I\’d need plenty of remedial reading if I wanted to enter races. Among other things, the would-be bicycle racer must learn to \”read the race\”. I guess I need this book, because in this area I\’m completely illiterate!

Bicycle races, I hear, are about far more than who can pedal the fastest; and in fact, bicycle racing has been called \”chess on wheels\”. It\’s about tactics as well as speed.

I know there\’s something called \”legal blocking\”, although I have no idea how it works. Racing is about knowing your competition, and about knowing the course; if you can, ride it ahead of time. At the very least, study its profile. You\’ll want to know when in the race you\’ll need to conserve energy; and when you can let yourself go harder.

Yes, I do know those few facts; but if you put me on a bike and thrust me into a race, I\’d be completely at a loss. At best, I\’d be tossed off the back right away. At worst, my inexperience might bring down the entire peloton; and the other riders would not appreciate that. I don\’t even  know how to draft!

If I did all the remedial reading in the world; i.e read every \”how to bicycle race\” book there is, it won\’t help me much. Trying to remember what you just read about how-to-do, while trying to DO that thing, doesn\’t work very well. Not for me, at least. In a way, reading the race is like reading text, I suppose: We Learn By Doing!