Feb 9, 2006
Racing Tips or How to be a Cat 3
Disclaimer: I will be racing for the Colavita-Spokpost.com racing team, this story is from Spokepost.com.
Spokepost has some great racing tips for all of you budding racers to use. I touched on a few of these back when I wrote about “How to keep up with the fast guys”. Now Bill Laudien, organizer of the Turkey Hill Country Classic writes some very valuable tips for those wanting to improve their racing results. The first tip is one I always try to follow and that is to never take an unnecassary pull or do any unnecessary efforts.
One of the main tactical difference(s) between the cat ½ races and all other events is that no self respecting cat 2 would take a hard pull unless he had a good reason to. Conversely, cat 4 races usually play out with everyone sitting around until someone attacks, then everyone killing themselves to catch the poor guy, then everyone sitting around again. Save your big efforts to either attack or to bridge to a break.
I have to admit that I had the sprinting idea backwards. A few races I competed in, I would wait untilt the last minute to sprint, but was caught out by riders that started ahead of me. I think I will try this next race.
I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible. Sprint early. Most new riders wait to long and find themselves in the middle of a mess. You’re usually better off going early and avoiding the chaos. Even if you get passed and finish 5th, its better than being trapped and finishing 12th or worse yet, ending up on the pavement. Also you’ll never really know how far you can sprint until you’ve gone too early a couple of times. Once you’ve seen how far you can go before you blow, then you can make the necessary adjustments based on wind, terrain, and circumstances.