Originally Posted by
topflightpro
Someone once told me if you're not moving up in the group, you're moving backward. In my experience, that has pretty much always proven true. So, if you want to hold a position near the front, you really need to be constantly working to move up in the field.
This.
And to go with this, you don't move up from the middle of the pack. You surf the sides, ideally behind other dudes as they're moving up. It's easy to get stuck in the middle when you start hurting as it gives the most draft, but when you're in the middle everyone else is moving up the sides and then you're quickly at the back again. It's a vicious, race-ending cycle. Once I finally figured out how essential that was in large crit fields it took me from getting dropped and not even finishing to being in the money, with little change in actual fitness. It was probably the most significant thing I've ever learned in racing.
You have to set yourself up on the outsides of the group to continue to surf towards the front. Get yourself in that "blob" of the first 15-25 riders and you'll be coasting while the rest of the field is strung out and dropping 500 watts out of the turns. Game-changer.