age group or cat 5?

It depends on how much expirence you have riding in groups and how confident you are. If you have never ridden in a pack before, chances are youll have a hard time jumping into a full fleged Cat. 5 race. If racing where you live is anything like over here, there probibly wont be very many juniors. I suggest you race in your age group the first couple of times to get some confidence and expirence, then move up into a much faster Cat. 5 race. It will make things much smoother.

haha, I'm 20. I've been racing for little over 1/2 a year now. Last Fall when I was racing, I was the youngest kid there in the Cat 5. I swear the next closest age was 25. Majority of guys/girls 25-30. It may be different for your area, but who cares, I was having fun racing!!

Go race, have fun, and realize it's some of the most fun you'll ever have.

I was the youngest guy there, got my butt whooped, but didn't come in last, (some guys didn't even finish), and now I know how to train myself and all that jazz. Each race is a learning experience.

If it's your first race, I would do just your age group. Cat 5 may be the beginning racing category, but it is INTENSE. Maybe too much for a 16 year old. But go with what you feel is right for you!

GOOD LUCK AND Let us know how you do!

TD

thanks for the help

i'll see what happens, figure something out.

Your young, do both!
More races = more experience

i was thinkin that, i found out the 15-16 age group is early (8 or 8:30) and then at about 10 or 10:30 they have a junior boys open (not sure what that is, if you know i would love the info) and then at 12 is the cat 5. i could definately do the 15-16 and cat 5, still not surea about the other

Well, had the race today and of course, im an idiot. i got up and made the worst decision of the day by eating...cereal, cookie crisp to be exact. well, the race went ok, felt fine, got tired a ways in and got 6th place. only thing is, there were only six people in the race (this is the 15-16 category by the way). after the race i congratulated the other racers (im a nice guy😄 ) and rode slowly to my car trying to cool down. got to my car, got off the bike, felt dizzy, sat down, felt worse, stood up, felt like i was gonna hurl, walked towards grass, hurled, hurled again, one more time, a last time for good measure, followed by a dry heave!! awesome!! cookie crisp tastes a lot better the first time. well, besides the after-race festivities i was lucky enough to enjoy, the race went fairly well. no crashes, and i wasnt expecting to do any better. i'll throw out a few excuses now. i recently moved so i havent been riding a whole lot lately, im a little sick with some sort of cold/flu virus or something, and it was my first race. oh well, im sure with about 600 more miles in the saddle i'll be ready to place in another. maybe. i didnt do any other races today though (the vomiting told me to stop) but thanks for all the help!!

hestilowt said:

Well, had the race today and of course, im an idiot. i got up and made the worst decision of the day by eating...cereal, cookie crisp to be exact. well, the race went ok, felt fine, got tired a ways in and got 6th place. only thing is, there were only six people in the race (this is the 15-16 category by the way). after the race i congratulated the other racers (im a nice guy😄 ) and rode slowly to my car trying to cool down. got to my car, got off the bike, felt dizzy, sat down, felt worse, stood up, felt like i was gonna hurl, walked towards grass, hurled, hurled again, one more time, a last time for good measure, followed by a dry heave!! awesome!! cookie crisp tastes a lot better the first time. well, besides the after-race festivities i was lucky enough to enjoy, the race went fairly well. no crashes, and i wasnt expecting to do any better. i'll throw out a few excuses now. i recently moved so i havent been riding a whole lot lately, im a little sick with some sort of cold/flu virus or something, and it was my first race. oh well, im sure with about 600 more miles in the saddle i'll be ready to place in another. maybe. i didnt do any other races today though (the vomiting told me to stop) but thanks for all the help!!

You raced. You finished. WELL DONE! It's all a learning process. The fact that you threw up isn't so bad - you're going to do that a lot if you ever ride TTs 😄

NullPointer said:

You raced. You finished. WELL DONE! It's all a learning process. The fact that you threw up isn't so bad - you're going to do that a lot if you ever ride TTs 😄

im not worried that i threw up, i was just making fun of myself cause i should've known better than to drink milk before the race. but otherwise yeah, i think i learned a few things from the race and i should do a lot better at my next one.

hestilowt said:

im not worried that i threw up, i was just making fun of myself cause i should've known better than to drink milk before the race. but otherwise yeah, i think i learned a few things from the race and i should do a lot better at my next one.

Hi, I haven't even raced seriously but I TT reasonably well and I did the Etape last year (managed a silver) and consider myself an endurance cyclist. I always breakfast on dry oats (no I'm not a horse), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and grapefruit (low Glycaemic Index therefore slow release energy). I can manage 50 to 60 miles of fairly intense riding on just that for fuel, well actually I did 78 the other day on hilly terrain with only a fruit juice/water mix. Fueling is very important but miles in the legs will help you make best use of it 🙂