What's the V.I. of those hours and workouts?

If you're going to be a bike racer, those workouts better have a V.I. that's way way up there.

It's apples/oranges. It's not necessarily easier one way or another. It's different.

The one thing that is very very true though is that bike racing is a much more "exclusionary" sport. There's no participation aspect, say for time trial or just attempting a cross race maybe. You either are in the break or pack, or you're rolling back to the car after getting dropped.

There's no concept of waves, finisher medals, a dozen age groups, etc...

He's got a great leg up with the fitness already present. Bike racing can be down right impenetrable for some folks. And the fitness already present means there's already an advantage there.

I'll actually claim to NOT try to TT away for wins in your Cat 4/5 races. Risk not winning by sticking in some kind of breakaway or group to learn some tactics. You already know how to time trial for a couple hours at a time.

Also, don't do the 'fast' local group rides with group work. Do the local race-sim rides. Be warned, they can be a bit hazardous with cars if you get some bone heads in the group. But, it's like showing up to a road race or crit and the tactics are the same.

If you have not already figured the cycling scene out, depending on where you live, it is way easier to dip your toe in than it is to try a triathlon. Bigger towns have weekly or semi weekly "training" races so you might be less than 7 days from your first race! All but the biggest races have day of registration and in most areas of the country, races do not sell out, and even if they do, it is a couple days before the event, not months before like some triathlons. So, you can literally decide to race on a moments notice. (Time trials are the exception - to schedule start times, they will almost always have a 24-48 hour cut off on entries and no day of registration). You do need a licence to race but Cat 5's can buy a one day licence as part of registering, even day of, so that won't stand in your way.

Go here and and see what's coming up in you area. https://www.usacycling.org/events

You can't do 15 hours of high VI/IF/KJ rides week in and week out. Swimming and running are also fairly high on the overall "intensity" scale, especially if you're good. Swimming should be basically hard all the time, running obviously not, but the durability factor comes into play as most injuries from a high impact sport like running.

Like you say, it's apples and oranges.

I find being good at bike racing (i.e. doing well in a race) to be an incredibly more satisfying feel than doing well in a triathlon. When do you do well in a triathlon, it's because you

1) trained proficiently for competing at that distance against people you wanted to beat
2) fueled well
3) paced well

Winning a bike race (either from a pack or from a break or from solo) came from

1) training proficiently (although I actually tend to race better when I haven't trained as well because I don't do as much dumb hero shot)
2) read the race well and recognized key players
3) timed your moves well
4) didn't get boxed in or shut out at any point
5) used your strengths and weaknesses appropriately
6) didn't work too much, but just enough to make sure nobody gets pissed at you


etc etc

All these posts that say (not yours, but generally): "OP is gonna suck because I sucked..." or something like that are dumb. OP is gonna figure it out for himself. It's also not a bad thing to not be good at something. If he's not a sprinter but a great TT/Steady state guy then he can find himself a great place on a team doing work for a sprinter. That's satisfying.

I've done exactly that. Totally worth it. You'll be amazed how much you improve on the bike when you're only training for one sport, and one that's not particularly prone to over-use injuries. And, at least in my case, I had MORE time at home with family. And bike racing is just damn fun. Way more fun than triathlon. More dynamic, more variable. In tri, you can pretty well see who is racing and know your finishing place. Far from it in bike racing, except TTs.

It is. In road cycling most people do have to suppress the all-about-me mentality of a triathlete (that's not a pejorative, just the nature of the sport). The team dynamics can be incredibly satisfying.

You should just try it - take 2 months and focus only on bike racing, do the local big group rides and race as much as you can. See how it feels to you at that point. If you want to be competitive the hours will be very similar to what you are already doing - but you are only riding a bike at this point.

I raced as a Jr and Collegiate level - I will tell you from my experience that it got redundant and annoying (never mixing it up with a run or swim) and truth be told the actual racing has just as much variable as any triathlon racing (nutrition, mechanical, feeling etc) but now you add in 30-40 other guys wanting to bash you into the ground and drop your ass like its hot (not saying this negatively) and your sole purpose is to survive with the group (not the race).

Racing bikes can be a lot of fun and rewarding, but - you will crash - you will need to learn better bike skills - you will get frustrated - you will always get so close.

Have you thought about trying Cyclecross racing and MTB racing? These are two very rewarding types of races that competitive triathlete tend to turn to and become fairly successful in. I race cyclecross and MTB on my off season or after my A-race for the fun of it.

Thats just my opionon/take on it

It's funny, I'm thinking about going the other direction. bike racing back to triathlon. The thing about bike racing is that to compete you really need to be in great shape. In triathlon, you can go out and have a great day on whatever fitness level you have.

As you climb the categories in cycling, the time commitment required increases. I was riding 10-15 hours/week on the bike, with the bulk of that being Saturdays/Sunday. I'd usually do 1:00-2:00 per day Monday-Friday, then 4:00 Saturday, and 3:00-3:30 on Sundays. Hardheadedly, I refused to believe I'd have to back away from racing when I had my first child and kept training HARD. I moved all of my weekday rides to indoors and tried to keep weekends as early as possible.

I found it very difficult to train indoors and have great bike-racing fitness. It's just difficult to develop those explosive bursts that are required for bike racing on an indoor trainer. Admittedly, I'm a TTer at heart who SUCKS at anaerobic efforts, and only use a Cycleops Fluid trainer, maybe there are those out there that have different experiences. Then those early, early weekend rides outdoors just absolutely killed my energy for the weekends. So I was a zombie. I developed great time-trial fitness, but when the races required anaerobic efforts, I was done. Where in the past, when I was training outdoors and putting in the volume and rest required, I was able to go, recover, go again, recover, and go again.

OP, I don't think you mentioned it, but . . . what do you weigh? If you road race in mountainous areas (even little mountains like the Appalachians), your weight will make a huge difference in bike road racing. It's hard to overcome the 125- or 135-pound climber if you've got an extra 35 or 40 pounds to haul up the same climb.

And, to repeat and/or refute what's already been said . . .

Amount of time needed? It all depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to move up in the categories, bike racing takes increasing time on the bike. There are no shortcuts. I ride 11 to 13 hours per week, year round, even with high-intensity intervals. I'm slow. The fast guys I'm associated with ride twice what I do. And they are fast.

Intensity? Bike racing will require much more in the way of high-intensity intervals. I love triathlon on the bike because it plays to my strength. I can maintain a steady threshold / slightly above threshold power level for a long time. With bike racing, it's the surges that kill you -- or make you win. Even in road racing, but especially in crit, you will need the ability to surge and recover quickly from BIG power surges. Winning on the road is done in the surges. Long and steady only buys you a nice seat from which you can sometimes see the winner attack up the climb, off the front, or across the line.

The dynamics? Bike racing is brutal and unfriendly. You will be yelled at. You will crash (and it will be somebody else's fault). And getting dropped stinks. By comparison, triathlon is collegial and gentlemanly.

A fair question. I sit around 176-178 for my happy lean weight. I'm very tall. 6'6". So my healthy weight shouldn't go much lower than that. So yeah... you're right that I'll get a weight penalty.

Mostly because of my height, I am blessed with very long femers, which gives me a much bigger lever to push the pedals with.

Wow. I'm humbled by all of the advice. I was waiting for sarcastic responses. Thank you to everyone.

I'll let everybody know what I decide. Since I live in Tucson, the local road racing season is over here now. So I've missed my chance this year. But the local training crit series starts in November. So I have some time to make a decision and then start training for it.

The danger aspect has been the biggest concern for me. And many of you have mentioned it... so yes. It's something that I'll need to consider as I try to decide.

Lots of factors to think about... but a number have mentioned the "alone" aspect of Triathlon. I'm starting to get tired of that. Yes, I enjoy the three sports. Unlike many, I really like swimming, and have become pretty good at it. Ditto with running. So I know I'll miss that... but as I've sprinkled in the occassional group ride or Gran Fondo, I just feel like the competative nature of cycling is calling my name......

I like to compete. And I have been getting that a LITTLE bit at the pointy end of the local tri scene (I'm military so I've bounced around the country). So I got to the point where I would get to know the local fast guys and then we'd beat each other up during the local races series, so that was fun. But I see how much more this is present in cycling, and I yearn to give that a try...

I can identify. At 172, I'm within a pound or two of my low weight limit. I've got teammates who are within an inch or so of my height who weigh 40 pounds less. I'm much stronger than they are on flat ground or rollers. But on a big climb? When I think I'm going fast, they pass and streak away . . . and there is nothing I can do about it.

On the plus side, when things get physical in the bunch (and they always do), having that extra 40 pounds means I can stand my ground. I lower a shoulder and don't move. The climbers tend to get knocked into the weeds.

I can see where you're coming from in terms of wanting to give it a try. I'm not fast, I'll be 52 in October, PR of 2:18 in Oly Tri, PR of 59:52 in a 40K TT and routinely get dropped in road races and especially crits. But I'm on a local cycling team and it's really fun, especially when we get a lot of teammates to race. In Kansas here we have a road race season where we accumulate points as a team for both Category races (Cat 1 thru Cat 4) and open categories (Masters 40+, 50+ etc.). So the whole team points thing motivates me to help out when I can even though I'll not be on any road race podiums. I will make the occasional TT podium but that's about it.

Sounds like you're a strong rider so I say go for it and see what happens.

A lot of my teammates have small children which means they don't make every race and they miss a lot of group rides/workouts and end up riding solo etc. It takes big support from your wife/significant other to really make it work.

I've read about half the replies in this thread, and I'd say most are correct. I made that transition, from "good" triathlete to "good" bike racer in my early- to mid-30's. It wasn't a comfortable transition at all, but I made it, it took some time to develop a decent top end and tactical savvy. In the end, though, it took just as much or more time, I was racing more, but also enjoying it a whole lot more. I'm not keen to make that transition again, though.

By all means, license up and get in the mix. Even being able to hang with 1's and 2's on a hard training ride is a long ways from being able to mix it up at the front of the pack when the real race results are on the line. If you have any ambitions to climb the cats, get into a racing club that meshes with your personality. Going it alone is a recipe for continuous mid-peloton finishes and burn out.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

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Bike racing is a different animal. Not counting TT's, its just so much more technique based, and you have to have a certain mentality to master that technique. Some guys have to maximal efforts to stay connected in corners, others can pass 20 guys in 10 easy pedal strokes. Power is important, but I'd 100% give up 50 watts across the board to have bike handling skills like Sagan, Bahati, or Holloway. Its almost more of a confidence thing than skill. A lot of w/kg KOM masters that jump in a crit and get annihilated, 1 man can't beat a peleton. Even in the 5's and 4's its hard.

I enjoy it, the training is 'less' time consuming than triathlon, but more from a logistics perspective. Going to the pool and fitting in 3 sports was time consuming in itself but the hours are the same. In cycling, Its either jump out and go, or jump on the trainer. I'm also in a cycling town and we have 3 hammerfests a week that start less than 2 miles from me so that's a huge bonus.

I've never been in the 'pin on a number and just try it' camp. If you're comfortable going 25 mph around 25+ riders, yes. If your not, than get comfortable via group rides, and then try it out.

Have you considered focusing on Individual Time Trial as a cyclist? Your family will thank you.

In my area the TT races are quite competitive. It is a less difficult transition from tri. The race specificity of training is better matched to an indoor trainer. And most importantly, it eliminates the crash risk that comes with road races, and crits in particular. I think it is hard to under-estimate that danger.

I was considering the range of road races. Went to one of the USAC Beginning Racing Programs. Even in a highly controlled environment, during the clinic race one fellow swung wide on a corner (I think to avoid a rider going down), missed the turn and ran smack into a light pool. He was OK but the carbon bits got smashed. Between that and advice to bring a beater bike to crits, I've decided to stick with ITT for now.

Beside, ITT is reason enough to buy cool looking aero gear. ;-)

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

Wait, you live IN Tucson? Me too. Do you do the Tuesday ride? Or Wednesday from Le Buzz? These are all good opportunities to develop your skills as a group rider (and consequently, as a racer).

There are a few upcoming opportunities for you:

1) State RR Championship in Show Low on June 16th or thereabouts. This is basically the Deuce's Wild Half course. Nothing complicated or sketchy, but it'll likely be quite fast. Last 8 or so miles is a climb, although not a dramatic one.

2) State TT Championship in AZ City sometime in mid August. Right up your alley.

3) State Hill Climb TT Championship (or something like that) at Kitt Peak on Sept 16th. There you can see how your time actually stacks up!

Personally, since moving to Tucson, I do not find triathlon all that exciting simply because there are not a lot of great local race options. OV Sprint, Cactus Man, Lifetime Tempe, Deuce's Wild (sort of), etc. There are probably less than 10 total local triathlons within a 4 hour drive of Tucson.

Yeah! I live in Tucson for the time being. I'll shoot you a PM.

It is also easy to overestimate it as well. Everybody who races for a long time will probably crash at some point but most of the time someone goes down they'll get back up, take their free lap and finish the race, not end up at the hospital. And lots of folks go years without so much as skinning a knee.

To be safe, it certainly pays to have good pack riding skills before you start. Bike racing IS pack riding so this is not some ancillary thing, it is the essence of the sport. That means both being able to take care of yourself (and be able to do it when you and everyone around you is super fatigued) and to spot the wheels it is not good to be around if you can avoid them. It is also important to be able to read a pack and have some ability to figure out what is going to happen next and what to do about it. Those basic skills should be learned on hard group rides, not in races.

It also helps when you are starting out to be one of the fitter riders. People want to get fit to win but good bike race fitness is also your best safety tool. You need to have both skills and fitness to be able to move around and get to and stay in safe places. And, bike races, especially in the 4s and 5s, are safer when they are faster (i.e. strung out) and if you can help make that happen, you'll have a huge leg up on staying safe. (if you want to see total chaos, be in the middle of a Cat 5 field after a failed attack when no one at the front of the pack wants to pull and it slows down to 18 mph). Being strong makes it more likely you can be near the front when you want to be and it is almost always safer to be near the front of the pack. The riders up there are generally more skilled and there are fewer people to hit.

Oh yeah--one other thing--race entry fees are a lot less than tri. Many of our local races also have cash prizes.

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

As already mentioned a few times, just give it a try a few times.

You're going to have to start in Cat 5 if it's a USAC race, so they aren't overly long (usually 1-2 hours). While bike specific training is always good for bike racing, you're pretty much 90-95% there in terms of fitness required for a Cat 5 race. It's not like if you want to get into bike racing you suddenly have options to sign up for races that are 90 miles long with two massive climbs included that requires a lot of focused training.

here's the good news for you. Focusing on one sport may allow you to bump your threshold up even further. Perhaps to 4.8, on something close to your present day training volume, as you get to recover a bit and don't have to stress muscles that don't contribute as much to cycling.

One thing you should also mention (i forgot if you mentioned this elsewhere) is that weight matters a lot. 4.6 w/kg at 135 lbs is different from 4.6 w/kg at 150 lbs.

Most bike racing is about power in the 3-8 min duration and repeatibility of effort. If your attack stick, you now have to buffer all that lactate generated from your initial attack above threshold. If it doesn't stick, you need to recover quickly and get ready for the next attack. If i'm given the option between higher FTP and lower 3-8 min power and lower repeatibility vs lower FTP but higher 3-8 min power and higher repeatibility, i'd pick the latter as a road racer.

As for training volume, I could have upgraded out of cat-3 by averaging 6-7 hrs/wk, and I didn't accumulate upgrade points the easy way: every single point was obtained by going OTF. Once you get to cat-2 though, the landscape changes, and you probably need to average at least 10-12 hrs/wk. Funny enough, I struggled to upgrade out of cat-4 by averaging 10-12 hrs/wk, but I was able to get better at the 3-8 min power and recovery by working with a coach, thus reducing the need to have an absurdly high FTP.

Finally, while your high threshold power is definitely a plus, you should not use it as a crutch. I remember tail-gunning my way for more than half of a race and placing 4th by averaging 250W (with a few OTF efforts) whereas a teammate averaged more than 300W (while always nominally staying in the draft). A lot of converts from running/triathlon blast through the lower ranks without really learning how to handle their bikes and race with intelligence. While this allows them to upgrade very fast to cat-2, once the physiological playing field is equalized, all the sudden they find themselves unable to navigate the field with finesse, as they've neglected these elements of cycling. It's a lot harder to learn these things in the higher categories than it is in the lower categories, so make sure your skills and acumen are up to par before upgrading.

Good luck!

Came here to say this.

Do get into bike racing if you like pins and screws inserted into your body by surgeons. Repeatedly.

Maybe my experience isn't typical, but I've spent ~10 years as a roadie, after converting from tri around age 34. Moved up from Cat 5 to 2. Have over 200 mass starts in all types of racing - up to Pro-1-2 at the Dana Point Grand Prix.

No broken bones.

I've gone down I think 4 times in those 10 years. All 4 times I popped right back up. Some road rash, but that's it.

A good portion of that is luck. I'm fully aware I could go down at any moment with broken bones regardless of what I do. But some portion of it isn't luck. If you race smart and keep yourself in good situations, you're not likely to go down. 2 of those 4 crashes were in my first year in Cat 5. I learned quickly that I didn't like crashing, and worked hard to learn how to not go down.

I did the swap from runner to triathlete to cyclist. Now I am still a cyclist but I dabble in a duathlon or triathlon once a year or so.

My perspective: it depends on your goals. And what you want.

I wouldnt say cycling training is logistically easier... with swimming and running you can do it literally anywhere, anytime. With cycling, depending on where you live, you are either doing it super early or in the evenings to avoid traffic, and dependent on bad weather. You can only start/end at a couple of places unless you have access to a cycling gym (expensive!). A nice indoor training setup helps tons though. Many of the strong cyclists I know have an nice indoor setup and are on zwift every night.

Depending on how competitive you want to be cycling can absolutely be brutal with training hours. If you want to be at the pointy end of cat 1/2 the training hours are pretty much near the same as ironman training.

Cycling is much more fun than triathlon- you're actually competing against other people. The description 'chess on wheels' is accurate... with the caveat that you're travelling at 40kph and with your heart rate in the red zone. Plus, the team element is much more enjoyable.Pulling off a win or a podium is much more satisfying- but for every race you pretty much need to bring your A game, or you will be pack fodder. For triathlon i could rock up half fit and still do decently and have a good time. Defi itely pin on a number and try it out.

Personally, I find cycling actually harder to train for than triathlon- it certianly requires more discipline- but if you're fine with that and your goals align with above (no need to be super competitive, be a team worker) ]then it may be great for you

The risk is not insignificant, but its often overstated. Over time your handling skills will improve and I have walked away from several crashes/near misses due to good handling skills without a scratch. I have not crashed in 6 years (touch wood) so far.

On the other end of the spectrum, i can buy four artisanal Ti frames with the Ti-based dental implants in my mouth, a result of my fifth race...