Info for all you new road racers

[Singlespeedster]

I am just passing this stuff on from a friend of mine who has been battling it out in the cat 1/2 field for some years now.

Wheels: Find out if spare wheels are available on a chase vehicle. The three most common methods are Wheels in/Wheels out. Meaning you bring spare wheels to the race, give them to the chase vehicle and pick them up after. Identify these wheels with you rname and racer number. A common thread on TXBRA is "Who has my wheel?"

Neutral wheels are supplied by an outside organization, Mavic being the most famous of these.

Team wheels are those supplied ina team chase vehicle.

As a rule these wheel support vehicles try to chase the last paying place. (i.e., if the race pays to tenth place, you are in eleventh and racer 1-10 take off on a break, bye bye vehicle.)

If you do flat and need support, hold up a hand. Technically you hold up your left hand if you need a front wheel, and you right if you need a rear. (Hand off of the brake that nedds the wheel) But do not expect every support crew to know this.

WATER: There generally are not NEUTRAL feed zones. The feed zones consist of people handing water up to a specific racer or team. Designate someone as your water handup, or you won't get any.

Feed Zones: Are a great place to wipe out. Be careful.

Racing: When you are about to blow up, and mentally ready to crack; when the pack is hammering alonmg and you don't think you can catch up, realize that they are all as tired as you. They will let up unless it is the final push. You will generally give in mentally before you give in physically. If the pack gets ten yards ahead of you, they might as well be on the moon. Dig for it.

Good luck, everyone.

A

[Griz]

that is some high-quality material......thanks for posting Anthony.

[speed]

Wish I would have known all that before my first race last year. Thanks.

[john_curtis]

Awesome. Visualizing these race scenarios almost makes me want to try a road race.

Maybe Pace Bend...

[Griz]

Heard the 'stealing water bottles' story last night from Robbie. He said he was unaware of the water handout policy during his first cat 5 race and he just helped himself. Needless to say, there were some pissed off roadies who didn't get water as they came through.

Hearing that story made me wonder what the policy for water hand outs is at CX races. During my first CX race at WC I came through the start/finish line area and I noticed that there were all these nice people holding out water bottles. Recalling the handouts at all tmbra mtb races, I did not hesitate to reach out and grab one. As I put my lips to the bottle, I noticed that it was a rather used water bottle (tmbra supplies racers with nice brand new bottles). I just figured that CX races are low budget and they have to use recycled but hopefully clean bottles.

Anyway, nobody yelled at me but I have to wonder if I was just stealing some other poor guys water!:confused:

[Anita Handle]

THIEF!

[john_curtis]

There was very little water handed out during the first A-B Moyo race that I did. When I went through the pit once there was a guy holding out a bottle, so I took it, swigged, and dropped it. later on, I saw oldschooler standing there (or was it G? damn memory) and asked him to get me some water the next time I came around. There was a nice big bottle waiting for me next time around. I think that UYS had brought a bunch of bottles with them for handing up, but they were definitely not new.

The bottle that I got handed replaced a Fall Cup one, and is now my favorite bottle.

At the second race I did there was no water handed up at all.

[speed]

Originally posted by Griz
Heard the 'stealing water bottles' story last night from Robbie. He said he was unaware of the water handout policy during his first cat 5 race and he just helped himself. Needless to say, there were some pissed off roadies who didn't get water as they came through.

Hearing that story made me wonder what the policy for water hand outs is at CX races. During my first CX race at WC I came through the start/finish line area and I noticed that there were all these nice people holding out water bottles. Recalling the handouts at all tmbra mtb races, I did not hesitate to reach out and grab one. As I put my lips to the bottle, I noticed that it was a rather used water bottle (tmbra supplies racers with nice brand new bottles). I just figured that CX races are low budget and they have to use recycled but hopefully clean bottles.

Anyway, nobody yelled at me but I have to wonder if I was just stealing some other poor guys water!:confused:

I almost did the same thing at my first race. They'll let you borrow a wheel if you get a flat but no water bottles? I drank all my water during the first half of the race expecting a free water bottle hand out near the pit area.