What is road racing?

Road racing is very much a team sport that involves strategy, endurance, and technical skills. Typically a road race will be between 20 and 60 miles, although this will vary. Although there will be one winner of a road race, it is very much a team sport. Using other riders to break the wind can reduce the amount of effort one needs to use to keep speed by about 30%. Without a good team, a good rider will have a very difficult race.

Collegiate Cycling

The UW-Madison Cycling team does road racing as part of the NCCA (National Collegiate Cycling Association) and races in the MWCCC (Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference). The collegiate road season runs through the spring, with races beginning in February through April. The regional championships take place in April with Collegiate Road Nationals taking place in May.

Different types of road racing:

The two most dominant forms of road racing are Criteriums and Road Races. Often times, collegiate race weekends will have a road race on Saturday and a criterium on Sunday. A road race is a long race over set distance on open roads. A criterium is short, closed circuit which will either be repeated for a certain number of laps or a certain amount of time. Other types of road racing are Time Trials and Team Time Trials, in which individuals or teams race a course against the clock. The most common races in the public eye, however, are stage races like le Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. These race combine mulitple time trials and road races to form a multi-day (stage) race. The Tour de Georgia and the Tour of California are week long races in America which have gained much attention from ProTour teams in the last few years.

Getting started with road racing:

The UW-Cycling team goes on group rides on a regular basis during the fall and spring. Most rides are posted on the Listserv and anyone is welcome to join. Anyone with any bike is welcome on no-drop rides, just as long as you have a helmet and brakes. If you don't have a road bike you can ask someone else on the team to loan you one (there are plenty floating around) or you can purchase one at our sponsor shop (WIlliamson Bicyle Works) or through our bike sponsor (Schwinn). In the fall we put together a team order for the team framesets and again later in the year for ProDeal on complete bikes. These options are available only for dues-paying members, so please keep this in mind. If you have any questions about bike equipment, or cycling in general, feel free to contact one of the officers (in this instance, the road season coordinator) or ask someone at a team meeting.