Originally Posted by
Dan333SP
Biggest hurdle to entering a bike race is the fear of getting dropped.
Let me put this out there... literally no one other than you cares that you got dropped. The people in the race probably won't notice because they're too busy trying to hold the wheel ahead of them, the spectators are just there for their friends/wives/husbands/whatever so they aren't going to have any idea you're off the back, etc.
Point is- worrying about whether you can hang in a race is an irrational fear. Just do it and find out, the worst that could happen is that you learn you need to do some more interval work to hang with the surges.
I thought this was worth repeating. Might even be worth adding that nearly every racer who's raced more than a season has been dropped, finished DFL, or DNFed. This includes guys who are on the podium in other races. Consider - if there's a field of 50 racers, 47 of them are finishing off the podium. 40 of them aren't even in the top 10. But there will be 50 racers back on the line next week. You can make the point that the most important skill to have if you want to race in the long run is the ability to get dropped, shake it off, and come back next week ready to try again.
BB