FIND THE RIGHT RACE FOR YOU

Our outright performance prime lasts just 10-15 years of our entire lifespan, but that shouldn’t deter us from being the best we can be at every age, competing hard against our peers. One key consideration is finding the racing series or events with a suitable level of competition.

There is a range of ways to find age-appropriate competition in Great Britain. Championship events are especially useful, providing major goals for masters riders. This is a summary of the main options:

British Cycling (www.britishcycling. org.uk)

British Cycling uses the UCI’S (Union Cycliste Internationale) five-year Masters age brackets from 30-34 to 75+ and runs Masters National Championship in a variety of events, with a separate race and podium for each category.

Veterans Time Trial Association (VTTA) (www.vtta.org.uk)

The VTTA is for riders over 40 and uses a handicapping system based on a ‘standard’ or average time which varies for age, gender and event. Thus, the podium can have any combination of gender and age over 40, including its National TT Championships.

League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) (www.lvrc.org.uk)

The LVRC runs events for the over 40s on an age-group basis. However, apart from championships and series events, riders can opt for age groups above or below their age depending on their standard. LVRC runs national championships in road, track, criterium, time trial and cyclo-cross.

TLI Cycling (www.tlicycling.org.uk)

TLI Cycling is affiliated to the International Cycling Federation and helps clubs and groups to offer age-banded racing for the over 40s in five-year increments. It hosts national champs in road, time trial and criterium.

Tour of Cambridgeshire (bit.ly/2ry9xxu)

This is one of the UCI’S Gran Fondo World Series of events which are also qualifiers for the UCI’S Masters world, road and TT champs. It has large fields in each of the UCI’S Masters five-year age groups.