sports photography is not easy, it's taken me a bit of time to get fairly proficient at bike shots! Well actually a couple of years & I still could improve a bit. One of the best bits of advice I was given was to set the focus point to where the head will be in the image so you get the face clear. I usually shoot in apeture priority mode, setting the ISO as low as I can dependant on the weather, an apeture of around f4 - F7 and then see what your shutter speed looks like and for motorsport you need fast! But not so fast that the wheels look static, you need to show that they are moving round, so it's a bit tricky, but again, this is where focusing on the face as the main point will help. Try to find somewhere on the course where the angle looks good and the background is uncluttered. finally when you process the shots, sharpen them and adjust the curves, levels and or saturation to make them pop. Obviously the bikes I shoot are pedal powered, but on some of the dual carriageway courses they can be up to 35-40mph on downhill sections, so the technique is pretty similar. Anyway, have a look at some of my shots if you want & if you want any more advice, just pm me.
When I first started with the digital cycling shots, I probably only had 10% usable shots and even now I probably only keep one shot of each rider. I will take 5/6 shots per rider and pick the best, more of them are good shots now, but you end up getting really picky with yourself and I now go through them in this order, is it in focus, is the expression good and are the pedals in a good position (believe me it makes a difference) so a sharp shot with any of the other things wrong will not make it onto the website. Only ever show your best work.
