Rolling starts

I just know this is a silly question but the hell with it ...

When I started coming to races I'd had very little experience of riding recumbent, and I used to worry that I wouldn't have enough wobble room on the grid. Often I'd position myself what seemed a very respectable distance from the flag, only to have all my "personal space" fill up before the off (yes I know, I was taking the official start time too seriously).

Is there any clause in our racing rulebook (which AFAIK hasn't been written yet) forbidding the tactic of starting at the back of the grid with a rolling start, so you're moving before the word go? Or indeed having a "support crew" so that one could start with both feet clipped in?

Curious of Swindon

I understand; I remember with a mixture of amusement and embarassment the disruption Claire caused on the grid in some of her early races by trying to be in a position to tail Fiona, but bungling her start.

Be assured, too, that worrying about wobbling on the grid, and even falling off, is not the unique preserve of the totally inexperienced.  When I made the transition to a Ratracer, after thousands of recumbent miles, I was somewhat fazed by the combination of low centre of gravity (falls over quicker) and the fairly high bottom gear that I'd chosen (so I could have reasonably closely-spaced gears once the launch sequence was completed).  To get the results I wanted to achieve, a good start was essential; if I gave the lead group 5 seconds start, I was stuffed.

In both my case and Claire's the solution was simple; a little bit of practice.  My advice is to find a nice, quiet bit of road and practice starting off, gentle at first and working up to what you'd like to be able to do in a race.  Dedicated practice sessions seem to be much more effective than leaving it to the starting and stopping incidental to normal rides.  It really shouldn't take much time - I recall putting in a couple of sessions of less than 30 minutes each.

I hardly need add that gaining confidence in starting will help you out on the road just as much as on the track.

As for a "support crew", I believe Geoff did start this way on Sunday.  From my limited experience this is actually a more difficult way of getting started, and requires that the support crew knows just as much what they're doing as does the rider.

I think a mass rolling start was used at Reading as well since the field was quite large and it was felt it was better on safety grounds.  Incidentally, strangley I don't have a problem with shakey starts - maybe my high level of skill (course it could have something to do with 3 wheels)

Thanks for your informative and entertaining answers, folks. Actually I wasn't asking for me, it's for a friend  ! I was thinking that a "beginner's guide" to racing might be a good article for the newsletter and I suggested this to Dave L back at my first race (Thruxton 04). Dave quite rightly suggested straight back that I should write one, and now that I have a little more experience I thought I'd give it a go. It would principally be about race etiquette, not so much about training or equipment. If anybody has any ideas about what I should or shouldn't say, please fire away - I'm 100% lugholes.

Neil