Justin B – Stillwater, Oklahoma

Stillwater, OK – the home of the great Guy Cooper. I spent about a week there a few years ago riding motorcycles at the Stillwater Cycle Park. We had to go buy memberships to the club at a local bicycle shop that was run by Guy’s sister. A bunch of guys were trying to do this jump in between some trees and no one was really having all that much luck with it. All of a sudden, some dude on a big KTM, wearing jeans and a pocket t-shirt starts nailing it. After he’d jumped it 4-5 times I saw him land, pull over and cut the motor, and then answer his cell-phone that was in the pocket of his t-shirt. It was Guy Cooper himself.

Justin, the answer is yes, racing for recreation is a blast, and I believe it’s a very worthwhile pursuit.

But … you knew there would be a but …

It is important to understand a few things going into it, so that you can have the most amount of fun and maintain your sanity — not to mention your desire to keep riding.

First of all, remember that in cycling, like just about everything, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. You’re probably going to get advice from riders who really don’t know what they are doing. I remember when I started out, hearing all these various people telling me about tactics and training and bicycle fit. Most of them were either completely full of BS or had very little experience. As a new racer, you’re obviously going to listen to some of these folks and will absorb at least little bit of what they tell you, but just remember to take all of this advice with a grain of salt. Whenever you can, try and listen to the people who have been in the sport for a while. They might not be the strongest and fastest riders you know, but having been around the sport for a reasonably long time they will surely have figured a few things out. I would also suggest that you watch what the good criterium riders do and listen and learn from them as much as possible. When you know what you are doing, criteriums are pretty easy (physically) to ride. A really good criterium rider (in the USA at least) will be really efficient with his/her use of energy.

Next, if you want to race, buy a book about training so that you understand its basic principles. I highly recommend The Cyclist’s Training Bible by Joe Friel. It is probably more information than you might need right now, but by understanding training, you’ll make better decisions when you ride, so that when you do race you’ll at least be able to put your best foot forward. You don’t necessarily need to set up a training program or even do anything but go out and ride, but understanding training is important. The biggest mistake amateur cyclists make is riding too hard. I personally know of dozens of really good cyclists who were terrible racers because they couldn’t ever go out and ride slowly.

Make sure you are really comfortable on your bike, too. If you have access to a shop that does professional fitting, you might think about having them take a look at you on your bike. If that is not an option, you might have someone who has ridden for a long time eye you up and give you their gut reaction to your position. If they see glaring problems with your position you might think about making a change, but be advised, changes should be made gradually. Also, if this is a person who can climb and time trial but cannot ride a criterium to save their ass, and they are telling you your saddle is too low and too far back … get another opinion.

When you do start racing, be very careful that you don’t fall into the trap of making a bunch of creeping changes. When I started riding and racing I kept raising my saddle in order to ride as fast as I could on a 3-6 mile climb. It ended up being too high and created some problems.

I don’t know what your skill level is as a bike handler, but I am assuming you ride in a group some of the time. This is a good way to start feeling comfortable riding in close quarters with other people. Remember this too — you’re sure to hear people yelling at you to “hold your line” and any other manner of thing. If someone calmly tells you this after the fact, listen to what they say. Otherwise, don’t pay too much attention unless you are crashing people left and right. In my experience the people making the most noise about safe riding are typically those who are actually the most dangerous. I am not saying that you don’t need a decent amount of situational awareness, but being yelled at by some loudmouth is about as beneficial as having a car honk at you while you’re concentrating as hard as you can on staying on the edge of the road and out of its way.

Most importantly, relax and have fun. Racing a bike is one of the most difficult and most rewarding things you can do. I like your approach to it and wish you the very best. Welcome to the family.