Congrats! You have decided to participate in the G-Tour C-Group events.
Starting anything new can be stressful…”I just drove out to the middle of nowhere and now what? Where do I go? Where do I park? Everyone looks like they know what they are doing and I have no idea who’s in charge?”
Here are a few tips on what to expect and how to get to the start line.
- Be sure your GVCC membership is submitted a week before your first event. If you are riding as a guest, please bring your $20 trial membership fee (good for 1 month of membership).
- Look at the racing page to find out where your ride is located, and then go to the maps page to find the exact location.
- When you pull up to the ride location, you will find other riders in the parking lot or parked along the road side. After you park, introduce yourself. Let people know you are a new rider and ask who is in charge of sign in.
- Sign in or submit your membership form (guest) to the g-tour director.
- Around 5:50PM (road race, 6:00 PM time trial) the g-tour director will call for riders to gather for a pre-ride briefing discussing safety, racing and tactics. The g-tour director will go over how many laps we are doing, if we are doing a neutral warm up lap and if we are going to do any drills before the start of the ride. The g-tour director will also call out lap “primes”. These are sprints within the ride for season overall points.
- The riders will then rollout to the start/finish line. There will normally be two separate groups (A’s and B’s) racing each night. The A group will start first followed by the B's.
- Expect to do 1-2 hours of riding depending on the time of the year and daylight available.
- OK, the ride has started. The first thing is safety. The roads are open to traffic! Do not cross the yellow line. If there is not a yellow line on the road, do not cross the center of the road. Crossing the line to pass the group will not be tolerated and you will be DQ’d. There will be marshals at the corners. The marshals are stopping YOU. They are not stopping cars. If the marshal has the flag up and stationary, you must stop. Even though there will be marshals on most corners, remember, protect yourself at all times. Pay attention to traffic. If you have a mechanical, raise your hand as a warning to other riders and carefully work your way to the shoulder. Be familiar with the course. Turning when you shouldn’t or not turning when you should can cause a crash.
- Pay attention to who finished in front of you so that the order of finish can be determined. If you think you placed in the top ten, go back to the area where the sign in took place. The rider’s names will be recorded in the order they finished. This is how we keep track of the overall points.
- Congratulations again! You just had your first GVCC event. Mingle, chat, ask questions. Riders will usually stick around and discuss the tactics, how hard it was, what they did, what they should have done, etc. This can be a great opportunity to learn.
If you have any questions, please ask Troy Rutherford, Pete Pelychaty or Bob Canino.
