"Chasing back on" after a flat in a road race
We've all seen it on TV. Rider gets a puncture, team car pulls over and mechanic switches wheel, rider gets a draft from team car then filters up through the caravan and back in to the pack with seeming ease.
But in real life (aka amateur races), how often do people actually achieve getting back in the pack? Our road races have one follow car at best. Say you do get a wheel, and the driver is amenable to letting you draft, have you made it back on?
Have you made it back on without drafting a car?
I ask because I had the experience of not getting back on after a flat at an RR this weekend after flatting out one mile in. I got someone's wheel with jr gearing (lol, was supposed to be a teammate's wheel but he grabbed the wrong one), and was able to keep up with the car (van actually) doing ~27 mph.. but there were two main issues:
1) it wasn't fast enough. The pack as probably doing 27 mph at that point!
2) it's actually really scaring riding right on a bumper, because you can't see potholes until you're on top of them. And this was on a road with lots of big potholes.. I was looking through the van's windows to see the road ahead, but it seems like a pothole could still surprise you.. do you just have to hope for the best or what? There's already a ton of trust involved (that the driver won't brake too quickly, etc), and he was going around big potholes, but ugh it was scary!
After drafting the van for about 10 minutes and we started coming up to the pack the moto ref basically said "enough of that" and the van took off. By that point I was maybe 300m behind the pack, but we were heading in to a brutal headwind and all I could muster was 23 mph.. not fast enough to catch. Legs blew up and I was done, had to watch the pack ride away.
I heard the first few laps (20-mile laps of the 100 mi rr) were crazy, and that it calmed down after that. Maybe if it had happened later on I would have made it, who knows.
I don't blame anyone but me for not getting back on, I'm just wondering if it's realistic to think you can get back on or if there are tactics to employ since I've never actually tried it before.
One question is how fast should the car be going? 27 mph didn't seem fast enough.. 37 would have been better! I guess the answer is "as fast as you can go"?