Length of races - what's the average per Cat?

Since 2001, over 90,000 cyclist's have joined Cycling Forums to discuss topics from general cycling to equipment, training, racing and travel or vacation destinations (especially in europe during the tour de france). We also feature an great deals in our online store, 100's of articles, classifieds and product reviews.

Is there a general average mileage for a Cat 5, 4, etc., race? I mean, is it uncommon to find a Cat 5 race of 30 miles? 40?

What average speed should I anticipate for an "average" race? Maybe that's impossible to state if terrain varies wildly from one course to the next, but as a Cat 5 racer next year, what could/should I generally expect?

I'm sure I'll get some clarification to these questions in a few weeks when I can join some teem-meet rides, but I'm still curious right here and now. Thanks. :cool:

I think you may find that it varies from place to place. It seems like Oregon races are longer than ours here in Washington in general. Many of the race flyers from this year are still available over at the WSBA race calendar. Its a good place to peruse - the same races are usually put on each year at around the same time so you can start to get an idea of what your calendar might be and plan. Men's 5 races usually run from about 36 miles (5's only races early in the season) to about 60 miles. Later in the season you'll find more combined 4/5 races, but they do try to have separate 5's fields for the first few races at least. Longer races do generally start out at an easier pace. Short ones have people going hard from the start.
As far as crits go - they are time based. The 4/5 men usually do 30 - 45 min +2 laps.
TT's generally are the exact same length for everyone - in the 10 to 12 mile region with the longest one being the state ITT championship - that one is 40K.

As a women's 4 we usually do a little less than the men. My shorter races were in the 25 mile region and the longest one that I did was 101 miles (that was in Oregon though and we did the exact same stages as the 4/5 men :D - in fact our crit was 5 min longer than theirs....)

Some time I'm going to have to meet you face to face.:p
Eden

For a 50-mile Cat 5 race, what kind of average speeds would I typically encounter?

For a 50-mile Cat 5 race, what kind of average speeds would I typically encounter?Have you done local training rides with faster groups in town. If so, expect it to be a bit slower than that and plenty of changes in pace.