ROAD RACING

Doing a Road Race? Send any details to Swindon RC and it will added to the site, so others can join you.

 

SRC Road Race Programme

 

With races for all, there are many local and not so local races to get the legs into the racing season, to try out a few tactics as a team or if new to the sport, as a traffic free way of learning the ropes of racing.

 

In the early races, bare in mind that less experienced riders around you may be a bit ‘twitchy’ in the bunch.  Give people a bit of space where they need it and remember that it is only a bike race!  Have fun, ride smoothly and don’t do anything silly.

 

Typically from April there are a few more races out on open road circuits, some of which have been regularly supported by the club. Again there is a lot to choose from to suit all abilities.  It is not a bad time of year to try a few races that test your limits a bit, even if it means racing against riders in higher categories.  You may not appreciate it at the time, but hang in there; it will pay off later in the year. 

 

Your first point of reference for racing is the British cycling online calendar. This lists all the races on and the categories eligible to race in them. You can search by discipline, month, and region to help narrow down your search.

 

If you want to race but not sure what to do, where to go etc, ask around at club runs, on the forum etc. There is nearly always someone who can advise or at least point you in the direction of someone else who can.

 

Please help to raise publicity by adding your own write-ups to the forum, if you have the energy!

 

Funding

 

The club wants to see as many people out and about at as many races & events as possible to get our name out there. If you want to ride an event, typically most of the entries are done as individuals although we might get together and ride as an ad-hoc team at the event.

 

Sometimes a few will get together to target a specific event with a team entry so if you want to enter a team, get raising awareness and asking around to see how else might be interested.

 

The committee is happy to accept applications for funding of team events and/or major regional or national events. Typically this will be assistance towards some of the costs associated with the larger events. This funding is open to ALL club members for any discipline of cycling and is considered by the committee on a case by case basis. Please submit your proposal to Bryan Telford for committee review. Please note that this not available to events such as Castle Coombe summer evening races.

 

We will ask that you have prepared details of what the event is, who wants to ride it and approximate cost incurred by each member should funding not be available. You will be expected to complete all the entry forms in due time and provide a write-up after the event on the forum AND to be submitted to the Press Secretary preferably with photos where possible (Jon Stump - 2009) to go into the Swindon Advertiser as soon as possible after the event.

 

Typical events

 

Below is a starting point for some of the races to look at. Remember, it saves a bit of money to enter in advance and it is essential for some races that you do enter well in advance because some are oversubscribed very early on.

 

·        Upavon airfield (South of Marlborough)

§         Small circuit with a little bit of a hill up to the finish, not a bad race to get the legs going.

 

·        Omega Thruxton races.

§         Open, often windy, racing circuit

 

·        Fareham wheelers RR

§         Owlesbury circuit near Winchester.

§         Lumpy tough circuit.

 

·        Somerset road club criterium. 

§         Ilton

 

·        Western Super mare

§         Sea front criterium

 

·        Thames Velo races

§         The course is not very hard; the climb is not tough enough to break up the bunch.

 

·        Good Friday

§         Castle Coombe racing circuit

 

·        Surrey League Easter 3 day

§         All stages near Guildford.

§         1st stage has a very tough circuit with a pretty steep climb on each lap; stages 2 and 3 are rolling with nothing major to break up the field.

 

·        Wessex Cycle racing league Martyrs Road Race

§         Moreton, Dorset

 

·        Reading spring road race

§         Great racing circuit with plenty of lumps to break up the field, if the racing is aggressive enough.  Enter early for this race if you want to do it, it is always oversubscribed.

 

Full details of these and many more races worth looking at are on the race calendar on British cycling website.

 

Races for May/June will be added to this soon.