Reading the Race Book

In Reading the Race, veteran pro bike racer and 2013 Vuelta winner, Chris Horner and race announcer Jamie Smith team up to show cyclists how to win races with race smarts. Armed with strategies and tactics learned over thousands of races, cyclists and cycling fans will learn how to read a race - and how to react.

The Tour de France is so difficult to win that for a century it has been tradition for the champion to share the winnings with his teammates. This acknowledgment of the value of team strategy and tactics is commonplace at the top level of cycling, where the sport is all about teamwork. Yet every amateur cyclist who lines up at the start of the weekend criterium thinks he's in it to win it. By drawing up clever race plans, forming ad hoc teams, and reading the race accurately these riders can transform themselves from loose cannons to podium contenders.

Even better-organised amateur teams have a lot to overcome. The spectrum of fitness and motivation on a Cat III cycling team is gaping wide. Horner and Smith show how even the most mismatched team can employ strategies and race smarts to better their chances of finishing in the prize money.

For team captains who dream of the podium, to the teammates who make it happen, to bike racing fans who have no dream of racing, Reading the Race offers a veteran's eye view of how the race can be won.

Table of Contents:-

• 1: WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?
• 2: BASIC TRAINING
• 3: PACK RIDING AND OTHER SKILLS
• 4: HANDLING SPEED
• 5: ATTACKING
• 6: WINNING AND OTHER LOFTY GOALS
• 7: SPRINTING
• 8: TIME TRIALS
• 9: HIGH ALERT
• 10: ASSEMBLING THE PERFECT TEAM
• 11: GOALS
• 12: GO RACE

• Phraseology
• Gear Chart
• Index
• About the Authors

Chris Horner is a professional bike racer and veteran among the peloton. His popular Tour de France video diaries on VeloNews.com revealed Horner's uncanny photographic memory for every moment of a race and built his reputation as one of the smartest road captains in the sport. A three-time national racing calendar champion, winner of the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, Tour de Langkawi, the Tour de Georgia, the Tour of the Basque Country, and the Tour of California, Horner led the 2012 U.S. Olympic squad where his veteran counsel and unflappable temper made him the go-to guy for tactics, race smarts, and planning.

When he's not on his bike or out in front of the race announcing, Jamie Smith is a cycling evangelist. His first book Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer celebrates the eccentric, monkish life that the roadie embraces.