So I have decided to enter my first road race. Its a 43 mile Cat 5 race and my question is, how much should I warm up before a race like that, or how much do racers use the first part of a race as the warm up? I know I wouldn't start completely cold. I've done a couple of training crits with a local club and for those I have tried to get a pretty good warm up, e.g. 30 minutes or so with some hard efforts. Those were 18-20 mile crits. Should I do a similar warm up for the RR, or should I use the early miles as part of the warm up?

Thanks for the advice.

Lots of things to factor in here... It's a short race but if that is the high end of what you normaly ride i'd keep your warmup pretty short.

If you have plenty of 60 mile days under you no problem i'd do a decent warmup.

also, you didn't really tell us much about the course. If there is a hill near the begining or rollers you're going to want to be well warmed up. If it is flat and intothe wind the pace will be so sluggish you can warm up as it starts.

also a warmup on a trainer is often far more efficiant then riding around the race start. If you've got a trainer and it's a simple flat race i'd go with about 20min. spend the first 5 pretty slow, get off for a couple min. and do some stretching, get back on, through the middle of the warmup, start incorportating some short hard efforts, nothing too exerting but you want to simulate responding to some attacks and get that heart rate up toward your max
the big key is doing the warmup as close as possible to the race start.

don't forget to hydrate and start doing so at least the day before. (take a light spin the day before racing as well. Many who rest the day before a race find they can't get their heart rate up and the legs feel 'dead'.

remember, the race is at the front! Don't be in the very front but darn near it.

dfleck, thanks for the great advice. Course is pretty flat, and wind in that area can be pretty variable, so not sure whether start will be with/into/cross the wind.

dfleck, thanks for the great advice. Course is pretty flat, and wind in that area can be pretty variable, so not sure whether start will be with/into/cross the wind.

As dfleck said, the warmup for road race depends on many factors. For me, the longer the race, the less the warmup unless there is something that might force an early selection (climb, crosswind). Sometimes I might only roll around for 15 minutes of light riding before the start, but if I know I need to make a big effort early in the race then I'll add another 10 minutes with a couple of short "opener" efforts. Still, it is nothing like a criterium or TT warmup in terms of intensity.

Your course is primarily flat and possibly windy? On race day, figure out how early the first crosswind section will occur. Do your warmup appropriately to be ready for a hard effort in the crosswind. And more importantly, try to be in the first 10 riders just before the bunch hits the crosswind section. It is much safer and infinitely easier to be at the front in the crosswinds.

20 minutes should be just about right for you. dfleck said it great, make sure you get in a few hard efforts. If there is a headwind to start the race I would expect the pace to be fairly slow and easy for those sitting in the pack.

If there is a crosswind, do your best to make sure you are very near the front. You don't want to be in a position in a crosswind where you are forced into the shoulder where you still aren't protected. Good example of this happened in the Tour de France this year when Astana started hammering at the front in a headwind, and those caught in the back got dropped.

This also happened to me in a race this year when the wind really picked up and I was not as close to the front as I should have been. Instead of staying in the back and in the wind, I put in a very hard effort to get up and around the leaders, then I dropped back into a good position at the front of the pack. It took a lot of energy, but I was able to recover and stay with the lead pack. Might be something you'll need to do as well.

Sorry I got off track, but wanted you to be aware of the possibility of this happening, and the importance of having that warm-up in, just in case you need to hammer from the get-go to stay in the front.

Best of luck, and give us a race report.

I doubt a Cat 5 roadrace is going to go off like gangbusters, though. I usually got by with about 10 minutes of warmup, a few sprints, and light spinning. If there's a hill near the course (but not on the course, unless you have the first race) do several repeats.

Otherwise, I wouldn't try to get really greased up. I doubt the first couple miles are going to be very taxing...

Too much good advice here for me to add anything worthwhile except... "Go get 'em!" Good for you, and what Eric H said about staying safe in crosswind sections. I learned the hard way: Cat 4 girl to my right (middle/end of the field) freaked out about something, screamed and swerved hard into me, hooked my bars solid all the while screaming and sent us in a tandem cartwheell into the ditch.) Fractured sternum and rib. Ahhgh, girl-racers I swear!

First race, pretty exciting eh? A little bit scary too. We intend to hear a race report from you with all the ugly details.

Thanks for all the great advice. Its next weekend, the 25th, so I'll let you know how it goes.

only thing I would add to Fleck's advice is the day before include 2 efforts of 3mins at threshold during your easy spin ride. This will wake the legs up without fatiguing you for the race