Reading the Race: Recon the Course

The following is an excerpt taken from the book, Reading the Race.

Recon the Course



If you love surprises, roll up to the starting line without ever peeking at the course beforehand. Don't look at a map, profile or hand-drawn etching. Just roll. You're sure to be surprised.

Meanwhile, the rest of the field will study the course. It's what every rider with aspirations should do.

Of course, the ideal situation is to pre-ride the course. By doing so, you can pace off the last 200 meters, check the quality of the pavement, test the corner-ability of the turns and note the tricky features that will test your bike handling abilities.

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Riding it slow will help you notice the small stuff, such as sewer grates and manhole covers, and riding it fast will let you see how it handles at race pace. For instance, some hills are easier at 25mph than they are at 17mph if you carry momentum into them.

Too real for you? Then perhaps a virtual lap of the course will suffice. This is done using Google Maps Street View. Clearly, this service was developed by cycling enthusiasts and bike racers looking to take a virtual pre-ride of almost any course in the world from the comfort of their office. Frankly, I can't think of any other possible use for such a tool.

Google Maps satellite view is almost as handy. It will let you see the course, identify landmarks, and help you figure out where you're going to park on the day of the race. When used in conjunction with the measuring tool, you can measure out the distance from the final corner to the finish line. And you're not limited to measuring in meters. I find it helpful to know the distance in furlongs or parsecs.

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You should also pick the brains of your teammates who raced on the course earlier in the day or previous years. They'll be able to tell you how a hill affects the pack in race conditions and which corners might give you trouble. Don't forget to ask them about the wind. 
Some discoveries, however, must be made while the race is underway.

I participated in a circuit race last weekend that consisted of 20 laps on a 1.4-mile course. There was one quirky segment in which the pavement narrowed inexplicably by about the width of a pair of handlebars. On each lap, it seemed that a different rider made the same discovery and got pinched into the grass. Try to catch those elements early and anticipate that others will be slow on the uptake.

The next step is to predict what the course features will do to the race itself. Where can you expect to see an attack? Which of your competitors and teammates will do well on this course? Which ones will not be a factor? Where will the pack relax and recover? How much climbing is there? How will the corners affect the final sprint?

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Getting Psyched Up or Out

Don't let the course psych you out. Don't fixate on the steepness of the hill or the camber of a corner. You've worked on all of your skills, haven't you? If so, then you know how to get through any corner in any weather in any sort of group. This is precisely why we work on these skills.

If you're racing a criterium on a course that you've never seen before, it'll help to watch another race negotiate the course. Get to the race site a little early. Watch one of the other categories ride and note where the other riders are having trouble.

Don't freak yourself out be predicting carnage; get it in your head that you're going to master the course. In fact, you're going to find a way to capitalize on the fear that is coursing through everyone else's body. You'll attack through the downhill off-camber turn with the wicked crosswind right after it starts raining. And everyone will marvel at your ability to ignore the obvious perils.

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I'm not suggesting that you take undue risks in order to win a gift certificate to a local restaurant that's closed on the day of the race. I'm suggesting that you shouldn't let yourself be psyched out by a particularly hard course.

I once announced at a race in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1990s. The downtown course had a nasty little downhill, off-camber, 110-degree right-hander. There were a few minor crashes on it in the earlier races, so I jokingly referred to it as "the meat grinder". The name stuck. It drew a line in the sand between those who could get through it well and those who let it get into their brains.

Another famous corner that I also never had the pleasure of riding through (thanks to my role as an announcer) was at the bottom "O'Hooley's Descent" at the A-to-Z Criterium in Athens, Ohio. It was a notorious hangout for the many Ohio University photojournalism majors hoping to grab a shot of a Pulitzer Prize-winning crash. The promoters erected a large wall of hay bales to protect the storefronts at the bottom of the hill. By day's end, there was a pile of hay strew around the entire corner.

Somebody is going to figure out how to get through those corners and win the race. And others will let it freak them out, and they'll watch the last half of the race from the curb.

Unfortunately, bales of hay don't show up on Google Maps Street View.

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