explain



leanman

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Sep 20, 2009
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yesterday was the first road race of the season.. a 60 mile race.. the local strong guy attacked from the gun as the peloton let him go. 2-3-4 bridged up.. 4 miles into a 60 mile race, it was over.. the p1-2 race
these 4 stayed away..

20 years of watching the tour and other races, 99% of the time, the group gets caught..the teams without a man in the lead group organize and hammer, sacrificing their chance so their best sprinter has a shot once the break gets brought back.. i never see this in amature local racing.. how can 4 huys stay away from 20+ teams with strong riders? 80 man field.

its amature racing i guess.. no team, all i.. nobody wants to go to the front hammer then get shelled.. you always hearing guys say, after they had a bad race, they say, i worked for my teammate.. hahaha.. nobody works... these teams should have brought back those 4 .
are they thinking thats bob up there, and hes the best around.. with 3 helpers we'll never catch them? or dont they know how to organize? or, are they that selfish to hammer and get dropped bringing the break back?
they call it a p 1-2 race, but realistically, howmany 1's are there? the actual pros and cat 1's are on jelly belly and teams like that.. the numbers of their rank are not accurate at all. maybe most local 1's new someone to up grade them, cause actual 1's know how to organize and bring back a 4 man group.. illinois, tenn. ohio, ky, ks, mo neb. all have lots of cat 1's but they sure dont race like it..

happens all the time.. a very small break goes away and sticks.. unreal..
 
If you have no team then you just answered your own question/comment/whatever it was.

When you see someone heading up the road at mile 3, be sure to grab a wheel from the next guy heading up the road and let most of the other folks sit there watching each other. If races out there always seem to follow that tactic then you really have no choice to do anything else if you want a result. Get a good warm up before the start and be ready for it... hell, be THAT guy that heads off up the road and TT for 5 miles and see if anyone jumps across.

What's worse, finishing in the pack with no result or possibly finishing off the back after a hard effort in the front of the race?
 
I guarantee you the guys in the break (and those bridging up to it) are the guys who trained hard all winter. 30-50% of the guys in the first race of the season are using it as a training race and have no intentions of a podium. Another 10-20% started with inadequate training in their legs and are hanging on for dear life. If luck of the draw has the strongest guys in the break, it may take 2 or 3 times as many riders working together to catch them. Sometimes the break goes so early guys just assume they'll be brought back, but those guys never watched Benny Hill.
 
Reporter: " Why didn't you stay with the breakaway group on the climb"?

Leipheimer: "They were faster than me".
 
Originally Posted by leanman .

yesterday was the first road race of the season.. a 60 mile race.. the local strong guy attacked from the gun as the peloton let him go. 2-3-4 bridged up.. 4 miles into a 60 mile race, it was over.. the p1-2 race
these 4 stayed away..

happens all the time.. a very small break goes away and sticks.. unreal..
If it happens all the time, it is real.

I suspect that the guys who went off the front had different goals than the rest of the pack. That is normal.

The important thing to remember is that not everyone is there to give you the race you want. If you want a different race, bring a team.
 
I do not know as much about racing and the tactics involved but isn't the reason for different cats is to separate the riders of different abilities. If a small group pull away, they should move on to stronger cats?

-js
 
Originally Posted by jsirabella .

I do not know as much about racing and the tactics involved but isn't the reason for different cats is to separate the riders of different abilities. If a small group pull away, they should move on to stronger cats?

-js

Yeah, if they do that enough this season they will be upgraded. According to leanman, though, this was the Pro-1-2 race. These guys are either at the top or as high as their motivation or talent will take them. I raced with plenty of 2s who could have gone higher but chose not to because of families, businesses, and careers.

Primarily, though, it's just as every US hotshot who ever raced in Europe has said: "The level of racing is so much higher over there."
 
Originally Posted by jsirabella .

I do not know as much about racing and the tactics involved but isn't the reason for different cats is to separate the riders of different abilities. If a small group pull away, they should move on to stronger cats?

-js

Unfortunately there's no stronger cat than Pro and they do it too (i.e. smaller groups pulling away). One of the reasons groups became easier to reel back was the race radio. It's the same reason some want to see it done away with to make racing more unpredicatable.Then the whole violin committee starts crying about safety, etc. (which is understandable). But safe and exciting are usually opposite sides of the coin.


Edit:Not a long breakaway, but a strong attack -


...Gilbert pulling away from a full field in the last 1k on flat terrain with the all the lead out trains jockying for position, and this guy just attacks when the speed is already off the charts (how does anyone depart a field from the front under these circumstances?), pulls away, and stays away. Here's somebody who needs a forced upgrade... too bad so sad he says, where you gonna upgrade me to? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif
 
Chasing down the leader is not the issue. The issue is what to do when you have caught the leader.

Sometimes you consider the outcome of catching the leader and realize it is wiser to just take it easy.

---

The video is interesting in that a pack can usually close a gap by 6-10 seconds for each kilometer. If someone gets a 6-10 second gap at the last kilometer marker, the race is over. A bit of surprise and good luck and someone gets a 6-10 second gap.

For all that try a very large number get caught. After all it is only a minute.
 

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