring your bike in and we will make sure it fits you!
- Bring your bike in for a tune up. It can be a pain sometimes to put your bike in the car and trudge it off to the bike shop to get it tuned up, but I highly recommend it. Not only will it make your bike safer, it will also make it faster. When your bike is cleaned it will run smoother, as well as move faster. Checking it over to make sure there are no deficiencies anywhere or rubbing that could cause bike mechanicals makes sense. Fresh Air Experience is a great place to bring your bike for a tune up! We would be happy to help you! Just make sure you call in a few weeks before your big event so that we can guarantee you an open spot for your bike.
- Work on bike handling. If choosing between going fast or being safe on your bike, being safe is by far the best option, whether you are training for a road race, criterium, or time trial. If you are racing with no bike handling skills you will most likely put yourself as well as others in danger. One exercise i do to work on bike handling is to occasionally set up an obstacle course. You can use some small pylons or chalk to make some figure eights, slalom, as well as some small jumps to practice hopping with your front and back tire. Another fun exercise is to put a water bottle on the ground and practice picking it up! Remember to start easy and work your way up so that you don’t hurt yourself. Finding a group to cycle with can be beneficial too. Learning to cycle close together will help you to stay focused, respond quickly and watch what’s going on around you.
- Make a plan. If it’s jotting down a few goals in a journal or mentally in your head they can be a real help! (I would suggest the journal one though). Completing a race can be a huge accomplishment so just completing the race and having fun could be your goal. If there is a specific place you want to push or try to make a break you could write that down as well. Studying the race map is a very useful thing to do so that you know where all the hills and turns are. Writing down how long you will need for your warm-up lets you know when to arrive at the race site and how much time you would need to be prepared before you race. You would also remember what you did for your warm-up so that if you liked it you could use it for your next race. Once you are done your race you can look back on your goals and say to yourself, did I complete all my goals (If you did yay!) or were there things you could have done differently? Reviewing and recording what worked well and what didn’t will allow you apply those lessons for your next race.
- Warm-up. Before you race, warming up is very important. Warming up helps to avoid injury and to be ready to go once you start your race! The length of your race will help you decide, that will decide how (long or short) your warm-up needs to be. Warm-ups for each individual can be pretty different but here are a few ideas. You should first start with around 10-20 minutes of easy spinning. Depending on how you feel you can either make it a bit shorter or longer. After some easy spinning I would suggest doing 3-5 minutes of tempo, or, an relatively long time. Once you are done with tempo you should do 2-3 minutes of easy spinning or until you feel recovered. Follow this with 3×1 minute high cadence intervals, with 2 minutes between each. Finally, the last exercise you would do before you start are a few 10 second “out of the saddle” sprints to get you going before you roll to the start. Just remember that warm-ups are different for each person. If you record what works for you, you can make needed modifications.
- Bike trainer. At times cycling can be expensive, but I would strongly propose you invest in a bike trainer. Sometimes it can be really hard to find places to warm up before you start racing and trainers can be really useful for that. It’s also really good to train one in the winter or on days with disappointing weather! We sell them at Fresh Air Experience so if there is any time you are nearby we would be happy to show you what we have.
- Fueling. Whether before, during or after you race fueling is very essential. For more nutrition info see this article I wrote!
- Cool- down. Having a proper cool down is very important for recovery and it helps to get the lactate out of your body. Just doing 20 minutes of easy spinning will help a lot.
The two most crucial things you should remember out of all of these is to try your very hardest and to have fun! If you do these two things nothing is impossible.
