 You
may find yourself with an urge to take your cycling to a different
stage and to attempt racing. Many start with off-road racing,
I did and thoroughly enjoyed it and still do. However, when
I was introduced to road racing it opened up a whole new scene
and one that was filled with immense disappointment in the early
stages, as I saw the peloton disappearing up the road without
me; to the exhilaration of finishing in my first bunch sprint.
Anyone
who has seen racing live, or on TV, with the peloton at full
speed, echelons forming due to cross winds, riders struggling
in the gutters trying to 'hold the wheel' in front, yet more
riders being spat out of the back, will know just how exciting
road racing is.
What
is Road Racing?
The sport of road
racing has been around since the turn of the century and although
it is very popular in countries like France and Italy, where
it is the national sport, in the UK, road racing plays second
fiddle to football etc. and also to its sister sport of time
trialing.
 For
dedicated road racers it's hard for them to understand why road
racing isn't more popular because when it comes to excitement,
there is really nothing like being in a road race. It's like
being in a swarm of bees and that noise of gears meshed with
chain, the smell of embrocation in your nostrils and the closeness
of other riders is something that once experienced, is never
forgotten, and seems to drag you back for more and more of it.
In
a road race, the action involves everything from a casual stroll,
where you can chat to fellow riders, to dangerous descents,
heated sprints where elbows clash and voices (and sometimes
tempers) are raised.
When
it comes to media coverage however, although the results of time
trialling seem to be plentiful, it's road racing that has the
higher profile. If you want proof of how significant road racing
is on the world stage, most of what we call the "classics"
are road races and only in recent years has there even been a
time trial in the world championships; and what about the big
one (the Tour De France) and other European tours like the Giro
and the Tour of Spain. 
That
isn't to say time trialing is not exciting, the time trial stages
of the big tours are very much so from a spectators point of view.
Not only do you get to see each rider on their own, racing against
the clock, their performance against a rival is made much more
exciting when the overall classification of the tour involved
is taken into account.
How road racing and time trialing differ
The
difference between the two is simple. In road racing, a
group of riders start together. This group is called a bunch or
peloton and gives rise to the term sometimes used of 'bunch racing'.
Riders generally race over distances from around 30 miles upwards.
The top riders (Elites and 1st cats) regularly race over distances
in excess of 80 miles depending on the type of race. A national
title race will generally be longer than a normal weekend Elite
road race.
Time
trialing on the other hand is a race where riders compete alone,
over a set distance, against the clock. The person recording the
fastest time over a set distance being the winner.
Because
the two types of events are very different, the bikes used for
both can also vary. It is possible to use a road bike to ride
a time trial but not generally a time trial bike in a road race.
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