Amateur bike races.

[Tim Kelley]

http://www.Strava.com

Race yourself and others any time you want!

[Tim Kelley]

And here’s what’s on my plate for the rest of the season:

http://www.Total200.com

http://www.mtntouring.com/mountain/htm/shenandoah_mountain_100/page_sm100.htm

http://alpineloopgranfondo.com/

[Nubbs]

I do that, every time I go out I want to set at least one PR. Im looking for something a little more organized.

[vvill]

If you don’t want to do a Cat 5 race you could always join a group/shop ride to get motivation. There’s plenty of weekly rides in the area and some of them are as fast as those races.

[eminva]

If you are interested in officially sanctioned racing, take a look at the MABRA website:

http://www.mabra.org/

Good luck.

Liz

[Nubbs]

I am going to try and do some CAT5 races next year and some 35+ races.

My school schedule has hurt my ability to take part in my shop rides. School ends in August for the semester so I am hoping to get involved with some of those rides and some more weekend rides in the coning weeks as away to stay motivated.

eminva: Thanks for the link!

[dasgeh]

Please, please, please join a team and learn how to ride in a group before jumping into road racing. It’s a different animal than just riding on your own, and if you ride dangerously, you can hurt not only yourself, but others (I know – my husband was in not one but TWO crashes caused by the same junior last weekend, who apparently didn’t know how to corner in the rain).

If you’re in school, most schools have teams. Lots of people got into road racing by joining their university’s team, and most university’s teams are majority grad students (or at least they were a few years ago, when we were into that scene).

[Nubbs]

I would like to join a team and have tried but was turned down. Other teams in the area require you to have a certain amount of sanctioned races under your belt before you can join. I will revisit this aspect again next year when I have more saddle time. My College is in PA and they do not have a team in this area, thank you for the recommendation on that, I hadn’t even thought to look in that direction.

Hope your husband heeled up quick, I heard there were a lot of crashes in Reston and when i go out there I saw a few riders pretty banned and bruised.

[hozn]

@Nubbs 56672 wrote:

I started off the season taking part in a 6 hour Cranky Monkey MTB race.

I was there too! I think what Dasgeh said is good advice. Do group riding before jumping into CAT 5. Landing on pavement hurts a lot more than landing on dirt (and likelihood of hurting others is obviously much much higher). Do shop rides like the Freshbikes Tuesday night rides (or quieter ones).

But I would also say “just do more mountain bike racing”. E.g. Wednesdays at Wakefield has two more races — do those. MTB racing is much more laid back than road racing. And honestly it’s a lot easier. Or, what I mean is that it is easier to develop the fitness necessary to be competitive without devoting your entire life to cycling. And the great thing about MTB racing is that you can actually use placing to gauge your physical abilities (fitness & technique) as opposed to road races where the best case is typically just finishing in the pack.

[dasgeh]

@Nubbs 56721 wrote:

I would like to join a team and have tried but was turned down. Other teams in the area require you to have a certain amount of sanctioned races under your belt before you can join. I will revisit this aspect again next year when I have more saddle time. My College is in PA and they do not have a team in this area, thank you for the recommendation on that, I hadn’t even thought to look in that direction.

Hope your husband heeled up quick, I heard there were a lot of crashes in Reston and when i go out there I saw a few riders pretty banned and bruised.

I thought NCVC took everyone.

Since all college teams travel to all of their races anyways, it might still be worthwhile to join that team. It’s a pretty good time.

And thanks. He actually crashed 2 weekends ago (I forgot we just came back from a weekend — little sleep last night). He’s fine, just bruised. Too bad he has to limp after kids all day long…

[Nubbs]

Nope, NCVC doesn’t accept everyone.

I sent a email to the Penn State team to see what I can do to get on the team. By looking at the team picture I might be the oldest member of the team by 15 years .

[hozn]

I may have missed something, but I don’t see the reason to join a team. I think it’s fair to say you need to prove yourself as a rider before a team will let you join and I don’t really see any benefit other than more enforced/encouraged group ride (but you can do those on your own volition). I think the ticket to joining any of the local teams is just participating in the club (or shop) rides [that are open to non-team-members] so that you get to know the people on the team. If you prove yourself to them as a competent cyclist, I’m sure they’ll let you know how to join. Or so I hear.

[Author]

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