AndySchleckfan

Preface: I am a junior with a Tommasso Imola w/ Carbon Fork, I race hard. ~~ I raced in my first Cat 5 race on Sunday with around 45 other racers. It was a 13mile race with 15 laps of about .85 miles each. A closed course mostly with a .2ish mile hill at the end of each lap. I stayed Peloton for nine laps and on the climb at the end that lap I went and tried to close the gap to the one-man breakaway which had about 10seconds. I gained about 7seconds on the peloton and was really close to the breakaway, but got pulled in by the hill. This guy had gone with me and sat on my wheel, not helping get to the brake. By the time he got the message I was pissed and he should take the pull, we were pulled in.

I then sat in the peloton for 4 laps recovering from the effort and on the last lap I was positioning myself for the climb which I could definitely do well (5'8 and 120~ pretty good Power/weight). Then, with two turns to go some jerk got jittery and took six guys down, including me. After getting up, I thought I should finish so I hopped on my bike which was not too badly beat-up and finished the lap.

I then returned to the crash and my brother, who had been watching, said I had a bad cut on my chin, knee and some other scratches. Also, I talked to the Cat 5 judge guy and he said, as I am a junior, I failed rollout. I had to then close off my 12,13 cog on the back to comply with the 26 foot rule. Any thoughts? I am racing next week as well and want to place (top 6). I definitely can climb well but am wondering how to go about it: 1. Just sit front peloton until last climb 2. Try to break at 4/3laps 3. Try to set up a break/pull in system with my newish team (like you go, if you get pulled in, we will go right after that). Insights or comments that are helpful would be greatly appreciated.


***Moved from Road Cycling to Racing

shovelhd

a. You sound like a typical Cat5 rider, overthinking everything. Relax. You have so much to learn it's not funny. Forget about top 6. Think about finding out what your strengths are and how best to use them. Once you get on top of that the finishes will take care of themselves.

b. Download and read the rulebook. Read it, don't skim it. Know it. Understand it. You wasted a whole race day because you didn't do that. Don't make that mistake again.

c. Tactics in the last race. Don't waste yourself on efforts that have no chance of succeeding. See #1 above. Your chase was doomed because you didn't have the power to bridge. Anticipate moves better, bridge sooner, or do the smart thing and have patience. Solo breaks sometimes get away in Cat5 crits but not often. If you're going to make a bridge effort make sure it's to several strong riders that have a chance.

d. Tactics for your next race. See #1 above. You probably don't really know the answers yet. That's OK, that's normal. I would spend the next race learning how to effectively move around in the field without expending a lot of effort. I would sit in near the front and learn how to protect your wheel. With 5 to go you should be in the top 10. If several strong riders go, go with them. Since you think you have an advantage on the hill, use it in the sprint, but you have to attack before everyone else, because even the heavies can blast up a .2mi hill on the last lap. Attack early enough to get a jump but only if you can hold it.

e. Read CDR's blogs. Every one of them. Don't skim them, read them. Try and visualize what he is describing, then look for these things in your races. The light will go on eventually.

f. Work on your 1m, 2m, and 5m power on your training days. These should be z4/z5/z7 efforts. They hurt. They should. Take advantage of any fast group rides in your area during the week. Don't sit in, take your turns killing yourself up front. The usual group ride rules apply. If the pace isn't as fast as you'd like, keep the pace, just pull longer and don't sag when the road tips up. You will get a better workout that way and you won't make any enemies.

Good luck.

AndySchleckfan

Thanks a lot, that was really helpful.

chado445510

i agree with the poster above. i'm a junior also and make sure you have the correct gearing. Once I had the right gearing, did okay in the race, forgot to go to rollout, and was disqualified. also, in the crits, us lightweights really don't have much of a chance. like the poster above, you're going to have to study tactics and such, and plan your breakaways because unless you can sprint to 35+mph, you are out of your element in a crit. as far as next week goes, you might want to observe a little, and if you're feeling really ambitious, go ahead. but remember if you hold high expectations, they are more likely to not be met.

VT Biker

As opposed to the non-hard racers? Seriously?

VT Biker

For the uninformed, do you have the link to this blog?

Thanks in advance,

VT Biker

wanders

https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/

Gold.

VT Biker

Thanks man

mattm

A jr. in the 1/2's field here recently failed the rollout test... how in the F did that happen?? In the 1/2's?!

shovelhd

Teenagers.

carpediemracing 

Craig Schommer, national team member, winner of the National Crit Championships in 1983 (as a Junior) used a 53x12 to beat Roy Knickman, who, as it were, rolled a tire in the sprint.

(In the sprint!?!?!)

Anyway, beyond Knickman's incredible power (how the eff do you roll a tire in a sprint after going 50 mph down a hill every lap into a hard left turn without rolling it then? - Tour of Nutley course), Schommer definitely knew better than to run a 12T when his limit was a 53x15.

He claimed he flatted and put on his "Worlds wheel" by accident.

Serious?

If, as a Junior, I looked down at a 12T (in 1983 no less, when 12s were rare and 14 or 13T were normal small cogs, and you had straight blocks so a 12-17 might have been your freewheel), there's no way you could mistake your 12-17 for your 15-20 straight block.

So he was in total denial about cheating etc.

After that incident you rarely read about Schommer (who, in my mind, sticks out as the Junior that could barely beat Knickman in a sprint even though Schommer had a 12 and Knickman has one tire and one rim).

Knickman went on to be a great racer. That race (I watched the sprint) really impressed me. I followed Knickman (like most of the US cyclists around). I think he was almost there but something happened (related to that burning out thread I just saw) and he basically backed off from the top level. He came back and did some good rides for Mercury, but then quit again. He's now trying to help his young son fight cancer.

Intro mentions Knickman's crit win:
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...le-jersey.html

Knickman's most impressive moment, at least for me. Tour de l'Avenir, mentioned in this post:
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...hy-i-hate.html

And thanks for the cudos on the blog.
cdr

AndySchleckfan

Good, good stuff. Especially the race videos...