Road Racing Why?
Although there are many different styles of road racing, they all share one common factor: From team races to individual time trials, competitors pour every scrap of strength and determination into the quest to ride faster, rider smarter, and, they hope, to bring home the gold.
Every cyclist who makes the decision to race enters a brave new world of competition and camaraderie. No matter what place you finish, you'll probably never have ridden so fast in all your life. And chances are you'll want to do it again and again...
Individual time trials pit racers against their most serious adversary: the clock. Instead of mass starts like other forms of racing, time-trial riders start alone in one-minute increments with the fastest riders last. Unable to pace themselves against other riders, the pacers must rely solely on their mental and physical strength to be able to ride with speed and consistency.
The rider who finishes with the fastest time wins. In the USA, the courses tend to be 40 kilometers while in Europe and the rest of the world time-trials are longer, with 72.5 kilometers courses. Because every second counts, time trial riders go to great lengths, such as wearing skintight body suits and tapered helmets, to reduce wind resistance. To further reduce drag, the bikes tend to have rear disk wheels, small front wheels, aerodynamic handlebars, and wedge-shaped frame tubes.
Some of the most exciting races for spectators are the criterium races. These races have very short courses varying from 800 meters to 2.4 kilometers loops. Racers may pass a spectator more than a hundred times during the course of a race, which can be from 40 to 100 kilometers. These races are usually held in cities or parks to add to the excitement.
Criterium races demand excellent bike handling skills as riders jostle for position during constant cornering and rapid bursts of acceleration. Crashes are common, and one rider can bring down a whole pack with a split-second error. Like time-trial bikes, criterium bikes have more aerodynamic designs than the classic road race bike. Criterium races can be won several ways. Some races award victory to the first rider across the finish line, while others award points for each lap won.
Not content with regular stage, or point-to-point, races, some competitors feel the need to compete in ultramarathons featuring multi-day continuous racing over great distances. Ultramarathons of around 5,000 kilometers are common and test the limits of human endurance. Racers must simply finish the course in the fastest time possible. Unlike stage races, this event is continuous, with no guidelines for sleep or rest. Most racers average about three hours of sleep a night and start each day from wherever they left off the night before. Roughly 50 percent of the riders drop out, and those who remain generally finish the event in nine to ten days.
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