Mullingar Crit race Wed June 16

pbull69

Hey guys and gals. Anybody up for a crit race in Mullingar on june 16, with a whopping €2000:) in prize money???

Check out http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4855.shtml

pbull69

Anybody??!!! On next week!!

estariol

Slight hijack, but have yet to make the breakthrough from doing leisure tours to starting racing. Have an A4 licence, and a fairly entry level tiagra COMPACT road bike, was hoping for some suggestions/tips on how to get started. I don't have time to to join a cycling club and not sure about the pace at A4. So would I be mad to try this crit?

Diarmuid

estariol wrote: »

I don't have time to to join a cycling club and not sure about the pace at A4. So would I be mad to try this crit?

Can you cycle in a bunch? If not, then a crit is not a good place to learn.

Lumen

estariol wrote: »

I don't have time to to join a cycling club and not sure about the pace at A4. So would I be mad to try this crit?

The pace in the flatter A4 races is easy enough, but please don't let your first experience of fast group cycling be at an open race, particularly a crit. Someone could get badly hurt.

If you have time to race you have time to join a club.

If you do decide to turn up, please wear a Livestrong jersey so everyone knows to avoid you.

100Suns

Lumen wrote: »

The pace in the flatter A4 races is easy enough, but please don't let your first experience of fast group cycling be at an open race, particularly a crit. Someone could get badly hurt.

If you have time to race you have time to join a club.

If you do decide to turn up, please wear a Livestrong jersey so everyone knows to avoid you.

With Lumen on this one. You would be a danger to yourself, other riders, spectators and those of a nervous disposition on YouTube for the short time you'd probably stay with the pace in a crit. A crit with a big pot of cash up for grabs is not the place to experiment with racing. Join a club, learn the etiquette of riding in a bunch, and how to 'nod' to other cyclists without having your sexual orientation called into question. It's great that you're interested and want to get involved, but this is not the one to kcik off with;).

penexpers

Lumen wrote: »

If you do decide to turn up, please wear a Livestrong jersey so everyone knows to avoid you.

A GAA jersey would work equally as well for this purpose.

estariol

Right so I'm getting a largely negative response to this, to clarify my position I'm looking for a way to break into racing. I am happy enough to cycle in a group, and usually get 10+ sportives done during the year, with regard to racing I mainly do triathlon tt of 20/40k so no drafting allowed.

I really though cat 4 races were aimed at people like me and thought I have to strart somewhere, statements like wear a gaa jersey are a bit unhelpful! If you can suggerst a better cat 4 race to try for a first time racer (not a novice cyclist!) I would appreciate it.

Chips Lovell

Just to elaborate a bit. The best way into racing is through a local club or inter-club league. The lower handicap groups tend to be not quite as fast paced and the bunches are often smaller. If you don't have that open to you, then A4 races are the next best thing.

Having said that, I'd agree that a crit is not the kind of race you'd want to make your first. It's fast, it's technical and even more experienced riders can find them tricky. In short, if you're going to bypass the club route, find a road race to start with rather than a crit.

100Suns

Any A4 open race should be fine to kick off with. Sit in for the first few races to get used to the pace, cornering, what happens when the bucnh chases down a break and slows down again etc... Even better might be a league race-Orwell/Staggs/Tiernans/Usher/UCD have a Dublin league which races on thursday evenings. The pace is a bit lighter and the groups smaller than in the open races. Good luck with it.

estariol

Thanks, will look for a road race so! weekday evening's in dublin sound ideal. I'd prefer not to have to join a club as I pretty much have runinning/or triathlon races almost every weekend for the rest of the season, and its shameful enough how few of my triathlon club sessions I get along to. Will certainly look at the Orwell/staggs...etc league.

thanks

Lumen

estariol wrote: »

Thanks, will look for a road race so! weekday evening's in dublin sound ideal. I'd prefer not to have to join a club as I pretty much have runinning/or triathlon races almost every weekend for the rest of the season, and its shameful enough how few of my triathlon club sessions I get along to. Will certainly look at the Orwell/staggs...etc league.

To clarify: you can't do the inter-club league unless you're a member of one of the participating clubs.

If you're going to be doing non-cycling races at weekends, there isn't much point in having an A4 licence - that's when most of the open races are. You're better off joining a club and getting into the weekday evening racing, which is regular enough to fit around your limited schedule.

Club racing is good value in the sense that you don't have to pay per-race fees, but you'll need to pay club membership and buy a club jersey.

Michelin

Look up the racing calender on cycling Ireland, look for an A4 cat race thats coming up near you and go and give it a try. Crit racing is a bit more tricky then ur average road race with lots of cornernering and constantly jumping out of them. If u like it u might want to join a club after that or not up to you. But sometimes people post here with one solution that suited them and dont think outside the box.