NinjaTurtle's Racing Diary: Taiwan Needs more Training Criteriums

Chris Mayhew(left)- A professional coach, a racer with 17 years of experience, a wonderful asset to Pittsburgh racing community, and an all-around great guy

I attended an introduction to bike racing clinic hosted by ACA,JBV Coaching, Morningside Velo, and Iron City Bikes on Saturday, June 20th. The instructor was Chris Mayhew, and several experienced racer such as Steve Cummings helped out as well. The outline of the clinic is listed below:

Why Race?
-To challenge yourself
-To be better than your previous self

Types of Racing
-Criterium
-Road race
-Time trial
-Cyclocross
-Track

Requirements
-Bike
-Helmet
-Sleeved jersey

How to Find a Race
ACA
Pittsburgh Masters Velo Club
True Sport
Bike Reg
Iplayoutside

Basic Skills (includes time on the track)
-Your front wheel is your responsibility
--The only “movable” part of a bicycle
--You don’t want to be at the sides of rear wheel of the rider in front
-Pace lines
--Gesture
---Flapping chicken wings – the flapping side is where you want the trailing rider to come through
---Waving the trailing riders through – a bit sketchy because you are not suppose to take hands off the handlebar
-Cornering
--Practice in an empty parking lot or roads without traffic
--Put the inner side pedal up when in the corner – experienced riders do that only for a few seconds

Most of the stuff was similar to what I learned during Panther Cycling Club’s practice sessions, as I had expected. But I want to see how Chris, a professional coach, runs a racing clinic, and I actually learned quite a few things. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is the importance of training criteriums. New racers tend to do dangerous stuff such as hitting the brakes hard, weaving excessively, or crossing the wheels with other riders. On training criteriums, race marshals who are experienced riders will trail the pack, and correct rider errors and give instant advice. Another relatively new duty is to serve as pace car for the first 5 neutral laps in C and women’s races. The reason for doing this is that new racers often have problems clipping into their pedals, and by the time they clip in, the more experienced racers are already half-way across the course. This makes the new racers feel frustrated and causes potential hazard. Being a race marshal is pretty time-consuming – Chris said he has to spend about 5 hours at each race, but they make the race a lot safer and more attractive to new comers. So, many kudos to them!

There are also many other features which make training criteruims safer. For starter, the field limit is 35 racers. This is because the bigger the field, the harder it is to control the race, and more chances of people running in to each other. A smaller field also makes new comers learn the skill of riding in pack easier. Second, before every race, there is a clinic before each race which coaches or experienced riders talk about riding skills, nutrition, and injury management, etc.

In Taiwan, more and more amateur racers are starting to practice paceline skills, which is a good thing. But because of the varying fitness and skill level in the riders, the speed of the paceline rarely goes beyond 16 mi/hr. This is a lot slower than the usual race pace of 26-28 mi/hr in races. So, when amateur racers in Taiwan get into races, many of them display poor bike handling skills and even cause crashes due to lack of training of riding in close proximity with other riders at high speed.

Thanks to Taiwan Cyclist Federation, we Taiwanese have more road races than 10 years ago. At the beginning, there were only about a couple hundred participants in each event, but now every race has more than a thousand participants! Majority of them, I’d guess, join to enjoy a car-free ride, and some of them have never ridden with people before! This is starting to affect the safety of the races. Each year, I heard about crashes at the start line caused by riders who had problems just getting into pedals! This problem has to be solved! Otherwise, the quality of the race will not improve and fewer people will be attracted to the sport. I suggest that we have at least two training criteriums held in each city each month, and only those who finish 10 races (or a certain number of races) can enter large events. This way, we will have safer races in large events and new comers to the sport will learn the skills required in a safer and more effective way.

Does this sound too far-fetched? Yes, it is impossible right now. But it’s because the Taiwan Cyclist Federation is already at its maximum capacity in holding events. We need smaller organizations which are sanctioned by Taiwan Cyclist Federation to hold the above mentioned training criteriums. But even smaller organizations need more people like Chris, who is willing to donate his time to help with the races, to be able to complete their missions. So rise up, Taiwanese racers! If you care about making road racing bigger and better in Taiwan, think about what you can do and actually do it!