How to prepare for a bicycle race: 6 things everyone should consider

It’s one thing to ride a bike in the local park, and another to take part in a cycling race.
On September 2, Volokolamsk will host the Gran Fondo Russia, Russia’s largest road cycling race. There are three distances to choose from: 30 km, 60 km and 95 km.

If you want to go to the next level and try your hand at the track, you need to take into account some nuances. We talked to Matvey Zubov, Master of Sports International Class, World and European track champion in 2009 and 2012, about how to prepare for a bike race, choose the right distance and avoid mistakes.

When to start preparing?

It’s very individual – it all depends on the initial basic skills. Somebody raced on a bicycle under the frame all his childhood and, having sat on a road bike, will ride immediately and well, it is enough for him to have 3-4 trainings on technique, and it is possible to go into battle. But someone’s first bike in life is a road bike, and then you have to start from the very basics: how to keep balance, and how to enter corners, and how to pedal correctly. In that case I would talk about a few months of regular training.

How to choose a distance?

Of course, you shouldn’t go for long distances and difficult courses right away. Usually on the race sites there is always a terrain or elevation gain – for beginners you should try to choose the minimum one, so that the first race is a pleasure and you don’t die twisting on the climbs or squeeze your eyes shut in fear on the descents. The first races should be more familiarization: how is it to ride a group cycling race? And then, having gained some experience, you can make your life more difficult.

If we talk about a person who will ride for the first time, it is worth taking the minimum distance – 30 km. And it will not even be about cycling, but more about the atmosphere and understanding of how everything happens. Usually at 30 km participants do not even gather in groups, which is just to the advantage of a beginner.

Further, as confidence in their abilities increases – 60 km, there everything is already more serious, and the time required in the first time will not be less than two hours. And you can get together in a group and realize that eating and drinking skills are necessary.

But already experienced riders let them choose the longest distance (they vary depending on the start – from 90 to 120 km). If you just want to test your strength on a long distance, then choose a bike race, and if you are not the first year in the saddle and want to compete with the same experienced guys, then see you at the race!

What do I need to do when training?

The most important thing is still training on the bike. Because during the race, the bike is your friend, comrade and brother, and you need to understand how it will behave when going into a corner or when changing gears in a hill. When it comes to additional training, it’s the same as everywhere else: add OFP to strengthen your cortical muscles, which will help increase your endurance.

If you’re a beginner, you shouldn’t go into the intense HR zone. You need a foundation (aka aerobic cushion) for quality growth, and most importantly, you need it to be safe. It’s like building a house, if the foundation is prepared well, the house will last for a long time – the same here.

What to do on the eve of the race?

What you definitely should not do is to do heavy training the day before. There are amateurs who want to check and ride the whole race course out of fear, then I can say for sure: the next day the race will be very hard. On the eve you can easily ride, stretch your legs and, of course, try to get a good night’s sleep.

Mistakes in preparation for the race

The most important thing in training in all sports is to have not only training days, but also recovery days. Beginners want everything at once, and start training every day as if they want to fill the gaps in their life, and make a race calendar so that every weekend start. And since the body adjusts gradually, it is necessary to give it a chance to recover, not to overdo it in the beginning.

Problems and mistakes on the track: how to avoid them?

Probably the most important is the fear of riding in a group. Because you have to control not only your riding and your bike, but also try to calculate the behavior of the surrounding participants, and at the initial stages it is very difficult. I also often notice that guys forget to eat on the distance, for a few hours of active work energy reserves are depleted, and if you do not recharge in time, the body goes into energy-saving mode, the person ceases to control what is happening around. The only task is to get to the finish line. It is at such moments that mass crashes occur.

The ability to ride in a group, of course, is gained only by experience, and it is better to gain this experience in group training, not only in mass races or races. For example, on weekends we often go out for extensive training with a large team to learn how to make shifts, to be patient somewhere so as not to fall out of the group. And just on such long trainings the second problem is solved – it is nutrition. You learn to eat properly, you begin to understand when it is better to eat in time so that you don’t get sick, and again you have the opportunity to try different things: some people like to chew bars, and some people find it easier to squeeze gel into themselves – it’s all very individual.

The main mistake is probably a loss of concentration. You need to be attentive to everything: who is around you, what road surface, what route of the track, when turns-turns. And especially at the end of the race, when the participant is already tired, hungry, he looks literally under his feet and can not fully concentrate on the road.

Secrets of a professional

The secret is simple: you have to be first!
To do this, you must always stay the freshest, always hide from the wind. The challenge is to be not only stronger, but also smarter: your rivals have to work harder.

The most important thing is to be patient. You never get everything at once: you gain fitness gradually, and you don’t get your bike technique right away. Step by step. You can’t take cycling by force.