PROVIDENCE — No one can say for sure what makes a winner a winner, but the triumphs and defeats in the first of yesterday’s 2007 Cox Charities Cycling Classic races provide a few lessons.

About 500 professional racers were expected to compete in the all-day series of races, during which cyclists zoomed through the downtown on a one-mile course that started in front of Providence Place mall and looped around the State House and Waterplace Park. That loop was challenging, even for the top performers, because the road curves sharply before ascending the hill to the mall. The Men’s Pro race comprised 50 laps, all others 23.

Competitors in the first race — “category ¾” or what the announcer referred to as the “undercard,” or “junior league,” race — ranged in age from 15 to 50. Of the 90 racers who preregistered, 10 were from Rhode Island.

Lesson No. 1: Determination.

Nobody would have blamed Robert “Bobby” Norigian, 30, of Providence, if he had not shown up to race yesterday. A Web programmer for LifeSpan, Norigian was in Vermont last year training for this race when, on a 50-mph descent, he swerved to avoid a car. He wound up in the hospital with a fractured skull and broken ankles; screws are now imbedded in his ankles and feet. Two months later, he was, literally, back in the race.

“This maybe is my tenth race this year,” said Norigian, squinting through tortoise-shell glasses. He said he normally races every other weekend, though he rejects the notion that he has a cycling obsession.

“I’m into music, art,” he protested. “I just signed up for a ceramics class.”

Norigian’s determination was tested yesterday when, upon arriving at the course, he discovered that he did not have his racing pass. He ran back to his house on Westminster Street. No luck. A friend had been looking at it the night before, he said, so maybe she accidentally took off with it. So he paid $60 for a new one.

Lesson No. 2: Teamwork

The races yesterday included individuals as well as teams of 10 or more. Bigger teams, in some ways, have a better chance of winning, because they “may have eight or nine guys who just want to sacrifice [winning] for one guy” who can sprint to the finish line, said 24-year-old Adam Sullivan, of East Greenwich, Sullivan was competing last night for the Boston Scientific Elite team. He had arrived at the race site yesterday morning to support his fellow racers.

Lesson No. 3: Conservation

Sullivan says it’s important to know where you excel and where you don’t. “Physically, I’m not going to be able to spring as fast as a 170-pound guy,” said Sullivan, who is 5-foot-8 and weighs about 138 pounds. So he doesn’t exhaust himself trying. Sullivan’s coach, USA Cycling coach Joel Brown, of South Kingstown, said he trains racers to “be as efficient as possible” so their bodies can adjust quickly to changes in pace.

“The best bike racers,” Sullivan said, “do as little as possible until they absolutely need to.”

James E. Joseph, a 50-year-old track sprinter and two-time Olympic winner in track cycling, used the conservation strategy to win yesterday’s first race. “I just wait until the nervous energy is gone,” Joseph said, “and then I just ride up to the front.”

Lesson No. 4: Healthful living

Joseph, a native of the West African nation of Ghana who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., said the real lesson of his 32-year-long athletic career is closer to home: healthful living. “I live clean,” he said. “I don’t drink sodas. I don’t eat meat.” For protein, he eats a lot of eggs. Before yesterday’s race, he said, he had “protein powder.”

Lesson No. 5: Timing

The lessons about winning sometimes come from failing. Norigian, the racer who lost his racing pass, was completing a warm-up lap around the course when suddenly he noticed that all the other racers were at the start line. “I could not move up,” Norigian said. “I gave up after four laps.”

His voice was low. He took a swig of water. “On a race like this, if you fall to the back, it’s really hard to get back in,” he said. “I’m actually really sad about it. I’ve never dropped out of a race before except in a crash.”

The crash was in Hartford, Conn., when another cyclist ran into him. Even then, Norigian recalled, he tried to get back, but the officials didn’t give him the customary free lap, so he couldn’t catch up.

“This was different,” Norigian said. “This was giving up.”

Nobody mentioned Lesson No. 6: Failing. It happens even to winners.

Prizes for the 2007 Cox Charities Cycling Classic started at $500 for winners in three lower categories, to $1,000 for the women’s categories 1 to 3, and to $15,000 for the winners in the Men’s Pro. More than $30,000 was expected to be raised yesterday for Cox Charities New England, which supports nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The charities focus on children and education. This was the 6th annual Cox Charities Cycling Classic.

larditi@projo.com