bootsie_cat wrote:
That is a bit more than ideal- But it is what it is and it is the same for all of the riders.
You want to get to the line to get as far to the front as possible. MTB races start in a sprint.
Time warmup to end as close to time of lining up as possible. Maybe add in enough time for a trip to the toilet and to get on final race kit.
If you can give your kid anything they need (or take things from them) when they are lined up- That is also ideal. Cold bottle, etc.
My biggest tips for this are:
1.) Don't warm-up too much. A specific warmup of 15-25 minutes is plenty.
2.) Don't go too hard on the warmup- Mostly warm up to tempo range and then do maybe 3x15 sec threshold (effort) type bursts.
3.) BIGGEST TIP- Don't ride hard on the pre-ride the day before. So many kids ride hard up all of the climbs and even do full on hot laps at race pace. This fatigues the legs and makes it harder to put forth 100% on race day.
Use the pre-ride to try to figure out lines, tactical spots, etc.. Don't simulate the race itself.
And don't "race" against other kids on the pre-ride. Let anyone who wants to ride hard do it on their own.
+1 to most of this, note the importance of not doing things too hard the day before.
for something as hard as a MTB start, i'd personally want to do more than 3x15 sec at threshold (though this differs from person to person). It's similar to a hard crit start (or CX start), and for those, I prefer to ramp up to top of zone2 (in 10-15 minutes), do 3-5 min at tempo/threshold, 3-5 min light spin, and then throw in 30 seconds at 120-130%. I sometimes cut the 3-5 min at tempo and just go right to 30 seconds at 120-130%, and do two of these (spaced apart by 5 min of spinning). This should end no more than 5 minutes prior to the start of the race, and you'd want to have the legs moving for most of this
If the race director allows, bring the trainer/roller to the start line and remove the trainer/roller with ~90 seconds to go