As a resident of the Fort formerly known as Ord on which Sea Otter is staged, I can tell you that you should prepare by riding hills. Lots of them, in succession. I can't tell you about the intensity of racing in your age group, but I would wager that it is right up there. Having said that, though, the event itself is fantastic (really outstanding) and you shouldn't miss it. Perhaps you can try a race or two before Sea Otter as your "getting your feet wet" races.

Amy White
Seaide, CA

Sea Otter would be a bad first race, and master's races in general are a bad way to start out. Sea Otter is way freakin' hard, and way freakin' fast, and master's races are almost always harder than non-master's races at the same cat. level - and the old guys are going to be way craftier than you are.

Do yourself a favor, and start out with a small, local, cat 5 race, and do it with the cat 5's, not the old guys. I feel pretty sorry (for them)when I see someone who's obviously new to the game show up for a master's race, thinking it's it's going to be an easy ride. About a lap in, they realize just how many of us are Cat 1 or 2's...

MH

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Check if there is a leanr to race program near you, it is so much better to do your first races as part of a course like this and be surrounded by people for whom it is also their first race.

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
OPEN cycle

I haven't raced Sea Otter, but I imagine it would be a bad place to start your road racing career. The good news is that there are plenty of road races before the second weekend of April, so you can learn the ropes. The even better news is that you can race twice on Saturday, once in the Sr. 5s at 8:00 AM and then again in the 30+ 4/5s at noon. I wonder if you can race twice on Friday as well, 8:00 AM in the 5s and then 1:10 PM in the 30+ 4/5s? Now that would be a good day of racing, with 83 miles in the bank when all is said and done!

If you have good bike handling skills in a pack, and don't mind getting out of the way for the better cyclists when you need to, and don't mind being left behind going up the hills, then Sea Otter is a great venue for a first race. The course is closed to traffic and the roads are very good. I did this as my first road race and finished well behind the leaders, but also beat quite a few people as well and had a great time. I was worried about getting yelled at for not knowing race etiquette, but it never happened and I found most of the other riders quite friendly.

If you're approaching it super competitively, I'd pick an easier race.

Thanks for all the excellent information and suggestions.

Fredly - What does the 'Masters' title designate? Would the Senior 5 group be a better option?

I live in the Marin area and my rides almost always go into the hills around here, but there are sooooo many good riders in Norcal it seems easy to get outclassed pretty quickly. This race appealed because it's fairly close, and as Amy indicated, its got an incredible reputation. It also seemed to fit pretty well into the build up to Wildflower.

Anyone know of a site that lists other Cat 5 races in the coming months, optimally in the SF area. The road race option sounds better to me than crits.

Thanks all,

Christian

Xian,

You need to bookmark this page: http://www.ncnca.org/

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Master means simply that you are over 30 (sometimes 35) and not a pro. I'm 35 years old, a Cat 1, and I do master's races fairly often. That's probably not the kind of rider you want to line up with in your first road race - pretty intimidating.

When master's races are split up by category, it's sandbag central. There isn't really any pressure to upgrade if you just do master's racing, and there is a USCF age exemption: once you reach a certain age, you get to race a category down. Ouch. No matter how you slice it, if you do an old guy's race, you will be racing some damn fast folks - especially in California. And at Sea Otter, they will be taking it pretty darn seriously.

One thing I do need to say (in response to a previous post on this thread): I firmly believe, in road racing, if you are off the back, by yourself, you aren't racing. You may be having a fine time, you may be gaining valuable experience, but you aren't in the race anymore. (I've been in this position more times than I can count, believe me.) In most races, you won't even be credited with finishing if you aren't in spitting distance of the last big group across the line. This is VERY different from the multisport world, and this is why road racing is categorized.

Why do I say this? I think a lot of people don't get it, and it's important. The whole idea in road racing is that it's a team sport, it's a group sport, and to really enjoy it, you owe it to yourself to understand and embrace this. This is why road racers need to start out as a cat 5 (or 4, for the women), always, and move up, till they find their (dis?)comfort level.

Find a local road team, and do some group rides, with roadies. They will let you know what the best races are to start out at, and which ones to avoid (and there are always races to avoid.) I strongly, no, urgently, recommend getting plugged in to the local roadie rides before you start racing. Riding in a pack, in race conditions, is not something you want to learn during a race, especially since you probably have way too much fitness for your own good; your strength to skill ratio is going to be way out of wack when you start road racing, if you are even a moderately good tri rider. This is where all the roadie "triathletes can't ride" prejudice comes from, I think. It's also why any local cat 5 team would love to have you aboard.

Road racing is incredibly good fun, but there is a steep learning curve. Start out at the very bottom, and go ride with the local roadies. They WILL help you, and you owe it to yourself to go into this with the tools you will need to succeed, and more importantly, have fun.

Good luck,
MH

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Fredly hit it right on the head with this:

>>This is VERY different from the multisport world, and this is why road racing is categorized.

Why do I say this? I think a lot of people don't get it, and it's important. The whole idea in road racing is that it's a team sport, it's a group sport, and to really enjoy it, you owe it to yourself to understand and embrace this. <<

And, riding with a team you will quickly find out if you are a team person. I was asked to join a women's racing team, but boy, I hate it. I am definitely NOT a team player. Though I may do some track racing, but I'll stick to tris and karate.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I live over in the East Bay. Earlier this year I did the NCNCA early bird criteriums over in Fremont, and learned a ton. They had a mentoring program to show newbies proper race etiquitte, how to do single and double pacelines, how to corner, how to handle touching someone's wheel, etc. The skills were not limited to criteriums, they work just as well on road races. The series ended, but you might want to look in to it next year.

If you really want to do some good rides before Wildflower, you can head out to Walnut Creek and ride the House of Pain group ride. Lots of local pro cyclists and triathletes have trained with this group. They usually go 80 miles, pretty fast pace, lots of rolling hills. They meet at the Rudgear park-and-ride and leave at 9:00 am every Saturday. You will get the experience of riding with a talented group of riders, but without the cost or formality of an actual race.