I'm a huge fan of the [easyazon_link identifier=”B004EHDUDE” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Lazer O2\u00a0helmet[\/easyazon_link]. \u00a0It's lighter, airier, more expensive cousin, the Helium saved my skull during\u00a0a crash that put me off the bike for 3 months. \u00a0The O2 has all the same features with less of a price tag, and a little bit heavier construction. \u00a0In fact, the O2\u00a0was one of the first road helmets I owned, and it's still being produced today.<\/p>\n

Helmet – $100<\/span><\/p>\n

Shoes are a very specific thing to each person, but I'm partial to the\u00a0[easyazon_link identifier=”B00C8950MY” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Bont Vaypor carbon road shoes[\/easyazon_link] for around $200-250 or so. \u00a0They're light, stiff and fully heat moldable around your foot.<\/p>\n

Shoes – $250<\/span><\/p>\n

To race a bike you don't necessarily need new wheels. \u00a0However, if you're looking for one of the best “bang for the buck” upgrades out there, wheels are definitely a good start. \u00a0If you upgrade your wheels, you'll have a pair of spares lying around anyway to use for put wheels. \u00a0For a relatively cheap upgrade, I love the [easyazon_link identifier=”B007W42VPE” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Rol Race SLR wheels[\/easyazon_link]. 1595 grams, aero construction, aluminum and wide 23mm inner rim width with excellent bearings and a solid freehub system.<\/p>\n

Wheels\u00a0– $700<\/span><\/p>\n

Race entries and transport:<\/h3>\n

Let's assume you want to race for 7 months (from March to September.) \u00a0That's a VERY full\u00a0calendar by anyone's standards. \u00a0You're looking at around 25\u00a0races, with some featuring\u00a0a “sign up for a second for only $10”. \u00a0Average of $35 per race and you're talking $875 for race entries. \u00a0Of course, if you're going to do a bunch of stage races, you may pay a little bit more, but if you assume your average weekend stage race is 3 stages, at $35 a piece, even if you pay $125 for your stage race entry, it's not much more expensive than 3 separate races.<\/p>\n

For travel, most people will rarely travel more than 100 miles round trip to race, and truly, in the northeast of the US, there's little need to. \u00a0Gas is cheap anyway, and if you're using a vehicle that's even remotely fuel efficient, you'll be fine. \u00a0Expect to spend around\u00a0$500 in gas, tolls and fees.<\/p>\n

Race entry and transport – $1375<\/span><\/p>\n

Indoor trainer:<\/h3>\n

My go to trainer is a solid, dependable [easyazon_link identifier=”B000BNCA0Y” locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Kurt Kinetic Road Maching indoor fluid trainer[\/easyazon_link]. \u00a0I've had mine for 5 years now, and it's handled winters of high intensity training, race warmups, sitting in the car, sitting in the garage and everything in between.<\/p>\n

Trainer – $310<\/span><\/p>\n

Nutrition:<\/h3>\n

Make a sandwich, eat real food.<\/p>\n

Tires and spare parts:<\/h3>\n

Whatever you may need through a season, figure about $500 for it. \u00a0This includes cables, brake pads, more tires, tubes, new bartape and other such bits and pieces.<\/p>\n

Small parts, replacement parts, miscellaneous expenses – $500<\/span><\/p>\n

Total: $5540<\/p>\n

Additional things you can add: Coaching between $100 and $250 per month depending on who you use. \u00a0Or self directed training plans for $100-$200 per season. \u00a0You can always add a power meter to the mix, which may run you between $600 and $1000 as well, and maybe a Garmin to read all the power meter data for around $250, but that's all up to you.<\/p>\n

The bottom line here is that you don't NEED to spend $40k to race. \u00a0These kinds of articles\u00a0really deter people from jumping into the cycling racing scene, and it's unfortunate that such things are a reality.

<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking about racing your bike but concerned about the cost? This episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast shows that you don’t have to break the bank to toe the start line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,64,21,27,106,38],"tags":[175,60,183,166,68],"yst_prominent_words":[1487,1084,1478,1484,4678,1481,372,1477,1479,302,1473,1483,272,1482,1474,1476,934,268,1486,1475],"wppr_data":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/DPGrandPrix_Cat4FistBump.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10409,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6238\/revisions\/10409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6238"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}