spectastic

been racing unattached for around 3 years now, and I'm getting close to upgrading to cat 2. It's probably time to join a team and seek some mentorship from those more experienced than me. luckily, the area I currently live in is filled with teams, and a lot of them show up to the weekly group rides. I'm trying to weigh the pros/cons, and things I should consider, and I'm wondering if others can pitch in.

pros:
mentorship
carpooling
working with teammates, and strategies
paid race entrance fees (maybe?)
discounts on parts (maybe)


cons:
time commitment
working for someone else on my own dime


priorities list:
experience on the team
serious about racing
potential to graduate to an elite team
sponsorship support

what am I missing? how should I approach the teams?

TheKillerPenguin

*Team plans can work out which is a really great feeling.
*The right team is hanging with your friends, with bikes.
*The right team will help you level up, whether it's via mentoring, gleaning info from the better riders, or death marches, or a combo of all of these things.
*You get to pool resources for stage race stuff, like a place to stay, carpooling, etc.
*You will probably discuss socks a lot. This is normal.

The working for other people thing can be fun, and you still get to take your own chances, and you're probably going to get your teeth kicked in a bit after you upgrade anyway so you might as well do what you can for the guys that are past the upper cat hazing period. Sometimes the right circumstances will play out that get you a result. Eventually you'll be the hulkamaniac that everyone looks up to.

I have no complaints. Being on a team is rad, and I say this as someone that rode solo for a loooooong time.

tpero

re: time commitment, depends on the type of team you join. a dedicated sponsored elite team is going to want to get the most out of their riders and often have an applications process. Most local development teams are open, you pay dues, buy a kit and you're on the team, so you show up and race whenever you want - some may have an elite team within the team that gets additional support (my team does this).

re: working for someone else on my own dime....
cycling is a team sport, not an individual one. I wouldn't look at it as working for someone else, it's working for your team. Is it satisfying to get on the podium or win a race? Sure it is. You know what's also satisfying? Giving your teammate a monster lead-out so he can win, or shutting down chase attempts, or winning the mid-race sprint so rival omnium/series contenders can't get the points over your teammate.

When your teammate wins, you win. And on most teams, there's not just one plan focused on one rider set it stone; there are usually plans A, B, C, and D, and you execute depending on how the race plays out. For example, you might plan to mark a specific rider - well if that rider attacks and you follow and end up in a break with him, then your teammates work to block and shut down chase groups. Maybe your break gets brought back and another one of your teammates immediately launches a counter, so you start blocking. Maybe it all comes together at the end and you all work to lead out your best sprinter. It's usually very fluid and guys you work for in one race will likely be willing to work for you in another.

hack

Teams are fun. It helps that you like the people you're racing with since that just makes it racing bikes with friends. Our team is small (2 Cat 1s, 6 Cat 2's, and a Cat 3), but we ride together quite a bit and are more than happy to help one another out in race scenarios. Since we are small, our "deals" are pretty limited, but we're all okay with that since we don't hate each other.

rubiksoval

I feel a team is worth it going from a 3 to a 2. That's generally a pretty big step and can be demoralizing at times. Playing a role in a team will likely help you "participate" more in the races initially, even if it hinders your own results, some. It also gives you different perspectives on things and gets you more opportunities to experience more scenarios that you may not get racing on your own.

Lastly, it can be a lot of fun, especially coming up. Your success is the team's success, and vice versa. Plus it's nice to be able to train with a group of guys and then race with them, too.

I don't always feel a team is to the best interest at certain times, and that's up to a rider to decide. Personally, I like to race for myself and I am always looking for my own result if I'm on form, so if I'm not a leader on a team with free reign to race as I like, then I have to consider that and weigh against my own ambitions. With that said, there are generally opportunities for everyone to get a result, and I've done leadouts and missed out on breaks when I wasn't strong enough to race for a placing and my teammates were, so that's cool, too.

caloso

Joining a team instantly plugs you into a network of people to train with, race with, and hang out with at the races. It has been totally worth it for me.

canuckbelle

I just resigned from my team. I won't go into the reasons. But one contributing factor is that I was racing on my own anyway, as the only active woman on the team. So if you're going to join a team, find one that does the races *you want to do.*

carpediemracing 

Ugh. Lost my text when machine crashed.

Teamwork is about give and take. If you're someone that likes being part of a group then teams are great. I like being part of a group and it motivates me when I'm doing stuff for others. I find myself working much harder than normal when I'm racing for someone else. For example, a few years ago I went to the NE Crit Championship, M35+. I'd lasted 9 minutes or so in my race the prior week so I had zero expectations for my race. I went mainly because we were hanging out with my friend. Got there the evening before, dinner, talk, etc, then breakfast, go to race, dinner, then we'd go our own way.

So really the race was just an hour or 90 minutes of hanging out with friends for a day. So I went. My team had three riders on form, two could win from whatever sprint (break/field), one would want to be in a break, plus me and my friend who were both way off. I literally thought I'd last 10 minutes so I was super aggressive in the first few laps, thinking I'd have maybe 4 or 5 laps before I got shelled. Instead, with me focusing so much on the whole teamwork thing, I was on edge, hypervigilant, always willing to make one more effort, and suddenly I wasn't dropped. As a bonus @shovelhd gave me a leadout for the sprint, something I didn't even dream of at the start of the race.
My clip on the race:

Finish line clip, shot by dl109er's wife, my teammate's wife.

For me teams are more about race day camaraderie and a few close riders to work with. I really haven't done a team group ride since about 1997. I did two with my current team, 2010-now. One was 2010 and I crashed. Another was 2015 and I took a day off to do a "going away" ride for a good guy on the team. Before that I raced with a team based sort of far away. I literally never did a group ride with them, just one ride with one teammate, and, again, it was part of just hanging out for a day (wives hung out also). From 1990-1997 I raced for myself really, Carpe Diem Racing, it was the shop team but I helped run it and then I bought the shop. From 1983-1989 I raced for previous iterations of the exact same team but the names were different due to amateur vs professional rules (no business names in a USCF team back then - 7-Eleven's amateur team was actually "East Side Wheelmen" for that reason).

If I were you I'd look for teams with members that appeal to you, meaning they're people you'd want as friends. You don't want to carpool with people that you really don't want to hang out with for example.

Although it's nice to have the strongest rider in the area on your team, it's probably a bit more rewarding to be on a team that has to use teamwork to overcome a strong rider. In about 1989, maybe 1990, I was on such a team. We went and did this one non-sanctioned race that was won annually by a guy that was named an alternate on the 1980 Olympic road team. He just crushed everyone. We showed up, a bunch of 3s and 4s with one ringer Cat 2 (I recruited him) and just bashed the race to pieces. Our team won out of a 3 man break, the Cat 2 ringer winning, the 1980 Olympic guy second, and we also got 3rd (a Cat 4). I got 4th out of the main group. It was an example of changing the way people approached the race and I'm proud to have been part of it.

In terms of cost there's one semi-local team that allegedly has a $1500 membership fee. Although it sounds crazy in a way it makes sense. You get all the team kit you ever need (you pay for it up front), every single team rider is 100% committed to the team. That team trains together, they do long rides that they blog about, etc etc etc. I look at that team and think, "Boy, that would be a great team to ride with," and in the same thought I'm thinking, "Yeah, that's not for me."

Discount on parts - unless you're buying a brand new limited bike, like a Specialized or Trek or something not available outside the dealer network - you're not going to get much of a discount. Although I have various "bro" hook ups with parts and such, I almost never take advantage of them. I'd rather source the parts on my own and save my favors for big things. I bought three sets of HED wheels in 2010 from the same shop, for example, and I know that my order alone accounted for 5 of the 10 wheels they had to buy to get the best pricing that year from HED. My current team offers discounts on Trek/Bontrager stuff and Bell. I buy some Bell helmets, some Bontrager stuff, that's about it.

grolby

This is pretty much it for me. So much of it is social. But in the case of our reasonably organized team, it also means a group of people who can work together to contribute to the local racing community in a meaningful way. We throw an annual bike swap, and this year for the first time, we promoted what was hopefully the first edition of a great criterium.

A team can also provide opportunities for mentorship and learning. In the case of my team, we don't have a lot of institutional expertise in road racing, so the benefits of team membership in terms of race performance are probably small for most of us. But we have a large and experienced core of elite cyclocross racers, and being able to pre-ride a course with one of your more experienced teammates and think about lines and tire pressure, or get advice on riding technical features, is huge. The important thing there, road, cx, mountain or whatever, is having a team that not only has a mix of newer and more experienced riders, but also is invested in the success and development of everyone on the team. The difference between a team that really cares about everyone on the team having a good experience and getting better, and one that doesn't, is really tangible. Not only do team members notice, people outside the team notice, too.

It also doesn't hurt to have a group of people you can carpool with. That's probably the most important test for new members of our team: the van test. If you can do a five hour drive to a race with anyone on the team and not be ready to kill them by the end, you've got a good group of people.

Ygduf

I have people to ride and train with when I want, but a team for me this year is a way to allow me to contribute and feel like part of a winning effort when I cannot be my best due to other life circumstances.

Last year I was alone all the time and bullied my way into plenty of podiums, but I still enjoy racing and it's very nice to be able to pick my spots and help get a "team" win.

rideaz

Teams are all over the board here in terms of seriousness, rules (such as doing a min number of races each season), race and travel reimbursement, shop deals/discounts etc. Think of what you want to get out of it and see if there's a local team that fits most of the criteria. If you have some favorite local riders, maybe look into joining their team, like others have said, the camaraderie is one of the best parts of being on a team.
Oh, and the kit is important, don't pick a team with an ugly kit...jk sort of!

canuckbelle

No seriously: #protip Don't pick an ugly kit!!

furiousferret

I like riding for the LBS; teammates seem to be a bit more serious, discounts are great, training sessions are legit, and being in a smaller town we're pretty tight knit.

The funny thing is, I've brought more business to the shop from my commuting than racing.

Bandera

Can the Team in question accurately sing all verses to "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" while trading pace on a winter fixed gear base miles ride?
If not: Pass.

-Bandera

topflightpro

When I joined my current team, we had several Cat 1s and one former pro on the team. I spent a lot of time riding, training, and learning from those guys. It was a great opportunity for me.

Most of them have moved away, so we have evolved into more of a mountain cookie ride/masters racing/beer drinking group. It's different, but I'm ok with it. I still race, as do about a half dozen other guys. But the majority of the team is more likely to do a hard group ride on a Saturday or head out for a long ride in the mountains.

That said, we've never been very strict about race requirements. We charge dues to team members - $35 - which we use to cover the costs of our USAC permit and insurance policies. (All good nonprofits should have General Liability and Directors & Officers insurance policies.) Team members are responsible for their kits and race dues, though we only charge $5 to team members in races we put on. (That covers our actual costs to USAC and our LA for insurance and rider fees.) All the profit we raise through sponsorships and race fees goes to our charitable efforts. We donate a few thousand dollars every year to a variety of groups in our area.

Also, we make it incredibly difficult to join our team. The reason being is we don't want to have to kick anyone off.