… In the SE for next year, to aim for.

Thanks.

Way to many races to recommend really. Baring in mind it pretty well kicks off in March.
Hillingdon, Hogg Hill and Milton keynes all have race series.
You can do mickey mouse short pot hunting 4ths only races or 2/3/4 open road races.
Then you need to think about when you want to kick off. Just so much really.

Edit; Actually recommending a road race sounds daft, they’re all horrible and bloody hard work.

Ok, erm… After May, and can someone explain the categories to me? Ta.

As you can tell I’m new to this, would I be better of practising in a Sportive first?

As you can tell I’m new to this, would I be better of practising in a Sportive first?

no, find yourself a roadie club, and now is a good time as the training rides will be relaxed-ish. as the new year arrives expect things to get a bit quicker. maybe enquire about the chain gang, doubt any happen until the clocks change-give or take a week.

As for racing, you start at 4th get points become a third, repeat until you get to elite….

detail, make sure you are happy riding with riders all around you, i found it can be a bit claustrophobic, you do not want to be in a road race worrying about knocking elbows..

there’s far more worrying inappropriate touching that goes on in road groups than just knocking elbows, unless that’s a euphemism for something else

OK, I may need to join in the local club rides – which I don’t do now I tend to ride solo.

Is there a website full of events listings – a road equivelent of XCRacer.com?

All BCF events are here

cheers – so if I understand that correctly, if I want points, I need to buy a silver licenmce, otherwise brinze is OK to ride (unless the event specifies otherwise?)

How are points allocated – top ten or similar (in which case I probably shouldn’t bother with a silver licence at my level?)

Getting used to riding in a group is absolutely vital in my opinion as racing can be very dangerous.

You’ll need to get used to riding a few inches off the wheel in front of you. It will help you unsterstand what not to do too as this is where most crashed happen when riders with no experience do silly things such as half wheeling, sudden braking or trying to take a racing line when you should be holding your line. Lots of other things too which you will pick up from club riding.

There was a serious accident in the end of year Cat 4 points chaser at Portsmouth and I belive that because of this there is now some sort of accredtation before the start of Cat 4 races being introduced to teach you how to race and highlight the dangers.

You’d be doing yourself a massive favour by training with a club. Not only will you want to do well come race day, you’ll want to present yourself as a good rider. You will after all probably end up racing the same guys all year.

Racing line…Arrrgh. We had a newcomer at the vets. Twice during his first race he swung straight across the field. First time no problem, second time he sent two old boys out. He argued that he was taking the race line, bloody idiot.

BTW where are you based?

If you can afford it, the Spanish sportives are excellent. I’ll be doing the Soplao (albeit MTB) and (hopefully*) Quebrantahuesos. Not races, but definitely a decent “target” to aim and train for.

* hopefully: lottery system to get a ticket, big demand.

mogrim we’re staying away from the big ones in 2013, just have the feeling they’ll be silly crowded.
Slightly tempted to do a couple of low key French ones.

Hillingdon do a winter series, starting 1st Dec and they have a 4th cat only race.

<thread hijack>.
‘Low key’ french sportives?
As a season opener can say the Corima Drome Provencale is great starting form Montelimar, home of Nougat. As is La Dromoise as a season closer, starting from Die, home of clairette de Die, think sweet bubbly. Free bottle to the first 1500 sign ups or something.
I seem to be fully adopting the French way of life and chossing sporting events based on their food/ drink productions…
sorry as you were. SE Crits
</thread hijack>

mogrim we’re staying away from the big ones in 2013, just have the feeling they’ll be silly crowded.
Slightly tempted to do a couple of low key French ones.

The Spanish ones are silly crowded at the start, ’tis true, but that’s part of the fun, it’s a great atmosphere and it’s clear people are there to enjoy themselves.

You’ll need to get BC Silver Race membership AND a race licence otherwise you will be required to pay for a day licence for every race. I would reiterate that you start riding a club and get used to riding in a group. Although, of course, some clubs don’t actually teach new members about group riding skills just discus the sudden increase in crashes in club rides (one of the reasons I left my previous club).
Hillingdon does Thursday evening fast group training sessions which can be good to learn how to ride on a race circuit in close proximity to others and some etiquette.

Oldgit, I’m North London. I have a club in my town but find it difficult that a ride with them knocks out Sunday. Guess it depends how serious I am.

I’ve certainly learned (like always) there’s more to Road Racing than meets the eye, and its not as easy as turning up for an amateur mtb event.

There was a serious accident in the end of year Cat 4 points chaser at Portsmouth and I belive that because of this there is now some sort of accredtation before the start of Cat 4 races being introduced to teach you how to race and highlight the dangers.

There isn’t an accreditation system although some venues (notably Cyclopark at Gravesend and Tameside at Manchester) run “training races” and Hillingdon (West London) runs Regional C events (ie with no ranking points) as beginner races. Tends to stop the idiots sprinting for 9th/10th place, realising they’re not going to get any points and sitting up in the middle of the bunch.
Herne Hill velodrome (S. London) and Maindy Velodrome (Cardiff) also run road bike sessions on them during the winter, great for training away from the roads.

Having said that, road racing is actually pretty safe – you hear some horror stories of course but then dozens of races happen every weekend and 90% of them go off without any problems.

How to do it…
Firstly, find a local road club. Go onto British Cycling’s Club Finder page here: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/clubfinder and you can search by postcode.

Now is the time to get out and ride with them, learn the basics of riding in a bunch, it’ll be pretty steady until about February time when they’ll begin to crank it up a bit.

Before you start racing you’ll need to join British Cycling and buy a Racing Licence. Get yourself a Silver membership plus a Full Racing Licence. You’ll start at 4th Cat and as you gain points you’ll move up to 3rd, 2nd and so on.

Different races get weighted differently for points. The basic 4th Cat only events get minimum points, the Elite level races have much higher points on offer. But don’t worry about that for the moment, too many people get sucked into chasing points and obsessing about the number on their licence rather than actually enjoying the racing.

Some more info about it here:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roadst_Get-Into-Road-Racing

Be aware that now is the time that the British Cycling events calendar is being put together so check back every week or so cos there are more races being added all the time.

Down in the South East there’s the Surrey League events and also the South East Road Race League (SERRL). London has loads of events on as well, circuit races at Hog Hill (aka Redbridge Cycling Centre) at Hainault, Hillingdon, out in West London and Crystal Palace also runs a summer series (although it largely didn’t happen this year due to problems with the circuit).

Another website to keep an eye on is http://ukcyclesport.com/ which is quite SE biased.

Kryton – I ride with London Phonix, based in North London, around Finchley. Really good club, and if you’re after group riding we do Regents Park inner circle laps every Tuesday and Thursday, as well as the usual club rides at the weekend. Drop me an email if you want some more info.

North London was where I started. There is a wealth of clubs in the area, I was with Kenton RC.
The North London clubs I knew usually set off for the Bucks/Beds/Herts borders. I’m in Leighton Buzzard now and still see London clubs heading out here for the Chiltern hills.
You might be interested in the ‘Chiltern Classics’ reliability trials if you can travel.
And don’t count out the Milton Keynes Bowl as a good safe place to start.
Plus all else that’s been said.