Daniel Fortunov's Blog » Cycle Racing Retirement

Here is an image I randomly came across recently: the prize presentation of the London Dynamo Beginners' Circuit Race — my second ever bicycle race. The podium was well attended by members of the London Dynamo "home team" but after riding in a breakaway for most of the race I was determined to put in my best shot. Of course, I also had luck on my side — a lot comes down to chance in the final seconds of any race.

5 March 2005: My first (and only) bicycle racing win.

Having not participated in any races since 2005, I think it's fair that I should now consider myself officially 'retired' from amateur bike racing. Not retired from cycling though, just the racing part — I still ride daily, to and from work, and even went out for a pleasant ~100km ride with the local cycling club last weekend. Racing is another story though: training takes up so much time that it was pretty much the only focus in my life when I was racing. Eat, sleep, work, ride; that was it.

After I won that race I moved up into a slightly higher category of racers (3rd Category), which made the competition tougher. I placed highly in some other races and three months later I moved up again (2nd Category). By this time, winning a race was out of sight — any given bicycle race is open only to racers in certain categories, say 4th Category and 3rd Category, or 3rd Category only (or 4th Category only, as was the beginners' race which I won). If you're in 3rd Category, riding in a race open to 4th and 3rd Category riders then you're in the best category of riders for the race — any riders in 2nd Category and above would not be permitted to enter the race.

The problem is that by the time you make it in to 2nd Category the road races you can enter are usually fairly long distance ones (typically over 100 miles) and open to groupings such as 2nd and 1st Category, or worse 2nd, 1st, and Elite Category (Elite being the highest classification in British amateur bicycle racing.) Placing in the top twenty of such a race is very highly regarded, never mind winning. Though I did come third-last in a short circuit race one time!

[ More cycling related posts from my previous blog ]