Bike racing

Look/ask around about different bike race teams. Some are more competitive and some are more developmental and some are both.

I thought since I'm far better on the bike in tris than run or swimming that maybe my nitch might be bike racing. But dang those women are wicked fast.

I belong to a developmental bike race team that has a women's team with over 100 members. They offer race clinics that are very educational with 2 2 hour talks and 4 3 hour technique sessions on your bike.

I'd recommend anyone who wants to race to take some technique sessions or clinics before racing. I did my first crit after doing some group rides in pacelines and crashed badly...was it my fault?I don't know 6-7 women went down and I got a bad cuncussion so I don't know what happened.

Great easy thing to do is time trials. As a triathlete you have the equipment and skills already and it is just you against the clock. Plus it is a heck of a lot safer.

Depending where you live find out where races are and go watch. Ask questions and get the vibe of teams and what the racing scene is like where you are.

I just got a cyclocross bike and am going to try racing Cross this fall. It is fun goofing around and hard.  I like the explanation it is like steeple chase on bikes. I'm not sure I'll enjoy racing or be any good at it as I'm kind of old to start racing. Most races are based on categories..all begining women are 4s and men are 5s. So I race against 25 year olds and I'm almost 47. 

Do some google searching...you can learn a lot.

Here is a link to a NE website that has good info on it.

Good stuff here too .

www.usacycling.org

Here is the USA Cycling home page and you can get a lot of info from it.

Definitely check with local teams. I know in this area, the teams have specific "meet the team" rides in the fall where they have potential new riders come out and ride, to (a) allow the prospective racers a chance to meet the team, the officers, and such, and (b) let the team meet the prospective racers to make sure they're not taking on a nut-case.

I do strongly encourage you to take up with a team for bike racing. It can be done alone, but it's a wickedly hard thing to do. The training and racing are both a lot easier, and the transition to a completely different type of riding will go much more smoothyl, if you're part of a like-minded group.

Culturally, you're in for a shock. It's a completely different animal to have to go well over threshold to stay on the pack when the hammer drops -- a triathlete's tendency is to throttle back and TT. Doesn't work. Don't worry. It WILL happen, and you WILL learn.

And have fun. Because it IS a lot of fun.