Were you riding the Shootout? That's a hard ride in March, for sure.

Bike racing is satisfying in a very different way than triathlon is/can be. Your strengths as a triathlete (steady state fitness, durability, etc) are what will make bike racing a difficult journey, potentially. I did collegiate bike racing, then a few years after that got into triathlon, and over the past two years have really phased out of real triathlon training and have just been cycling the past 3 weeks.

The short story is that it's a LOT easier to do one sport than 3. 15 hours of biking feels like way less commitment than 15 hours of triathlon training.

Also, to address the "I'm afraid if I leave and want to come back it'll suck" the answer is that yes, it will suck. But cumulative training doesn't just disappear completely. Once you set a bar higher the bar will always be easier to get to.

We did the shootout route (with Madera thrown in the middle), but not the actual ride. I definitely noticed a few weak points (e.g. sprinting). I was massively behind during those points. But I was able to hang on when we were doing 35mph leadouts.

I mostly excelled on the long climbs like Kitt Peak, Madera, and Lemmon. Of a group of 20 Cat 123 riders, I was fifth up Kitt Peak and Madera, and 6th up Lemmon after chasing from a chain drop. So I just started thinking I might not be half bad at road racing...

Crits.... I’m sure would not be my forte.... ha

only way to know is to try! the things that might be tough are: pack finishes (/sprinting), handling among a large group of rowdy people, and figuring out how to understand a race's dynamic. but that's all part of upgrade from a cat 5 anyway.

I used to race cat 2. It took more effort to race cat 2 than Ironmans. Primarily because 1. The efforts are much harder & 2. If you are going to train outside you are limited by daylight & 3. You will race a lot more frequently, which is more of a burden on the family.

I had little kids when I quit racing bikes, & training longcourse is much less of a burden on my family.

If you're that strong, I would expect you to be way under and hour for a 40k. I suspect you'll need to work on sprint intervals and quick recovery training.

For reference, I'm a 60+ marginal and I do mean marginal Cat4. In shape, I'm strong enough to be near the pointy end of Cat 4, 3 and 55-64 time trials as long as the course is flat. Best 40k (flat) was 57:33 at age 58. In a road race, I'm off the back fairly early. On a good day, I'm pack fodder in a Cat4 crit. In shape, I'm about 3.4w/kg.

 Yes, I am healthily under an hour for 40K TT. In my OP I said I got under an hour for a sprint tri. I am around 4.2 w/kg right now. But I’ve gotten that to 4.5 and felt like it could go higher.

You have kids but you want to race bikes?

I'm guessing you don't want to see them grow up?

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Ah. Fair enough.

I’ve heard rumor that training for bike racing takes fewer hours per week than triathlon. There are also a lot of bike races in the local area, so wouldn’t have to travel much. I’m also a big TrainerRoad user in an effort to minimize training while the family is awake. I would do the same with bike racing.

It does simplify some logistics, not having to make my way to the pool is great. I don't spend any less hours though. I've got more friends too, I spent all my time alone when doing triathlon, not the case riding bikes. If you do make the cross over, the best advice I could give you is not to set too many expectations for the first couple years and don't get frustrated. You may find quick success given your current strength, but there is a craft to it that has to be learned. Also, it's a vastly different power profile.

It's much more dangerous, and that's something worth thinking about it. You will crash, it's inevitable. I never came close to crashing in a triathlon. I saw three juniors crash heavy last weekend and one of them had to go to the hospital with a concussion. In the race after that, another two guys went down hard. I've never broken anything in three seasons so far but I've got several scars, bruises, and my fair share of road rash. I've learned to pick my courses carefully purposely avoiding a few races because I don't like how risky the layout is. I'm also focusing more on cross which is much more family friendly and when you fall, it doesn't usually hurt.

Yeah, I converted a few years after your age (44 now).

It's been great. It is a different skill set in terms of race tactics, but it's fun to learn. The team dynamics, if you join a team, are fun.

Age isn't a gigantic limiter once you learn how to be smart - I can race Pro/1/2 at age 44 just fine except in big-time races or races with huge climbs where the young, light guys light it up. Masters racing is fun, even if full of ego (which triathlon is too).

Try it out!

Certainly fewer hours than training for long-course triathlon, I would think. Not sure what kind of hours you were putting in for sprint tri's, but you don't need to put in 12-15 hours (or more) for bike racing unless you're wanting to compete in long road races at the P/1/2 level. If you are, then yeah there's really no substitute for volume.

I'm a Cat3, mostly racing Masters 40+. I average about 8-10/hours a week training, although it's a bit higher during base training (but rarely above 12 hours even then). I have plenty of fitness to be competitive in the races I do, including road races in the 60-65 mile range, and my W/kg is not as good as yours. That said I have no desire to upgrade to a Cat 2 and do the 80+ mile road races, I'm happy competing against the older guys.

Sorry, I misread your original (I'm old...). I think you're plenty strong enough to race bikes. Have fun and share how it goes!

I did some bike races myself, was able to hang on but never had anything to do with the top positions. Its fine and I love it, especially the camaraderie in the team is refreshing compared to a single warrior in Triathlon. The thing I don't like is that falling is simply part of cycling races. There will be crashes, and you will fall and hurt yourself (hopefully nothing serious), potentially damaging your bike and having to buy replacements. I guess its kind of normal whenever you ride I bike (everyone of us who is riding a bike regularly has a crash sooner or later), but at competitive bike racing its just much much more frequent.

I know I am too afraid of those things, but it has kept me from doing too many bike races.

But I would agree with the others, if you want to be really competitive at bike racing, the training would be about the same

My take on it as somebody who has dabbled in bike racing and also done a lot of group riding with good roadies and teams over the years:
- Hanging with good cyclists on long hills plays to the strengths of a good triathlete as it's basically a direct measure of FTP to weight. No tactics, handling or sprinting involved, and those are the areas where triathletes struggle. Unfortunately very few races are determined by long hills. If there's a long hill on the route somewhere then getting over it in the lead pack is necessary to be a contender, but rarely sufficient. Hilltop finishes are rare in amateur cycling (for cost and logistical reasons the course is normally a loop and nobody wants to set up race HQ at the top of a mountain)

- Bike handling and being prepared to crash is what I've found toughest. The speed at which these guys go round hairpin bends and roundabouts in a tightly packed group is nuts, and crashes are frequent. And playing it a bit safe costs a lot of energy - the front guys invariably put the hammer down the moment they come out of a bend, so if you're sitting near the back of the pack and taking that bend a little wide or easy then you find yourself having to really work to stay connected. Over a longish race that extra effort really adds up - if you've got the skills and balls to corner fast you save a lot of energy which can be all the difference between having enough left to be a contender at the end vs an also ran (or the difference between being able to stay with the lead pack vs being dropped). You can mitigate the risks a bit by choosing your courses carefully, but if you race and want to be competitive it's only a matter of time until you crash

- Tactics takes experience. Basically boils down to energy conservation - you want to be in the wind as little as possible. In the lower standard races it's possible for people to win simply by being the strongest rider and riding people off their wheel, but once it gets more competitive nobody has enough of a strength advantage to do that and it all comes down to tactics and who is going into the finish freshest. Get yourself on a team, having team-mates around does make it a little easier to stay on a good wheel. And your power to weight and ability to sustain high steady watts will make you a popular team-mate as you'll be good for doing turns on the front, pulling back breakaways, etc.

- Wouldn't worry about losing triathlon speed. You'll still be building a big aerobic engine which will transfer if you go back to triathlon. And you're young anyway, if you stay healthy you've got decades of racing ahead of you in either sport.

- I'm not sure the training will be any less. I know plenty of cyclists who are doing 15-20+ hours/week. Depends on your goals of course, but the fact that cycling is non-impact means people can do an awful lot of it. It's also a bit less convenient than running if you travel with work or family - you can always run and usually swim, cycling isn't so easy.

- Would definitely recommend trying the TT scene as well. Minimal investment as you'll already have the bike and helmet, you can add a skinsuit and shoe covers if you want to be serious but those are relatively small bucks. It's fun just burying yourself on the bike and not having to save yourself for the run.

As others have said, try a few races and see how it goes. Oh, and leave your ego at home. Expect to be quickly dropped by the constant surges, sprints and peloton racing tactics.

You seem to be a "competitive" personality, so I don't expect you'll spend any less time training. The logistics might be easier, but the time you'll need to improve to be competitive will still be a life factor.

Lastly, always remember that bike racing is a group activity that carries the additional risk of crashing/injury since you'll be spending huge percentage of training time in pelotons, group rides and car traffic.

 
i have found that trying to race bikes at a high level takes a bigger and more logistically annoying time commitment. you can't just fit in a run or a swim if you feel like it and it is convenient. more workouts are long and require riding in shit weather. there is specific stuff you have to do depending on day/week/month and you will pay dearly if you don't get it done. there is more need to sync with other people and do more races. and more zombie days when your races/workouts wrecked you.

i have some stuff in my life coming up and i decided to leave bike racing behind and go back to short tris as my athletic outlet for these reasons. for me, having a sport with a lot of effective short workouts that require little in equipment/weather/time/recovery is easier to fit into a busy life then the dedicated focus required to be a competitive cyclist.

"a LOT easier"...... Are you alright in the head man? 15 hrs of training is 15 hrs of training, regardless of what sport you doing. I was a Conti cyclist for 4 years and have recently switched to triathlon, and I completely disagree with your statement. I would argue that triathlon is easier if were gunna split hairs, mixing up your training with different sports, keeping you mentally fresh on a daily basis.

There's a big one-sided misconception about triathlon as a multisport versus people who excel in the single sports that make it up. At least at the amateur or rec level.

The time input at more elite amateur and pro levels isn't really any less, it's just all put into the one sport instead.

Sure, do it. You've already got an engine to work with. Just understand the time input isn't drastically less.

Also, climbs or a longer TT are already your bread and butter.

Head out to the local P/1/2/3 hammer ride with a high variability index of 30 second to 3min surges. It'll feel a lot different than more sustained climbs.

It's the balance of being able to do climbing and TT's but also handling ridiculous surges.

Talk is talk. Get a license, pin on a number and see how you do. I don't think either sport (or any sport for that matter) is easier or harder per say just different. At the pointy end the good guys are really fast in all moving sports. Getting the first 80% good is the easy part, it is the last 20% that is tricky, and the last 5% is brutal. I don't think if you try and cycling isn't for you, you haven't really lost anything for coming back as a triathlete in your age group journey. Hopefully you will have a long career in sport. A year or two in cycling only, will surely give you a perspective different than not bike racing.
My personal experience is that triathletes and triathlons go for a great performance and you went as fast and as hard as you could. Guys that beat you just were stronger that day.
Non TT cycling isn't about going as hard as you can tor the race , but using your assets and wit to go hard enough to be the first across the line. More like Rickey Bobby, if you ain't first you are last. I have tons of baggage wondering how I could have ridden better in a cycling race, but not so much in a triathlon.

simply put, 15 hours of cycling is not even close to the demands of 15 hours of 3 sports. let's say you swim 3 hours, run 4 hours, and bike 8 hours. that's a solid enough training week. the reality is, however, that the 3 hours of swimming will actually TAKE you closer to 4, maybe 5 hours in terms of real time commitment. the running 4 hours will beat you up likely the equivalent of 10+ hours of cycling. so the 7 hours of the two other sports require more time and more effort than the 8 hours of the bike.

the guy isn't talking about being a cat 1 pro - which many of you all are conveniently ignoring to explain how your viewpoint is correct - he's talking about being a damn cat 5. which carries enough risks in and of itself. then, after maybe a solid 2 months of racing (which, depending on where he lives, could require nothing more than a 1 hour drive once or twice on the weekend) he can become a cat 4. then, maybe 6-8 months down the road he can be a 3, and so forth and so on. plus, kids/families are massively more entertained at a bike race than a triathlon, let's be honest.

Attempting to be at the pointy end of any sport is going to take 20 hours per week+ so you can't really say cycling necessarily takes less time then triathlon at the highest levels.


But, if your sights are a little lower than the top, you can be a very competitive local and even regional cyclist and have a ton of fun on 8-10 hours a week (at least in crits, pure road racing might take more) if you are very disciplined about your training. That is definitely less then it would take to be at the same level in triathlon.


Enter some bike races and see if you like it. You'll have to start in Cat 5 (everyone does) and you'll likely clean up time trialing off the front and being in break aways so it will be super fun and good for the ego at first! Once you get in with folks you can't ride away from, then you can decide if you still like it. It is totally different than triathlon. Chess on wheels. Raw aerobic fitness gets you in the game but since everyone in the game is fit, it rarely determines who wins once you get into the higher categories.


As for "going back" yes, if your choice is keeping up a very high level of tri training or switching for several years to pure cycling, you'll lose some tri specific fitness which might be hard to get back years down the road. But, that does not sound like the the actual choice you have. If your choice is getting your tri training seriously squeezed by family obligations and thus cutting back significantly versus doing a disciplined dedicated cycling training program in the time you now now have available, you'll probably be better off in the long run doing the latter.

Like someone else said, just pin on a number and go do it. Doesnt require that rearrange your life, bike a few more miles and go and race a few.

And just know that going up Mt Lemmon with some good cyclists is a world apart from doing the shoot out. Do that ride, hang with the lead group, and you "are" a bike racer...

I hope the OP gives it a fair shot. I.e. Some dedicated training, a few races, an opportunity to make adjustments, a few more races.

I agree with many of the previous comments, including but not limited to JKHAYC, ranging from "you just gotta try" to "apples are not oranges" and from "danger" to "entertainment."

In my 20s I raced both, in part because there were not enough events of any species in my area to justify a single path. I really enjoyed the varied stimulus. Still do, but bike racing is generally scarce around here.

Some general concepts that were/are valid for me:

In bike racing, you will "feel" like you are losing a lot. It is a sport of rejection and defeat. You pop, you bonk, you crash, you mis-time moves, you get out of position, you fail. Then magically you win every now and then, and if you are a certain type of gambler, you get an addictive internal reward. It is vastly more unpredictable, and entertaining I think.

In triathlon, it is less about inflicting pain upon each other (although that changes at the pointy end) and more about accepting pain as a steady faithful companion. The athlete has so much more control. If your personality is "I like it when X+1 amount of work yields n-1 rank" then triathlon is very attractive. I think it is more boring, but I am better at it, and I am a shallow person, so here I am on slowtwitch.

A big question you need to ask yourself is do I like competing for the win overall or AG? From your times I’m assuming you do well in your local tris, in bike races you won’t do well...period end of story.

I switched from tris to bike racing because I hated swimming and I usually always had the best bike split, thinking I’d do good at bike racing. In Cat 5 I did well in crits since I was nuts and I’d just push the pace hard enough so the win would come down to a few of us. Now I’m Cat 3 and part of a team and my days of individual glory are over, which is cool because of the team dynamic.

The questions you need to ask yourself are:
Is winning important?
Do I like crashing (because you will)?
Do I like riding in a big group?
Can I get the time to ride outside with groups and not take time away from my family?

Good luck