Womens Racing - advice please

Hi all,

I was wandering if anyone had anyone had any advice for getting into road racing. I am really keen to to give it a go but it is a little daunting!
Are there any girls who have done it before who I could chat to?
Do you have to have a race license to do it?
Events anyone would recommend - I was looking at Milton Keynes...?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you

Becky - I'm not sure if we have any ladies racing, but hopefully some of our racers can give you some top tips. For female-specific advice, there may be people to ask at the Road Race in a couple of weeks time.

Also, I'm hoping some of the very fast ladies we see at local TTs can be tempted to come and give our Thursday evening events a go. Last year some of them had us for competition mid week before mixing it up with Mariane Vos, Lizzie Armistead, Georgia Bronzini etc at the London Grand Prix at the weekend. I'm guessing they might be handy people to talk to

good luck

Thank you.
I am marshaling at the road race so should hopefully get the chance to find out more!

Also today I signed up for an introduction course to womens road racing organised by the 'Womens Eastern Region Cycling' which is aimed at novices. Hopefully this should help!

Regarding race licenses, it depends on the race - with some you don't need them, but most do. You get a provisional license for no additional cost with a British Cycling membership but you will need a full license if you want to earn points and work towards higher categories. You can always start out with a provisional and then decide on whether its worth getting a full license when you've tested the water.

For women's racing I think Milton Keynes is probably the place to go? Every time I've been for the men's racing there has been a good turn out for the women's.

The best approach is to turn up and have a go. Not much can go wrong, especially since the women's races usually have a much smaller field, so should be a lot safer.

If you've confident on chain-gang type rides then you'd be absolutely fine, and if not you'd probably be absolutely fine anyway.

remember to take both hands off the bars whenever crossing the finish line

m.facebook.com/groups/187094751439781?vi...k&id=478114135671173

Becky,

Call in to the shop for a free chat any time.

Out side of my racing I looked after Avril Swan (google), I can also put you in touch with her if you need a chat (email)

Paul

Rebecca, local/regional BC coach Alison Lilley was looking at setting up some coaching sessions in Peterborough for ladies looking to race in the Eastern League (or just brush up on group skills). Might be worth dropping her a line. Also Rowland Summerlin (chief NCRA commissaire) has said before the cap in the spring series doesn't apply for ladies (NCRA group on Facebook). Alison was racing at Naseby today. Similarly ladies are always welcomed by the NCRA team at rockingham Thursday nights (usually end of April/early May is he first round)

Heard very good things about Huw Williams ladies only coaching sessions too, think he might be doing the introductory session you're talking about.

Strongly recommend BC Race Silver membership as no need for a day license then and gives you insurance (3rd party) for competition and non-competitive riding. And you don't need to upgrade to full license immediately, provisional just means you can't get points on it, though if you do get points I believe there is a grace period where you can upgrade your license and they get counted.

interesting article on BC website re his development work

www.britishcycling.org.uk/coaching/artic...-with-Huw-Williams-0

There will usually be a few of us at Rockingham during the summer, so if you're interested in coming along let us know. The Rockingham format is handicapped. To begin with you would go off in the first group. The numbers of women racing there are small though, so you will be racing alongside the men.

If you're prepared to travel, there are more opportunities for women's only racing around London. For example, Hillingdon do women's only races on alternate Wednesday evenings during the summer (hillingdoncyclecircuit.org.uk/)

Richard

Further to Richard's comments I think Hogg Hill do women only races, also Equipe Velo ran a women's race at MK Bowl last Saturday so believe this might be an ongoing thing. However you'll find most women's races of that sort are E/1/2/3/4 (i.e. all categories combined)

BC events tool is very good but the new format site can be a pain on the My Dashboard section so better to keep it in the old format I find.

I think the NCRA spring races are opened up to everyone now to fill in the last few places. Have a look on the BC website - Roland has posted on FB that there are some for our race on the 21st.

Give Alison Lilley a quick email and she will help you out and if you are willing to travel to Hillingdon give Chris Denman a shout from West Drayton Mountain Bike Club - they are a multidisciplined club despite the name and have loads of experience encouraging and supporting women into racing and Chris can assist you.