Preparing for a Road Race: What You Need to Know

You’re all excited for the Mt. Shasta Summit Century because no other bike race could’ve provided you a picturesque view of the mountain and nature, rural roads, and of course, new set of friends who shares the same interest with you. However, since four routes await you, and if this is your first time joining a bike race, you might want to prepare yourself. So, what waits in your road race? Here are the following tips that can help you prepare both physically and mentally.

  1. Make sure that you are physically fit

One of the reasons people join bike races is because they enjoy bike riding. You don’t need to have tremendous training just to join one. You only need to be physically fit to complete all the routes. If you can bike for up to two hours without feeling drained or completely exhausted, then you are qualified for any bike race that you wanted to join.

  1. Join local group rides

Now, if you really want to train yourself, ideally, you need to join local group rides. There are bike shop-hosted rides, pick-up rides, and club rides that you can choose from. You will experience how it’s like to be in a group bike race with their company. Aside from that, you will also gain new friends in joining various group rides.

Clubs also have their own name, and some also offer team clothing. Now, you will race under your team’s name, and it’s a good experience if you haven’t bike raced before because you will feel the pressure, excitement, adrenaline rush, and all that’s included in a bike race plus you will gain a strategy or two from this experience.

  1. Look for a mentor

Since this is your first time joining a bike race, we highly advise you to find an experienced mentor who can teach you basic biking skills. The more you decrease your learning curve, the more you are prepared to join any bike race or local group clubs.

  1. Watch live and on-stream bike races

Days before your bike race, or even if you are planning to join a bike race, you should watch various bike races on television or internet. If you have money and time to watch, you should also opt for a live bike race. Commentators will most likely give you an idea about bike racing skills and tactics shown by the participants. If you have any questions or issues you wanted to resolve with your own biking skills, make sure that you inform your mentor as soon as possible. It is not advisable that you join a bike race knowing that you have one issue you don’t know how to deal with once you are on the road.

  1. Purchase a book about racing tactics

We highly recommend that you study about bike racing the way you study for your final exam. Some people learn more from words rather than watching. There is a good book written by Thomas Prehn entitled Racing Tactics for Cyclists that is ideal for beginners or anyone who wanted to learn about biking tactics and skills. Reading it and applying in real life can help you to self-discovery things you need to know about biking.

Now, follow the aforementioned tips in preparing yourself for a big biking race. It’ll help you to be physically and mentally ready for this fun ride. These experiences are what makes a good biker, and whether you wanted it to be a professional career or just a hobby, it’s essential that you are prepared and enjoyed the entire race.

You also should know that there are tapering techniques for the days before a race, where you don’t want to use too much energy from your legs and you decrease your activity level.  This means your training should drop down to pretty much nothing and you don’t spend too much time in the saddle doing anything strenuous.  If you also use your bike for transportation or commuting to work.  You may want to consider having something like an electric scooter in your stable not only for these occasions, but just overall fun of use.  You can find solid advice on what to buy by reading scooter reviews.

We hope you found these tips useful and that you carry through with them to have a brilliant road race and years of fun ahead in road biking!