EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST | PRE-RACE PREPARATION | POST RACE CLEAN UP AND RECOVERY

Equipment Checklist

Clothing

• socks
• shorts
• knickers or knee warmers
• tights
• skinsuit
• ss jersey
• ls jersey
• 2 sleeveless undervests
• long sleeve undervest
• leg warmers
• arm warmers
• chest warmer
• wet weather chest warmer (big plastic bag)
• booties
• shoes
• rain jacket
• fingerless gloves
• thin gloves
• thick gloves
• helmet
• cap with brim for under helmet
• glasses (dark and clear lenses)
• post race clothing

Equipment

• bike
• pump
• spare wheels
• rollers
• tool kit
• chain lube
• rags

Miscellaneous

• license
• money
• race number
• safety pins
• release forms
• race flyer
• directions and map
• sticky labels
• pen
• paper
• large plastic trash bags
• toilet paper

Pre and Post Race Kit

• face towel
• soap
• chamois cream
• sun screen
• moisturising lotion
• chap stick
• hot embrocation
• medium embrocation (such as Cramer Atomic Balm)
• mild embrocation
• vaseline
• baby oil
• leg towel
• water/alcohol mix in spray dispenser
• towel mitt
• camphor (or similar)

Medical

• Saline irrigating solution
• surgical scrub brushes
• Xeroform
• 4"x4" guaze
• Coban wrap
• fishnet dressing retainer
• Tegaderm dressings
• Mastisol or tincture of benzoin
• an ointment (Cortisporin, A&D, Vaseline, etc.)
• Q-tips
• triangular bandage (for sling)
• neosporin
• eye drops
• arnica gel
• inhaler or other personal medication
• ice (perhaps with your food in a cooler)

Food and Drink

• pre-race food
• pre-race drink
• race food (more than you need - and race and weather specific)
• water bottles (2 per bike plus enough for handup feeding, plus platypus foldable water bottle for jersey pocket if you don't have anyone to feed you)
• post race food and drink
• large water container

Pre-Race Preparation

Try to arrive at least 1 hour before the start, preferably 1.5 hours before

Bike preparation

• assemble your bike
• pump up tires to suit weather conditions (use less air for wet weather - About 100 psi in the rain and 115 in the dry)
• check your tires for glass, thorns etc, and check side walls
• lube chain if necessary
• bike safety check

Strategy

• sign in
• see who else is riding (list names and numbers of top riders)
• team meeting (discuss strategy, tactics and clothing, categorize rider list according to sprinters, climbers etc, and figure out who is marking whom)
• make sure all team members have a list of the key opponents (use sticky labels on bars/stem for rider numbers)

What to wear

• body temperature and aerodynamics: wear enough to be just warm enough when you're working hard in the race; make sure all your clothing is close-fitting and aerodynamic; the most common errors are being unaerodynamic by wearing loose-fitting clothing, and being over-dressed once the race gets underway
• as a general rule, insulate your core more than your limbs, for example, I often wear three layers on my body, and one layer of arm-warmers, but leave my legs bare. This approach gives me more control over cooling since my body can push blood to the exposed skin areas to radiate heat if needed, or keep it more in the core if its cold.
• protect your hands and feet (its easy to take off gloves and put them in your pocket, and you rarely overheat from having too much on your feet
• modular dress: assume you got it wrong, and make it easy to incrementally cool off by removing items, such as arm warmers, chest warmer, helmet cover or cap, thin gloves over fingerless gloves (not the other way around)
• wear tights on very cold dry days, but not on wet days, even if its cold! They just collect cold water, make you colder and heavier, and don't dry out between showers like your skin does. Make sure you insulate your core well, use a plastic bag as a chest warmer (you can rip it out if get too hot), embrocation and good gloves and booties in cold wet weather.
• use a lot of pins on your race number to stop it flapping or catching the wind, but don't make your food inaccessible by pinning your pockets closed, and don't pin to your undervest in case you need to use the bathroom

Embrocations

• what to use when: in wet weather use vaseline based embrocations such as Cramer with a layer of vaseline over it; in dry weather use oil based embrocations and layer baby oil over the top
• put the hottest embrocation on your knees; the medium stuff on your legs and maybe your back if you're not sensitive; and the mildest stuff on your back
• make sure you do things in the right order: put your chamois cream on first, then put your shorts on, then apply the embrocation!
• avoid getting embrocation on sensitive areas such as your eyes, and you know where else; clean embrocation off the back of your knees and the top of your booties, otherwise you'll get sore there; clean your hands thoroughly!
• towels and cleaner: use your towel mitt and water/alcohol mix in a spray dispenser to clean your hands and other areas such as the back of your knees; keep your face and leg towels separate (use different colors); never use your face towel for embrocation! Food and drink
• make sure your drinking bottles are on your bike
• make sure your race food is in your jersey pocket
• make sure your post race food and drink is prepared and waiting for you where you can get to it right after the race
• make sure your feeders have your spare food and drink, and that you both know where and on what lap to hand it up, make sure you know what they will be wearing (preferably a team jersey) and make sure you have enough to get by if you/they screw up the handup.

Warm up

• allow at least 30 minutes, unless its a really long race and your endurance is at the limit, then just warm up easily on your rollers (better to be vulnerable to attack in the first ten miles than to blow in the last ten miles)
• apply your embrocation first, but not the top vaseline or oil layer, then put some tights on and warm up
• ride steadily (stay aerobic) while checking out the course
• add a couple of harder efforts near the end of the warmup
• take the opportunity to check on wind direction, gearing, timing and positioning for the sprint: before the start you should already know what gear to be in, what position to be in at a certain point (i.e., 2nd or 3rd in line around the last corner), what side of the road to sprint if you lead out (i.e., the sheltered side), and the latest point at which you must engage your full sprint
• check both your tires again for glass/thorns etc!
• take off your tights and apply your top layer of embrocation/vaseline/oil
• finish up your warmup on your rollers, ready to race, and within sight of the start
• line up near your team mates so you can hold a meeting on the start line to discuss any surprises

Post Race Clean Up And Recovery

• warm down BEFORE stopping
• move fast, don't hang around chatting in wet clothing
• be strict about using your towel mitt and leg towel for embrocation and your face towel for the rest
• put all your wet dirty clothing in a large trash bag
• eat and drink your post-race food and drink within 20 minutes of the finish

Thanks to Jon Walpole for this information.