Cat 4. My ideas of tactics to win, and thinking the majority of the field would be inexperienced racers, giving it a go for the first time were so wrong it was laughable. a bunch of absolute racing snakes. stayed towards the front of the pack until the first of three major climbs. within the first 50 metres I was out the back of the main group, with about half the field, finished mid table i think, after a bit of a battle with two guys ended with me taking the uphill sprint for the line!

totally spent now, it was only 30 miles!

Great stuff. You’ll get there if you stick with it.

I tried a few one year about 5 years ago in France. I was so out of my depth. This year I tried again (but under a different federation) resulting in a few finishes (never managed that before)and then I finished in the peloton!

I’d like to give BC Cat 4 races a go and see how they compare as all the above were in France: FFC and now UFOLEP.

If your first road race is hilly, you’ll always get a bit of a kicking. The hills sort out the riders so fast you’ve no chance of staying there unless you are a very accomplished rider already. It’s also pretty well into the season, so half the field will have raced a lot already this year, and playing catch up is never fun.

Best advice is to enter as many flatter races as you can to develop your skills, and use what you learn to guide your training this winter…

…and the way to move up categories is to learn to sprint, because just about every race you enter will end that way.

Well done, better man than me. I’m still to scared to enter one!

monkey, the flat was OK, happy in the pack at 25mph without having to work to hard, slight brown trouser moment when the guy in front of me lost his bidon, but apart from that quite relaxed. got up a couple of small climbs in the pack, but you could sense it building before the first big climb, and when we hit it, the pace was daft..

give it a go!

Haha nightmare, can imagine the “oh ****” moment!

I’ll give it a go eventually but I need to do some group riding, keep wanting to get out on the local group rides but life gets in the way. Out of interest what was the average ish speed? Strava stalking a few local racers they seem to average around 22-25mph depending on elevation when racing.

Comparing average speed of races is pointless! Weather conditions can vary so much and have a big impact, plus different field/riders in races will change the dynamics. On a 2 day stage race i did, the crit averaged 38kph but felt hellish with all the sprints. The next day the flat RR averaged the same, but felt totally comfortable. IME average speed varies massively and getting too caught up on thinking about it just wastes energy being nervous.

But never enter a RR without group riding experience first! 😯

Totally understand that, just interested to hear.

I did a Lewes “crit” and the average speed on one lap was over 28mph and on the down-wind leg they were doing 36mph. it was ridiculous!
http://app.strava.com/segments/821961

I averaged 19.2mph, 30 miles, just under 3k feet of climbing.