Getting Started

Racing is where you put all your training into practise. How much racing you do and how much you progress is up to you and it may be that you’re happy to stay local and just do the local leagues. You may find though that you want to raise the bar and race regional events at different levels as you move up through the age categories. You can enter pretty well any event you want matching your age category all the way up to National events. The competition can be fierce as you could be racing against the best in the country but who knows, that could soon be you!

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Am I Ready?

This is something you should discuss with an ESV coach. You don’t have to be super-fast, being ready is more about being able to compete safely. After you’ve done a few Advanced sessions and want to go for it just have a chat and see if they think you’re ready.

what do you need to race?

Race License – You can get one with your British Cycling membership or add it to your existing membership
Club Kit – A British Cycling requirement
Your own bike – Possibly an ESV club bike, you need the correct gearing (See Racing / Youth Gear Information)
Your own rollers, you won’t have access to ESV ones on a non-ESV session.
League Membership (purchased on the British Cycling website ) Entry to whatever race league you decide to enter

You also need to understand youth gear restrictions, more info here.

Where can I race?

For track cycling you’ll be racing at a Velodrome. There are 6 indoor ones in the UK, London Lee Valley, Newport, Glasgow, Derby, Manchester and Calshot (where you won’t be racing but might want to try it for fun!) and lots of outdoor ones, our closest with a league is the track at Newcastle-Under-Lyme. We’re very lucky to be based at the National Cycling Centre, a fantastic facility with lots of racing.

What races should I start with?

You should start with a local league race. These are relatively low key and relaxed and the categories are often not the “Official” Youth A, B, etc British Cycling ones meaning races are more categorized by ability not age. You’ll generally start with a league, a series of normally weekly league races at the same time and location. There are *some* indiviual races but you’d probably start with a league race at the velodrome. We have two leagues at the National Cycling Centre and one at our local outdoor track.

The Monday Night Track League aims to provide a competitive, viable and sustainable track league for a wide range of riders in both ability and age groups.
Events are held at the Manchester Velodrome on Monday Nights. Racing 7:20 – 10:00. Sign on from 6:30, warm up 7:00 – 7:20. We will have 3 endurance groups based on ability and a sprinters group.
Lyme Valley Stadium in Newcastle-under Lyme, Staffordshire is the home of the Brooks Cycles Track League. One of Great Britain’s leading Track Leagues hosting a range of popular Sprint and Endurance Track Cycling events every Thursday throughout the Summer until September.
Manchester’s longest running Track League with racing for all categories from Youth B (14+) to Elite & Masters. Entry in advance is preferred to enable a start list to be prepared, there will be an additional fee charged for entry on the day. Minimum entry age is 14 years old. Sign on from 6pm, Warm up from 7pm, Racing starts 7.30pm  

If you’re not sure about racing you could always go and watch and see what you think. You should find that the lowest group is very beginner-friendly though you may not stay in it for long. Remember, some leagues are grouped by ability not age so you might find youself racing a wide range of ages, the important bit is that they’re of a similar (ish) ability.

If you decide you want to spread your wings a little then there are all sorts of things going on.

Age categories

British Cycling uses age categories to group riders for racing, and to set age specific gear restrictions (see below). These categories are taken from a riders age on 1st January, and work in 2 year blocks. The age categories are:

For example, if you are aged 12 on 1st January you will be an Under 14. But if your 12th birthday was on 2nd January you would still be 11 on 1st January, making you an Under 12.

When you are looking for an event you need to select the right category. The “Youth” races will generally cover Youth A and B though there may also be events for Group C’s thought this. You’ll also see “Youth A Open” and “Youth A Girls”, Open means any Youth A and Girls is obviously girls only.

Finding Events

An easy eay to find events is just to ask around and see what everyone else is doing. The main other option is to use the British Cycling web site at https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/results

Start by adding filters for “Type Of Event”

Then “Rider Category”

And that’ll show you a more relevant list, more of what you’re looking for. A word of warning, races may not appear on the site until one or two weeks before the actual event. This is a bit annoying but that’s how it is, you’ll know it’s coming up and probably what day it’s due to happen, you’ll just have to wait until it appears before entering,

If you want to get a good idea of what’s going on plenty of races happen year on year so you can use fildters to show every Group B race that happened last year, for example here. You can then have a browse around and see what looks interesting.

National Events

You can enter the vast majority of events without having to qualify. These events will have some of the best in the country racing however that by no means suggests that you won’t be “good enough” to enter, it’s a great experiance and there are plenty of people racing who are nowhere near the podium who have just as much fun and good racing as everyone else.

A great place to start is the Youth Omnium Track Series

There are normally 5 rounds with the best getting through to the final, this year was at the National Cycling Centre. A great benefit of this event is that, unlike most events, each round is held in two or three locations so you’ll have less far to travel. You’ll be spending more time racing outside than in which brings new things to think about such as races being cancelled by bad weather.

In an Omnium there are generally 5 races all on the same day, you gain points in each event and take your points total as your starting points to the points race at the end. The races will generally be along the lines off..

These may also have “Youth C” and “Go Ride” races at the same time, this gives everyone a go. An example of this is the event at Lee Valley, it was agreat opportunity for even the youngest riders to have a go.

The pinnacle is the Youth and Junior Track Championships held annually, this year it was at Lee Valley in London. Here you’ll find the very best riders who often have this as their main event so it will be very competetive, perhaps too competetive for some but if you feel you’re doing well it’s definitely something to consider.