At the beginning of each season, athletes and coaches sit down together, mulling over the race calendar, and marking out the athlete’s “A races.” These are the races that we want to peak for, to perform at your very best, and hopefully achieve a top result.
There are also “B races” littered throughout the year. These are the races that you want to be fit for, but not necessarily peaked. You want to do well, but you also shouldn’t be afraid to try something new, say, attacking off the start line. These are races where you shouldn’t feel much pressure on the start line – maybe a bit of pre-race nerves, but that’s normal – certainly no pressure for a result.
Then there are “C races.” These might as well be a hard training ride. Often these are practice crits, or Wednesday Night World’s. You needn’t feel fit, peaked, or even motivated. Just go out there, and have fun racing your bike, riding hard, and maybe even winning a beer prime.
Over the past few weekends, I’ve been fortunate enough to line up at a couple of local races in Wisconsin, hometown crits which I took for granted until I started traveling all over the country to race my bike. It’s nice to have my family watch me race, to be able to drive 15 minutes from my house to the start, and even ride to and from the race if possible. That’s what I did two weekends ago, riding part-way home from the Menomonee Park Crit to add in some extra miles.
As a stage racer, my “A races” are long time trials, and hilly 100-mile road races – 75-minute crits don’t do much for me in terms of high-volume training. So I had in some extra ‘base miles’: simple Zone 2 endurance riding before and after these races when I can.
“C races” can – and should be – used as training. You can treat them like a normal interval workout, with just some easy spinning as a warm-up, before smashing out some high-intensity VO2 Max efforts. Or you can treat them like an “A race”, practicing and experimenting with the timing of your nutrition, pre-race efforts (openers the day before, and day-of warm-up), team tactics, and more.
For example, if one of your “A races” is the Famous Summer Midwest Crit Championship, and you expect the race to come down to a field sprint, practice saving your energy during the “B races” and “C races” in the lead up. Practice staying in the draft, following your teammates (if you have any) in a lead-out, and flying through the final corner in perfect position, whether that be 2nd wheel if it’s 200 m out, or 5th wheel if it’s 500 m out, from the finish line.
In the end, B and C races are just training. Don’t put unnecessary pressure on yourself to win each and every race of the year. Have fun at these races. Try something new: attack like crazy, do a lead-out (even if you’re a skinny climber like me), and have a beer afterwards (or a recovery shake – whatever floats your boat). Bike racing should be fun – and if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.