Originally Posted by
colnago62
It isn’t about just creating a gap. You have to be able to make the gap stick. Watch a flat stage. The breakaway will be in the lead for half the race and then get passed with 1K to go. If the goal is a win, you need to be able to make it stick.
Racers attack at different points in a race for a variety of reasons. Whether or not an early breakaway succeeds is a separate issue.
In all cases, it's imperative for an attacker to accelerate quickly to open a gap. Failure to do so allows other rider(s) to just sit on the attacker's wheel and follow, without expending as much effort as the attacker.