"Rebecca Bishop" <
[email protected]> wrote:
>I agree - that is the way 99% of triathletes seem to look at the situation - keep looking at it
>like that!
>
>BUT my friend, there is more to this that simply 'attacking' as you mention. If you understand road
>tactics, there are subtle ways to 'tease' riders into working harder than they should in a strong
>pack. There is then the right time to attack and go down the road, and it should be sufficient that
>you can get away from stronger riders if you are an experienced and a good time trialer. If you
>have people joining you, then you have to be clever and attack again.
This is no doubt "do-able", but I can't see how you'd gain any time compared to using the same
amount of extra energy on the run. You'll be exerting approximately 30% more energy just to match
the pace of the pack, much less ride away from it (the energy requirement to go faster goes up
exponentially at faster speeds as you probably know). So in the end, to put any time on the rider
sitting in on the pack, you'll be putting out 35-40% more energy on the bike after you break away.
If your break is long enough to put any real time on the pack, that's going to take a serious toll
on your reserves (and therefore your run).
>As the standard of bike racing in triathlon is particularly low when pack riding - they rarely work
>'well' or properly together; so I can see clearly that one could gain a good 4-5 minutes over 40kms
>when the cards have been played right.
Once you assume the pack isn't working, all bets are off. But that's the rub - if the pack IS
working well together, you're not going to ride away from it - at least not without killing any
chance you have for a good run (unless you're much stronger than virtually everyone who's
sitting in).
> I say this because the handling skills of some of the elite triathletes is not wonderful, they
> make mistakes, so time is lost here too. Another major point which I think is
> under-estimated/unseen is the 'efficiency' component - there are ways to time trial very
> efficiently and hardly tire your leg muscles...efficiency is key, so is experience - it is
> possible.
Again, I agree that it's possible to go faster using the same energy using more efficient technique
- but an equivalent rider sitting in the pack is going to exert a lot less energy getting to T2 than
you are, and will start the run fresher. On a spring tri, with lots of corners and curves and hills,
the advantage of being in the pack starts to dissipate due to the things you mention. But most road
courses are picked for their lack of "features" like corners.
> And for the run? well - those behind suddenly have a to make a choice!: either they try to cohese
> and work together to chase that single competitor down, which should kill their running legs, OR
> they sit up as usual and simply let the single rider, now running fairly well, win the race. There
> is huge psychology in the tactics too which can be played which devastate strong but lesser
> experienced riders like triathletes...tee hee.
I'd tend to run my own race and assume the rider who's been frying out front will either fade
(allowing me to catch him) or is so much stronger than me I'd never have caught him no matter what.
But that's just me... ;-)
>In reference to you assuming that I have "never tried to get away from a strong cycle pack": I have
>won four road races in this manner in my 8 year long cycling career and also been twice on podium
>with Jeannie Longo in 2001.
If you were looking down at Ms. Longo from that podium spot, I'm really impressed (I am anyway, but
I know how hard it is for ANYONE to beat her even now). As you know, bike racing is a "whole 'nother
animal", where energy saved means nothing - just the arrival position... very different from a
triathlon.
Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame
>"Mark Hickey" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>
news:[email protected]...
>> Harold Buck <
[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> > "Rebecca Bishop" <
[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> >>I can see the potential in these drafting events for the cycling leg to become THE decisive
>> >>section in the tri. Sitting in a pack and being 'conservative' the WHOLE time is what I
>term, a
>> >> 'novice mistake': one has to learn to attack and get away not pull the
>pack
>> >> along or sit at the back...this we cyclists learnt at local level.
>> >
>> >Yeah, but this is triathlon. If you pull away from the pack and win the cycling section by 1
>> >minute, you still have to run. In cycling, you don't have to hold anything back; try the same
>> >thing in triathlon and watch tons of people blow by you in the run.
>>
>> Exactly! I don't think Rebecca has ever tried to escape from a pack of equally strong, motivated
>> riders. If she had, she'd know there's no escape from a pack that's working together at all
>> unless a) you totally bury yourself killing any chance of a decent run, b) there's a steep hill
>> leading to T2 and you're an awesome climber c) the pack takes itself down in an all-too-familiar
>> crash or d) you're so much faster and stronger than anyone in the pack that you not only can
>> outride them collectively, but then outrun the fastest runners who have been (relatively) resting
>> through the bike leg.
>>
>> Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame