Thinking about racing, racing memberships and consequently a required racing licence...
As the sun starts to make it's first few re-appearances in a while, and the cyclists don the roads in force, I am reminded that if I want to dip a toe into racing this year I need to:
• Read up on woman's racing, races available to enter & training advice
• Probably foremost - train, & get faster
• Read up on woman's racing, races available to enter & training advice
• Probably foremost - train, & get faster
• Get a racing bike; and
• Also very importantly make sure I have the relevant cover cover and a racing licence
• Also very importantly make sure I have the relevant cover cover and a racing licence
After my entirely humbling first competitive event (last year's very well attended Burrington Hill Climb), I am trying not to head into the arena completely naively.
Don't be fooled by Strava
Strava has been a great tool on some of the popular segments, however it can be very complimentary to group riders, tail-winders and most of all woman riders (certainly on lesser covered areas), and consequently not so good for actual training - more a gentle ego stoker that can lead you blindly into competitive situations with false confidence.
Often I stumble along segments that a child on stabilisers could attain, win a QOM and give myself a nice pat on the back. Only to soon after come across a segment that I know I was going all out on, and find that some other woman (admittedly normally a pro, or tandem rider - but not always by any stretch...) has a good minute and a half on me, and then I see their heart rate bpm compared to mine... and I'm brought right back to reality.
With all this in mind I really don't know if I am going to take to racing, but I'm going to give one or two a go to find out, and possibly time trailing too, and see what works best for me. Either way I can't wait for the summer to kick in and in preparation I have been looking into British Cycling memberships and here are the options:
British Cycling Memberships
Ride Membership - £28.00
Ideal for commuters and sportive riders:
- Up to £10m liability insurance
- Free legal advice & support for cycling incidents
- 12% off at the British Cycling Wiggle Shop
- 10% off at Halfords, including the Boardman range
- Weekly email newsletters
- Priority access to events and discounted tickets
- 40% off CNP nutritional products
- Plus more...
Race Bronze Membership - £15.00
Designed for riders who race competitively:
- Provisional racing licence
- 12% off at the British Cycling Wiggle Shop
- 10% off at Halfords, including the Boardman range
- Weekly email newsletters
- Priority access to events and discounted tickets
- 40% off CNP nutritional products
- Plus more...
Race Silver Membership - £38.00
All the benefits of Bronze plus:
- Up to £10m liability insurance (includes competitive cycling)
- Free legal advice & support for cycling incidents
- Full racing licence available (optional purchase)
- Plus more...
Race Gold Membership - £66.00
All the benefits of Silver plus:
- Personal Accident insurance with overseas cover
- Quarterly on and off-road events calendar delivered to your door
- 10% extra discount on bike insurance
- Plus more...
So that's the memberships, you'll need at least silver or gold to apply for your licence, and here's the licence prices (you'll need a licence if you want to road race and collect points to climb the cat series)...
Full Licence Prices
| Licence Age Category (2013) | Price of Full Race Licence |
| UCI Registered Team Rider | £78.00 |
| Senior: (18+) | £34.00 |
| Junior (16-18) | £14.00 |
| Youth (12-15) | Free |
| Under 12 | Free |
I have gone for the Gold, which in hindsight may have been a bit hasty considering I might do one race and hate it, but I wanted to make sure I had maximum cover, in the UK and overseas. (We may be re-visiting Versailles with bikes for The Tour).
You pay for the racing licence on top which is £34 for a senior (18+ years). So it tops up to quite a hefty sum. I did however get 10% off for an annual direct debit (that I'll be sure to cancel promptly if I decide it's not something I want to pursue...)
Provisional licence
You get a provisional licence with the Race Gold and Race Silver, which can get you in on most BMX, Cyclo Cross, Cycle Speedway and MTB races. Although you are advised to check with the event organiser beforehand.
However with a provisional licence you can't earn points to move through the cat systems, you need a full licence for that.
Single day racing and track licence
Also does not earn any points, and comes at the following prices:
Members with a
Provisional Race Licence
|
Non-Members
| ||
| Event Classification | Bronze | Silver / Gold | |
| Regional A/B | £10.00 | £5.00 | £10.00 |
| Regional C+ | £5.00 | Free | £10.00 |
| Regional C | £5.00 | Free | £10.00 |
| Go Race | Free | Free | £5.00 |
| Open Track Meetings | £10.00 | £5.00 | £10.00 |
| Track League Meetings | £5.00 | Free | £10.00 |
| Youth Riders (under 16) all events | n/a | n/a | £1.50 |
So all in all quite a costly 'just seeing what I think of it' purchase, I suppose I could have just tried it with a provisional licence... but I guess I'll never know until I try it, and I don't like doing things by halves. I also wanted to be sure to get the points in there if I do like it from early on.
The only thing that did leave me slightly deflated about the British Cycling sign-up perhaps - is how each option is broken down into monthly payment equivalents... implying there was a monthly payment option, although this seemed to disappear at checkout, leaving only an annual direct debit option. So either I missed the monthly option somewhere along the line, or they were talking hypothetically. Either way quite sneaky, monthly installments would have been nice.
Post author Christina.
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