faire_du_velo

I am planning on doing my first race this upcoming saturday and I am wondering of i should do two races back to back pretty much. The Mens C races is 30min. and then 15min later is the Junior/SS/Women B race which is 30min. Do you think i would be too finished after the first race to do the next one? If so which would be the better one to race? I am 17 so i think i would have a good chance at placing/winning the junior race. What do you guys think?
Also it should be noted that the entry fee for juniors is free.

Andy_K 

15 minutes isn't a lot of time to recover between races, but you could definitely do it. There has been a thread about this recently. Basically, you're likely to do worse in both races than if you did just one, unless you treat the first race completely as a warm-up.

Dheorl

This.

Also I would have thought if it's your first cyclocross and you do treat the first race as a warm up, hopefully you'll make the silly mistakes then and do better in the second.

flargle

Focus on the junior race. Get there well before the C race, pre-ride a few times, hit the tough sections at/near race pace. Then watch the C race for pointers.

Using the C race "as a warmup" sounds good in theory but usually doesn't work that way. Also, it's somewhat disrespectful to the people actually giving their all in the race.

Andy_K 

Yeah, this is probably true. Once everybody starts going, you're going to want to keep up.

jfmckenna

I always do two races, Pro/1/2 and Masters 35. I race the Masters race and then tool around in the 1/2 race. It's a great way to build up fitness and typically it's only like 5 dollars more. I figure if I'm going to drive 2 hours to a race I may as get in as much racing I can.

Andy_K 

How do you do in the Masters race?

We have seperate A, B and C masters races, and in the past there have been people from the later races who also raced in the earlier ones. Some people do get grumpy about this since our groups tend to be huge even without people doubling up. Personally, I wouldn't mind except that the pre-racers tend to finish in the top 10. It's an awful lot like sandbagging. Our A's and Master A's go at the same time, so there's not really an equivalent to what you're doing.

faire_du_velo

Well I am still undecided what i should do. The C race will have more racers which should make it more fun? While the junior race will probably only have 10 at the most racers. Should i just go hard and try to win the C race and then race juniors?

adam_mac84

if u think ur gunna win the C's, u should race the B's, longer race for your money usually anyhow

Andy_K 

This is good advice, except that you shouldn't be too confident of your ability to win the C race if you haven't raced before. I think C races should have a new top 5 every week. In practice, the whole top 20 are usually fast enough to do well in the B race. (At least, that's how it is around here.) The top juniors are usually pretty fast too.

KDTX

I just did an 9 A.M. crit followed by a 2:00 p.m. CX race. I didn't feel terribly drained during the 2nd race but my mind wasn't there. I kept thinking "how would I feel if I didn't race that first race". I had a hard time trying to give the second race 100%. About halfway through the 2nd race, I just started considering it a practice race (which isn't a bad thing).

My recommendation would be to pick one of these races as your "A" race for the day. This is the race you are trying to win. Then choose the other as either a warm up, cool down, and/or practice some different things. (some of this has been mentioned already) Placing won't matter in this race.

I'm thinking you should do both with the first as your warm up (hang back a little,watch and observe). Then stomp the other juniors in your second race!

mzeffex 

I race 4s and juniors every time I race. I do middle of the pack in the 4s and place 2nd or 3rd in juniors. I'm usually dead in the juniors race, that's an hour later. I just got some hammer mix stuff so I hope that helps.

wanders

I've always registered for 2 races - Cat 4 and Masters 45+. I've only done both once. It was the flatest, driest course in the series. Every other time, I felt too beat up to even line up for the second race.

You're young, get a SS and do 3 races if they ever run it as a seperate race.

softside

Doing 2 is totally doable I think. When I was racing 'cross I used to do the Junior then the Elite later. Granted there was a bit more of a rest period between, but I look at it from the point of "more cross = more fun".

faire_du_velo

Well race is tomorrow, And i have decided i am going to do both races. like softside said, "More cross = more fun". Pumped and excited for tomorrow, should be a blast, and i hope that i do well!

Here is the race info if anyone wants to take a look, Savannah super prestige cyclocross weekend.
https://www.georgia-cross.com/