denvertrout

First crit is tomorrow for the season. A couple of road races this spring that went well. This is a race I can do very well at, non technical, fast, flat. Previous wins I have gone early and held on, though sometimes I go too early and can't hold the sprint off, and maybe I would have been better off with a field sprint. Good sprint power, and am confident in my power, but not in my positioning leading up to it. Mentally, would rather go for it and fail than be in the wrong position at the end and not compete for the win. Any advice? Cat 3.

caloso

I think you answered your own question.

FBinNY 

It's a question of knowing your own speed and endurance capabilities picking the right moment.

However, winning by going off the front is easier when you're new. The other riders figure you won't hold out, so they don't chase until it's too late. But with some wins, more riders have a sense of who you are, so they don't let you go, or chase sooner and harder. That means that you're window will close earlier and the only to break away and win that way is to do it sooner, which makes the tactic harder.

At some point, you'll have to transition to winning with field sprints, and reserving the breakaways for when opportunities present themselves

wktmeow

Try to sprint for the last corner instead of the finish line, that worked for me when I was worried about positioning before.

rubiksoval

Use that breakaway power to put yourself into position for the sprint. That's just a skill that you absolutely have to develop if you want to be competitive across a wide swath of races and now is the perfect time to do so.

It took me a long time to figure out that I was more than capable of sitting out in the wind in order to ensure I had a decent position for the sprint. My first ever cat 3 win I just said "whatever" and rode straight to the front with one lap to go and just rode steady there. One guy came around trying to attack early halfway through and I jumped on his wheel and then came around in the sprint.

Mentally that made a huge difference knowing you don't have to "hide" in a complete draft. Position is just so much more important. Now if necessary I'll even sit straight on in the wind side by side someone in the leadout to ensure I'm exactly where I want to be when the sprint starts.

If you have that power to ride away anyway, AND a sprint to match, you should have the ability to podium every race you do. You just have to practice putting it all together.

globecanvas

Hey, a kind of silly question turned into a kind of interesting conversation. This is a great point:

Looking at power after the fact, for me the hardest effort of the race is often with about 2 minutes to go. Because if you're in the right place with 1 minute to go you have an opportunity to do well, and if you are in the wrong place with 1 minute to go your race is over.

What's interesting, and I'm not sure how universal this is, is that those hard at-the-bell efforts to get in position almost never feel hard at the time. I've heard it called one-lap fever (or five-lap fever but I never understood that because 5 laps is forever). I'll look at the power afterwards and see a >1000w full sprint type effort to get position at the bell that I can't even really remember making.

denvertrout

Well, just to followup on the race. Overall was not that hard. A couple of small breaks, nothing major nothing threatening. Got caught in a crash with 5 laps to go, off the bike, around the guy on the ground and then chased and able to get back on the group. 1 1/2 laps to go (mile lap), a buddy goes and the pack chases. I am 6th back, feeling good, good position. We catch the guy who jumped, but who is now flailing, with the first guy just sitting on his wheel and not going around him, carp, now we get stuck behind him as the group moves around on the outside, while I am stuck inside. Finally get around him, and now there are 30 guys in front of me with 500 meters to go. Move up on the inside, but now I am on the outside for the final 2 turns to the 100 meter sprint finish. Squeezed and have to brake hard on both turns, able to pass a bunch on the sprint and get into the top 10. Positioning, positioning, positioning- I need to learn to be more aggressive.

rubiksoval

Absolutely. I'll sometimes have 2-3 "sprints" to get into position before the actual sprint. 'Cause you can't sprint from the back!

rubiksoval

Solid work! Sounds like all sorts of chaos and craziness so to get through that all and still come out with a top 10 is a testament to some serious fitness.

Keep having a go and putting it into practice and the results will come.

And yes, positioning is what it's all about and it's something you've always gotta be thinking about and moving towards. If you're not moving forward in the finale, you're moving backwards! Try not to get yourself trapped and be prepared to surf the surge.

Nice job.

mollusk