The following interview was originally published in Performance Conditioning Cycling for coaches (see endnote), but I believe every recreational rider can use it to help them decide for themselves whether they want to try that first race and whether to hire a cycling coach - Ian
How to Jump from Fitness/Charity
Riding to that First Competition
Gale Bernhardt
Gale is a coach, author and athlete. Her first Olympic experience was traveling to the Games as personal cycling coach for an individual cyclist at the 2000 Sydney Games. In addition to successfully coaching multiple categories of road racers, she has helped elite and amateur mountain bike racers achieve their goals. Gale was selected to be coach of both the 2004 USA Triathlon Men’s and Women’s Olympic teams and the 2003 Pan American Games USA Triathlon Men’s and Women’s teams. In addition to serving as a USA Triathlon World Cup coach, in recent years she has worked with the International Triathlon Union’s Sport Development Project, helping athletes and international coaches. She has authored six books for VeloPress; three of them have sold foreign book rights. She is the trademark owner of the Workouts in a Binder series. She is a regular columnist for the Active Network and has published columns for other print and internet publications too numerous to list.
.“I do a lot of riding and would like to consider going to the state games or some non-intimidating race where I can compete.” Something ever coach has heard.
The following interview is intended to help coaches with some ideas on how to answer these every day questions from the perspective of long time coach, Gale Bernhardt.
PC: The first question but perhaps the last consideration an athlete may have before making the jump into that first competition is, “Do I need a coach?” What is your view on this important question?
GB: I think a lot of potential first timers think of the coach in the perspective of someone who prescribes training. But, in reality, a coach can help the athletes in tactical parts of racing, which is especially true in road racing. It’s really tough for individuals to learn all the ins and outs on their own. It’s not impossible but rather like the school of hard knocks; it will take some time to adjust and learn. There are some good books such as Thomas Prehn’s Racing Tactics for Cyclists. He’s done a nice job of explaining what happens during a race. People can go into a race without good fitness yet end up in the front pack at the end of the race because they have great racing skills. The athletes need to know when to spend their fitness and when to hold it back. One of the common mistakes a new racer will make is charging to the front of the pack showing off how great their fitness is. This is where a coach can help the athlete in race planning and execution. Another other big role a coach can really help with is to get the athletes through anxiety that goes along with racing. For the athletes, it’s important to share with the coach when they are going through anxiety. Many racers are reluctant to admit that they are scared, so it makes the task difficult for a coach to brainstorm for solutions. The next task for an athlete is to settle on a coaching model. There are different ones out there such as one-on-one, team coach situations, and the bike shop ride with a leader approach. Some bike shops have a beginning learner group that may have a coach or leader to mentor people along in group riding skills, which is different from strategies and tactics. The skills implement the strategies and tactics. Group rides really help here.
PC: Do you recommend a “riding partner” if group rides are difficult to get into? Will this training partner help in the motivation of an athlete in getting ready and making a commitment?
GB: I think it’s a good idea to have a racing buddy who serves as a person to help one get into racing. Some of the advantages are learning together and trading information that one or the other may not pick up. It’s also good to have a friend in the pack, specifically for the strategy and tactics that unfold on race day. But, that said, the athlete will still need to ride with bigger groups of people to get the right feel. I don’t know if one will get that necessarily on a charity ride. Unless there is road closure, it’s impossible to get a true feel of the race environment. There are very few places in open road racing where there can be five across. One upside I would like to mention here is that there are categories in cycling that pair the athletes with other beginners and that helps the ego. It’s no fun to go to a road race and get blown away after five minutes and be left wondering why you even showed up.
PC: How does event selection come into play?
GB: I think athletes need to experiment a little. If an athlete is afraid or worried about tight corners and tight situations, time trialing would be a good recommendation. Another advantage is that it gives the athlete a good measure of where s/he stands in comparison to the others racing. By comparing numbers the athlete can have some indications of potential success. That said, there are some riders who can’t do well in time trialing but are good crit racers. There are also different distances and course types (hilly, rolling, and flat) of time trialing, so this is why experimenting is important. I recommend trying them all.
PC: What are the benchmarks fitness wise that are needed as indicators to tell an athlete s/he may be ready to race?
GB: Two good indicators are that if the athlete has the uncontrollable desire during a regular group ride or charity rides to be competitive. These riders can be found continuously aiming to be in the front of the group and trying to pass the person ahead. That said, a charity ride or challenging group ride can be good situations to nurture a new racer. In the case of a group ride, it’s important to find a group that is challenging but not so hard that the athlete is continually being blown off to the back One needs to test the limits without being discouraged.
For 15 years I’ve hosted a group ride starting in my driveway. What I tell people is to hold on a little longer than you think you can and you may find that the group is going to slow down. An optimal situation is that I’ll have two groups go on the ride (A and B group as it’s called in many places), and if an athlete can’t hold on in the A group, it’s nice to have a group to fall back on that will challenge the athlete. Another hint is to have a designated regrouping location so that if cyclists drop off they know that in a few miles they will be able to rejoin the group at a specific location.
PC: From a coaching perspective, what’s a good strategy to introduce the topic of racing? What are some of the dos and don’ts in this process? Is it a good idea to recommend to an existing charity rider to consider competition and risk turning him or her off entirely?
GB: I would say that if a charity rider is looking for more challenges (this is beyond the person who asks to start racing right off the bat) the best time to introduce this is after the riding season and as part of the planning process for next year. The cyclist may say, “I don’t know what to do next” and that opens the door a bit for the coach. Another question for the coach is to ask him or herself if this person is strong enough to take on the next step in the form of a good, positive experience. If the coach is not ready to provide opportunities to bridge that gap, then it’s going to be a tough sell and s/he may lose that individual as a client. This now becomes a coaching philosophical question—is your goal to retain clients or help clients be their best. If a coach doesn’t offer that bridge in the program, maybe it’s best to be up front and suggest to the athlete to seek additional coaching help in the form of a referral. This is a hard thing to do. It really comes down to the coach’s skills, interests and business plan objectives. It’s my philosophy to not hold back information or the advancement of an athlete based on that information. [Mine, too. - ed. Ian.]
Chain Link: Contact Gale at gale@galebernhardt.com
Used with permission; originally published in Performance Conditioning Cycling, vol. 16, issue 5 (2011) www.performancecondition.com/cycling
