Preparation for your race event

1. Figure out where you are staying (places fill early – plan ahead and book early to ensure you have somewhere to stay. Most venues book out weeks to months in advance- plan ahead!)
2. Be prepared for the weather – most of the races are at 9,000 feet or higher and the weather can change quickly. Make sure you have warm clothes (puffy jackets, hats, gloves, etc. PLUS rainwear). It has not been uncommon to have a snow squall during an event or wake up to 30 degree mornings the morning of an event. Weather can vary from snow to 90 degrees so be prepared for a bunch of conditions.
3. Rest up – Week of your race – take your training for the last half of the week easy. Thursday and Friday should be completely off or very easy skills days with limited ‘hard’ riding on the bike to ensure you are recovered and rested for the race.
4. Get your bike ready – Ensure your bike is ready. Make sure you clean your bike (simple and only requires some degreaser like Simple Green (rather than WD-40) and a bucket with warm water and some dish soap). A few brushes and a sponge and hose and you are good to go (see: https://youtu.be/QvzVRxlIUL0)
   1. Make sure everything is working – if your brakes need bleeding or aren’t working – get them to the shop now at the start of the week. 
   2. Don’t show up with bike issues to the race and expect to get things ‘fixed’.
   3. Use this guide to go through your bike and make sure it’s ready – https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-dQhUEo1XP8NjNJbXVaYkFtQnM/view?usp=sharing

What to pack:

1. Your bike
2. Spare kit (tube, tire irons, multi-tool etc.)
3. Water Bottles & cages (highly recommended over a camelback or pack for racing)
4. Helmet
5. Shoes
6. Shorts, Jersey or t-shirt
7. Gloves!! (riding and warm gloves)
8. Riding Jacket & vest if you have them
9. Warm clothes – puffy jackets, hats, gloves and rain wear
10. Change of clothes for before/after racing (Potentially a towel to wipe down)
11. Food for the day – any nutrition you want on/off the bike.
12. Water/hydration – have hydration not only for your bicycle, but also while travelling and pre and post race. (riders should be fully hydrated before their race (needing to pee every 10 minutes or so means that you are fully hydrated and clear urine is also an indication).

Race Day Timeline/checklist:

 Plan your day around your race time

1. Pre-ride complete (the night before or the morning of the race.If your race group is starting first on race day, make sure to pre-ride the night before so you don’t miss your start!!) See about pre-riding later in the document.
2. Pre-race meal – completed at least 2 hours prior to start – complete eating a good and solid nutritional meal. Something that is easy to digest and doesn’t cause problems. (Some riders find that rice, eggs, simple burrito or breakfast burrito, peanut butter & Jelly sandwich, or oatmeal work well). Add in some protein if possible. Avoid junk food as this is your fuel for your race. Experiment during training to figure out what works for you.
   1. If you get hungry before the race, choose easy to digest nutrition – gels, bars or fruit work well. (this likely means your pre-race meal wasn’t big enough, note and plan for next time)
3. Arrive at venue (plan to arrive at least 2 hours before the start)
   This will reduce stress for everyone
4. Find the team tent/area
5. Prepare the bike 
   1. Check your ABC’s (Air, Brakes, Chain, Derailleurs/shifting)
   2. Fill your water bottles and place on the bike (plan for any feeds)
   3. Zip tie race number to bars
6. Change into race wear – 1.5 hours before start
7. Plan your race nutrition – gather gels, bars, etc. for the race and put into pockets
8. Feeds – organize your feed with the coaches/teammates
9. Continue hydration throughout warm-up/staging
10. Warm-up – 1 hour before start (find a coach/teammates)
    1. Light stretches.
    2. Ten minutes easy pedaling. Check that your bike works properly!
    3. Five minutes at heart rate zone 1 (conversational), building to zone 2 (conversational but with effort).
    4. Spin easy 1 minute.
    5. Five minutes at zone 3 (not wanting to talk! – feels hard).
    6. 30 seconds easy.
    7. 2- hard 2-minute efforts with 1-minute spin in between.  Imagine you’re racing but that you have 1 hour to race holding this pace. This should be a controlled hard effort, the heart rate will catch up…but don’t sprint…think about the entire event pace.
    8. 2-10 second all-out sprints with 30-second spin in between.  Mimicking the start!  Body/mind preparedness. 
    9. Five minutes easy pedaling. 
11. Meet at the Team Tent – 20 minutes before the start
12. Staging – 10-15 minutes before start
    (continue to spin around and keep the legs warm and don’t forget to hydrate (have an extra bottle with a parent to replace what you are using)
13. RACE AND HAVE FUN!!
14. FINISH 
15. Cool down 10-20 minutes of easy spinning
16. Head to the team tent
17. Re-fuel (eat and re-hydrate)
18. Change into street clothes
19. Plan to feed & cheer other teammates

About Pre-riding:

Recommended pre-ride consists of two laps of the course (for those who are fit enough to complete this in around an hour – or split it between the two days). Note the times that you can pre-ride the course and plan your day/weekend accordingly. If you are the first race of the day, please ensure you pre-ride the night before so you don’t miss your start!

How to pre-ride:

The first lap of the pre-ride is to get to know the course and should be done at a slow pace (you are racing either tomorrow or potentially today so this is about memorizing the course not setting a fast time). Note the course features and think about where you will drink, feed, places to pass and where you need to shift, etc. 

The second lap is where you can try a few of the more challenging sections with a little speed to figure out how they ride at speed. (however this is not a blazing fast lap, just a little pace injected at the more difficult sections (downhills, etc.) to get used to them at speed).