Hi!
I just entered road racing world and really puzzled about what to do there. I will try to put my thoughts along with perspective of yesterday race.
I am 74 kg and my CP points are
30s = 566w
1m = 460w
5m = 335w
20m = 285w
my LT measured is 300w, so my FTP is around 290 or so. That should be more that enough to win/place I presumed.
Despite that I do not understand how I could win cat 5 race
My concerns:
It's impossible to create breakaway since nobody can or want to work hard with me AND I kinda suck at sprinting (see my 30s) so during finish line sprint in a pack I always going to be no better that other ppl with better 30s wattage, dosen't matter what their aerobic fitness is.
So yesterday (
https://www.strava.com/activities/370598587) I pulled a whole train a lot, tried to breakaway/chase whatever is breaking but without any success, since group always catch a lone rider. And since to form good breakaway 3-4 ppl needed I couldn't do anything there.
So being in pack is not an even tempo ride for me (pack in middle going about 23-24mph doing about 200w) but riding in front dosent' give me any advantage even since I am doing that 270-280w and ppl in behind going same speed on 220-210w. At the last lap I was going even 180-200w in front hoping ppl will start passing me but everybody stayed behind dosen't matter how slow it went and then on final 1min sprint I sucked as predicted.
Help?