Tactics - Get Lapped Less Than 4 Times

The first thing I'll post on is the idea of "staying in the field". All new racers worry about this to some extent. I know that I entered my first race simply to survive, and I did.

For two turns.

By the third turn I was off the back, about half a mile into the race.

One Way Not To Get Lapped

In most normal weekend races if you get dropped you'll get pulled so you won't get lapped. I suppose that's one solution to avoid getting lapped four times (which is, by the way, an arbitrary number I just made up, it's not an actual one). If you get pulled you can't get lapped even once, unless the officials miscalculate and you get lapped just before they pull you.

So the real goal here is to avoid getting dropped.

Why Do Racers Get Dropped?

There are two conflicting ideas most racers experience in that last-gaps, hanging on for dear life moments just before they get shelled.

1. "Wow, this is hard! I can't do this for much longer!"
2. "If I keep going this hard another 2 minutes I'll blow up so I might as well save something so I can keep going after I get dropped."

The first thought leads to the second thought.

Unfortunately this is a huge mistake.

Once you're out of the draft you're going to be doing oodles more work than if you stay in the draft. It doesn't matter if it's the first lap or the last, once you're out of the shelter offered by those in front of you your power usage goes skyrocketing.

Basically no matter how hard it is to stay with the pack it's the easiest way to do the race. Easing up and getting dropped makes it much, much harder.

Why Stay In The Field?

You should stay in the field because you can do a number of things in the group that are literally impossible to work on when riding solo.

1. You can work on drafting better.
2. You can work on cornering better in a group.
3. You can get used to the idea of going faster than you ride when you're on your own.

There's another slightly less obvious benefit also. When you're drafting you can make substantial changes in speed without a matching substantial change in effort. I mean, okay, if you go from 15 to 30 mph then yes, you'll have to make an effort, but if you're bouncing around between 22 and 27 mph in the field it isn't a big deal. Doing the same thing solo would result in huge power spikes.

The reason your effort levels even out is that when you draft you reduce the effect of wind resistance. The power required to go a given speed isn't the square of your speed any more. This is why some riders will motorpace to hone their fitness. Motorpacing involves following a dedicated motorized vehicle, usually a small motorcycle. A rider can sustain substantially higher speeds, hovering at the edge of blowing up.

Why don't they do it solo? Well because if you're riding on your own at basically your limit and you have to go up a slight incline, you might have to shift down or push a bit harder, either of which take you out of your red zone. For example if you shift down even one gear you might drop down significantly in power or heart rate. Behind a moto the effects of easing or pushing harder are less significant, so you can ease a bit, slow down a couple mph, and you won't fall out of the red zone. Likewise a couple mph acceleration might not blow you up immediately, whereas if you were solo you'd go off the deep end pretty quickly.

I don't have good wattage numbers, i.e. no comparisons of me riding in the wind and then tucking into the draft on the same road in the same conditions, but my average wattage is pretty telling. I can average as low as 160 watts in a crit where I can place at the finish.

160 watts is about the equivalent of riding 15 mph on a flat road, give or take. On the trainer (I have a CycleOps Fluid trainer) it's in the 13-14 mph range. Yet I can maintain the same average wattage and finish a 23 or 24 mph race.

So what's the trick?

There are a few, but the most critical one is to stay in the draft.

How To Stay In The Field

Look at the two thoughts that I listed above. The first relates to the amount of effort required to stay on wheels, the second relates to "saving oneself" for the rest of the race.

Here's the critical part.

If you're getting shelled from the race, THERE IS NO REST OF THE RACE! Your race is done, over, finished. You're no longer racing, and in fact, if I'm shelled on a Tuesday race, I'll sometimes do some laps but I get on the sidewalk or in the parking spaces when the field rolls by me, because my race ended when I got shelled.

So don't focus on saving yourself for the rest of the race that isn't a race. Go all in while you're in the race. I'd actually say that if you can keep pedaling after you get shelled then you didn't try hard enough before you got shelled.

This is why you'll see more experienced riders come off the back and virtually come to a standstill. They used everything they had to try and stay in the race. Once out of the race they were done.

Here's another anecdote. When I pulled really hard at the end of the Tuesday race last week, I averaged something like 475 watts for a minute. That's substantially above my 160-200w average I typically hold during a race. However I only went about 30 mph.

I say "only" because in the Tour of Somerville in 2011, as a Cat 2, I averaged something like 175 watts to average 27.5 mph for virtually the entire race (I got caught behind a crash on the last lap).

In other words I was using enough power to ride along at about 16 or 18 mph but I was averaging 27.5 mph.

If I lost the draft and had to catch back on I'd have to go faster than 27.5 mph by myself. Based on the work last Tuesday it's pretty realistic that I'd have had to average in the 475 watt range to go 30 mph to catch a field going 27.5 mph average.

475 watts is a LOT more than 175 watts.

It's much, much easier to go 175 watts.

Therefore it's much, much easier to fight to stay on a wheel instead of letting it go. It may be easier at that moment to sit up, because you're absolutely redlined (and trust me, I know all about that), but the reality is that no matter how hard it is to hang on that wheel, it will become soooo much harder once you lose it.

So fight to hang on that wheel.

The Battle For The Draft

The battle for the draft isn't as the wheel in front of you starts to move away. It's before that also. I could (should) write a book on all that it involves but basically you want to have a few riders around you so that if you find yourself in a bit of trouble you can ease or rest a touch while you gather your breath. It's actually useful to get further ahead in the field if you have a chance so that you have a fall-back plan if you can't immediately respond to a move.

In this clip I have just enough in reserve to not get shelled, but I was hovering on the edge for virtually the whole race.

My first race as a 2. I felt obligated to try and finish the race. You can see in the clip how I let riders by me a couple times while I gathered myself, both mentally and physically, so I could get on the wheel. Drafting is absolutely the key to mass start racing. If we all raced on the moon, with no air, there'd be way fewer tactics. It'd be more like a running race where people go out at a pace they think will get them the win. In mass start racing that makes no sense because the guys at the front, putting down 400-500 watts to go 28-30 mph, are dragging along others who are soft pedaling, relatively speaking, at 175 or 200 watts. (Disclaimer: the more single file the pack is the less help you get from the draft. In one A race in the past Aidan of CCNS went to the front and drilled it for about four laps. I was doing something like 280 watts to hold onto the wheel in front of me. Aidan eased, dropped back to about where I was at the back of the field, then went back to the front and drilled it again. A few laps later I was out, unable to sustain the 280-290 watts required to stay on the wheel. In Somerville the field was big and offered a lot of shelter. This meant I could get away with the 175 watt output and that let me stay in the race. If I'd entered the pro race I imagine that although they only averaged a bit higher speed, the numerous times it was single file meant that I'd have had to put down 300w for minutes at a time to stay on wheels. I can't do that.) The Battle To Stay In The Field So now you know that you need to stay in the field. You need to sit in the draft as much as possible. You need to make efforts to stay in the draft, even if those efforts seem excessive at that moment. Believe me, if you don't make that hard effort to stay in the draft, like coming out of a corner, then you're going to make a much bigger effort trying to chase the field down. You'll have to think about how to draft better, how to use your gearing, how to use your position on the bike, but the you need to realize that the key to finishing races is to stay in the field at all costs. In the field = easier
Not in the field = much, much harder In the next few posts I'll deal with some of the major parts of the things I mention above - drafting, cornering, and peak speeds.
Oh, and the answer to the question, how do you get lapped less than 4 times? You get lapped many more times, focus on how many laps you do in the field, and eventually you'll get to the finish before you get shelled. (Disclaimer/note: I am putting these posts up in response to some internal requests from individual riders for advice etc. I am not singling out any particular rider or their request, and this advice works for all racers. In fact I'd claim that these pieces offer universal advice for all new mass start bike racers.)

Racing - Approaching A Training Race

My last couple posts have generated some on- and off-line discussion, some of it quite substantial. The primary cause is the idea of Cat 3 racers entering the B Race on Tuesday Nights. Historically at the Rent as well as in other midweek Series, the B races belonged to the 4s and 5s, while the A races catered to the 1-2-3 crowd.

The New Tuesday Night Races

For 2014 the (new) promoters have labeled the A and B races differently for the Rentschler Field races. Now the A race is posted as a "P-1-2" race and the B race is for "Cat 3-4-5". That's the flyer, the recommendation. However, my understanding is that if a racer pays for one race, they can start/enter the other. Since the races aren't necessarily categorized (the categories mentioned are simply suggestions), a Cat 3 can enter the A race. I suppose a Cat 4 could also enter the A race although I don't know of any that have done so.

Implications for the B Race

The vast difference in experience between the 3s and the 5s means that in the B race you'll find a huge differential in speed, pack riding skills, and tactical awareness amongst the racers in the field.

In addition the more experienced Cat 3s will be racing better overall than the new Cat 5s. This makes the B race extremely challenging for anyone just getting into racing, the Cat 5s and even some of the Cat 4s.

On the other hand it seems virtually all of the 3s that enter the B race are doing the race for reasons other than to win or demolish the field. I've seem some 3s make moves (I made one the first week) but generally speaking the 3s seem to consider the B race the domain of the 4s and 5s. They'll do some work but generally seem to let the 4s and 5s battle it out.

My Own Approach To The B Race

Although I'm one of the more senior Cat 3s, being in my 32nd season of racing, my life situation is such that I'm okay entering a race (and paying for it) without any thought of trying to win. Instead my goal has been to try and help the less experienced racers as best as possible. Recently this started with the clinics at Bethel, but historically it's always been a passion of mine. In fact I have notes I made for other racers dating back to the mid-90s, advice on how to tackle particular courses, advice on how to improve a person's general racing capabilities.

Unfortunately my season has been such that most of the B racers are actually much stronger than me, making it difficult to offer any kind of help without getting shelled in the process. This means I need to offer assistance off the bike because, frankly, on the bike I'm getting pummeled.

In the last race, before I went into the red, I tried to offer some advice and gave a couple riders pushes to try and get them back on wheels. Then, well into my red zone, I faded into survival mode. I rallied for the last lap to try and help my teammates but instead managed only to wreck the pack's cohesiveness (although it replicated some finishes I've seen from the pack point of view). Overall I'd consider my effort to help others "well intentioned but poorly executed".

Requests for Advice

I've been asked to help out the less experienced racers, by some of the less experienced racers. This isn't a promoter thing, it isn't a coaching thing, it's just that some of the racers have reached out for help.

What I'm doing in this post is making this offer more public. If you're struggling in the B race, if you're doing laps without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, then you can let me know if you want.

Ways to contact me:
1. You can post a comment here, asking me for advice. I moderate every comment so you can start your comment with "Please don't post this" and I won't post it.
2. You can also message me on Facebook, where I'll have a link to this post.
3. You can email me or simply talk to me at the races. For Tuesdays I can barely make the B race on time (on a good night I'll get there at about 5:45) and I have to leave shortly after it finishes, so a quick, "Hey, I'd like to get some advice if you have time" would be great.

Goals and Exercises

Your first thought should be thinking of what you want to accomplish. Do you want to try and win the race? Do you want to get lapped less than 4 times? Do you want to get more comfortable cornering? Do you find yourself struggling with the peak speeds? Are you out of position when the wind hits? For me, as an experienced racer, those are weak points that immediately jump out at me, and I either saw them or overheard racers talking about problems with the above examples.

You should think about everything that you want to work on, that you want to improve. Your goal may be simply to figure out what you want to work on because everything I listed above sounded like a great idea.

Think about what you want to do. Describe to yourself the thoughts running through your head. Is it "stay in the top 10" or "what should I do now?" or "I want to attack" or "I can't believe I got shelled again"?

Based on your goals I can recommend some exercises. Treat them sort of like training for your mind, or, if it involves actual racing, then training your mind for training for racing.

So let's take the examples I have above.

1. Win the race.
2. Get lapped less than 4 times.
3. More comfortable cornering.
4. Struggling with peak speeds.
5. Out of position with regard to wind.

If any of these concepts are foreign to you then those concepts should automatically be on your list.

You can tackle these problems with some basic ideas and approaches, stuff that integrate well with actually racing. In other words you can tackle these problems using thoughts and techniques that also allow you to race.

Does that make sense?

If you have questions on those five factors that I saw on Tuesday then let me know and I'll give you some exercises to help with them. I'll cover them in future posts, one at a time.

Well, except the winning one. That's a culmination of a lot of other stuff and it would take hundreds of pages to even begin to cover the things you can do to win, and even then there's all sorts of random factors that affect the outcome of a race.

Teamwork

There's an aspect of racing that I didn't touch on in the list above, that of teamwork. I mentioned it a few times in the post about the race but it's a separate thing. Once you, as a racer, can handle staying in the field for a given amount of time, then you can start thinking about teamwork.

One nice thing about teamwork is that you can incorporate teamwork in even short term "race exercises". For example one year I entered a road race (Jiminy Peak RR) with the sole intent of "leading out" our climbers to the base of the climb at the end of the first 11 mile lap. I had no intentions of doing the next four laps, nor of finishing, and in fact I hoped to be home (a 3 hour drive) before the racing finished.

I had a spectacularly hard opening 8 or 9 miles, with someone launching an attack in the parking lot where we had staged. Ironically I found myself at the front with a number of "crit guys", all of them working for teammates, trying to keep things together until the first time up the hill.

Conclusion

Bike racing, at least for me, is a never ending process of discovery, learning, more discovery, re-learning, and so on. When I explain things to riders I remember things that I forgot I learned, things that I now take for granted but that aren't natural for a new racer.

I've been there. I've been afraid of sitting on a wheel, of diving into a corner. I've gotten shelled so fast people asked me if I had a mechanical.

Bike racing can be brutally hard.

Bike racing can also be wonderfully rewarding.

My hope is to help others experience the latter, and this is the post explaining that. That's my offer. I hope that some of you take me up on it.

For inspiration I'll post an example of one of my better Rent races from the past.



 And another:

Racing - CCAP Tuesday Night Worlds, B Race, May 20, 2014

Last week's B race prompted some discussion, and after some offline talks with riders (on Expo) as well as some online debate, I approached this race even more as a "helper" than as a "competitor".

I'm a realist, and last year, when I raced the Tuesday Night races, I don't think I finished a single one. This year, with even less training, I'm not optimistic about my ability to hang tough with a bunch of flying Cat 1s and 2s (and 3s, to be completely truthful).

In addition Junior's schedule is such that if we want to eat dinner (we can't before the race due to the timing of things) we'd need to leave shortly after the A race starts, so my options are pretty limited.

My one worry this week was that because I didn't ride for 6 days (and 23 hours) before the race, I hoped that I wouldn't cramp. That's my main non-training effect, my legs cramp in 5-10-15 minutes.

Pre Race Stressors

I felt extremely stressed getting to the race. One of our cats peed on a couch (technically on a blanket and a towel on the couch) just before I had to leave to pick up the Missus, Junior went Number Two (which necessitates a change, unlike a simple Number One). With throwing the pee stuff in the wash, cleaning the couch, tracking down Junior (he got into some stuff that was supposed to be off limits) the "hey I'm getting ready an hour before we have to leave" turned into "we're 15 minutes late".

After some rushed driving and fortunately lighter traffic we got to the venue with a good 15 or 20 minutes to spare, enough time for sure. I got dressed (I was all dressed minus jersey, helmet, gloves, shoes on the way over, number pinned at home too), got the bike together (pumped up the tires at home, on both the primary and spare wheels), and registered. Because Junior roll out takes a minute or three we got to do a lap or two before the race started.

Course Conditions (i.e. Wind)

The wind felt brutal going into the final stretch. Since said stretch curves left the wind started on the front, even front right at times, and the turned into a pretty decent right side crosswind. This was quite the opposite of last week's race, where the headwind was after Turn One.

Since the finishing stretch is much longer I knew that the wind would wreak havoc in the field, mercilessly sawing off the unfortunate or inattentive.

Massive headwind here, at the beginning of the final stretch.

This is the beginning of the headwind bit. Wyatt (to the left) is bearing the full brunt of the wind. I'd have helped him except I was redlined going into the wind also. I had to be close to the rider in front, like less than a meter or two, else it would take me 50-75 meters to get on the wheel.

Helping Others

With my goal to help as much as possible I tried to give shelter to those around me, even riding past in the wind to offer shelter. I ended up at the back, trying to keep riders from losing contact with the group.

My final resort was to actually push riders back up into the group. It is technically illegal but if it buys a bit more time (and therefore experience) in the field then it's worth it for me to offer it to someone else. It's not uncommon for one rider to give another rider a friendly shove to, say, close a gap.

You have to be careful though - the pushing rider accelerates the "pushed rider" by giving away momentum. In other words the pusher goes backward, and if there's a field behind you it's not good. In my case I was at the back of the field and I said so, telling the guys, "We're at the back of the field, you gotta get on the wheels!"

Trying to help a couple Juniors.

I'm giving Tom a push and had just given Wyatt a push also. I got Tom in the field but I think Wyatt was way in the red already. To his credit Wyatt has a good position on the bike, he's not sitting upright at all.

I tried to impress on them the importance of staying on the wheel. I couldn't verbalize it but that third turn, leading into the final straight, was absolutely critical. In fact, at the end of the straight above, Tom let a small gap go in that critical third turn and the wind pretty much picked him up and blew him off the back. I was helpless to do anything except try to stay on wheels.

Race Craft

The other thing I discussed was helping some of the Expo guys with race craft. Although Tuesday Nights are races, a lot of riders use these races for training. Therefore it was understandable to see guys at the front, Expo or not.

Unfortunately some of the Expo efforts ended up a bit misguided. For example we had guys at the front for literally laps at a time, pulling their hearts out… while an Expo rider struggled just 50 meters ahead trying to escape the field.

Expo riding after Expo

The above picture is an example of a couple lap effort by an Expo rider, chasing an Expo rider (and one other) in a break.

I made a big effort to move to the front to tell the Expo rider to ease up.

A little talk up front and we eased.

You can see the gap stretching out already.

So here's the race craft bit, and it applies to everyone, not just Expo guys. I'm using Expo as an example because, well, I'm an Expo guy.

Racing Vs Training

There are two opposing things at work here.

1. Training

2. Racing

It's great that most of the Expo Cat 4-5s are so much stronger than me. They can ride me off their wheel easily, as demonstrated in a group ride I did earlier this year. Training is great, making big efforts is great, but if they're properly directed it's even better.

That brings us to the racing bit.

Racing is different from training because, at some level, there are riders who want to win the race (the crit in this case), and in fact everyone that starts the crit is eligible to win.

It isn't nice to chase down a teammate, just from the point of view of undoing all their hard work. It's like if I'm trying to put together a track for Junior and he's at the other side ripping things apart.

It's also not really effective in terms of race craft. If an Expo pulls hard for two laps to bring back an Expo, then no one else has to work to bring back that breakaway Expo. The other riders ("opponents", technically speaking, but at Tuesdays everyone is pretty friendly in that respect) can now counter the break and go away on their own.

Expo, with one guy who just pulled his heart out in the break, another guy who just dragged the field along for two laps, is now down two guys. It's a luxury to have 8 or 10 riders in a field but if it was just three Expos (not uncommon in a regular race) then using up two to neutralize each other… yeah, that doesn't make sense.

So let's return to training. What about the training aspect of things?

Well, it's very possible to train even better while working as a teammate.

The Expo rider in the break is gone, he's in the break, he's both training and racing. Let him do what he wants up there.

The Expos left in the field ought to let the others take responsibility for chasing. Those Expos should sit in, rest, recover, and get ready. For Junior I'd be saying, "Ready, Set…."

If/When the breakaway Expo rider comes back, then the other Expo riders go. For Junior that's when I say, "GO!" and he goes (or jumps or swings or whatever we're doing).

Now that the Expo guys in the field are more rested, more recovered, they can make a much sharper attack and hold a much higher initial pace. Instead of dragging the field around at 23 mph they can launch at 30 mph and hold 27-28 mph for a bit.

That lets a rider train as well as race. It's better training because the peaks are higher, the speeds are higher, and this lets them build the flexibility to handle a wider range of race situations.

Me Too Attacks

(Ironically I can't find the post where I describe the Me Too attacks so I had to write a bit on it, else I'd have just linked to the post.)

The other thing I saw Expo doing was a number of "Me Too Attacks". All too often a strong teammate in the field will want to "offer their help" to the teammates in the break. They'll ride up to the break, offer their teammate a wheel, and pull really hard.

This is very thoughtful, very nice, and completely the opposite of what you want to do.

What they don't realize is that in the act of riding up to the break they drag the rest of the field up, if not literally on their wheel then at least just behind as the field collectively scrambles to get on the wheel of "the guy riding up to the break".

So the first part ("riding up to the break") results in the break getting pulled most of the way back, if not all the way back.

Then, when the fresh rider bridges (at a higher speed than the break) and offers a wheel, it's super demoralizing to the break rider. Said break rider has been in the break for a while, is getting pretty gassed, and is at the limit.

It's not simply a matter of accelerating a few mph and getting on the wheel. It's a combination of being gassed, of seeing a teammate (of all things) bridge to the break, and then a quick peek behind to confirm that your teammate brought everyone in the field up to your break.

This can be pretty overwhelming and makes it hard for the redlined break teammate to go even harder.

Instead of doing the Me Too move, a teammate can sit on wheels, let others chase, and then make a move on their own. They'll be fresher, their opponents will be just a bit more tired, and who knows, maybe that's the break that will stay away.

The ideal situation for the teammates in the field is if someone launches a big move and goes clear of the field. The resting Expo rider can immediately jump on the wheel and go up to the break while sitting out of the wind. Once at the break the options open up - wait to see what happens, pull hard, etc. Typically the original break guys will be gassed so if you don't want to immediately drop your break teammate you need to give them a moment to recover.

On the other hand the guy that just pulled you across the gap is probably a bit gassed and he's really strong, so it might be worth it to push super hard to try and get rid of him.

These are the things you have to think about when you're active in a race.

Corollary to the Me Too Attack

The main thing I pointed out in the yet-to-be-found Me Too Attack post is that if you see a few of your teammates go up the road then you shouldn't try to go with them, unless that's the plan (like they're supposed to pull you clear).

Instead you should not react and force those behind you to close the gap.

This is especially true if your teammates at the front are putting in huge digs, going 100%. You don't want to help keep everyone together if your teammates are trying to blow things apart. The idea is to help one another, not neutralize one another.

Again, following rival team moves is great tactics, it allows you to sit in and keep your reserves while others are working, in a sense, for you.

Leadout

Someone commented after the race that "3s are so fast!" It's not that I'm so fast but it's more that the others were pretty gassed. I'll get to that in a bit.

After a bunch of failed break attempts (not helped in any way by the Expo guys dragging the field back to the Expo-populated breaks), it came down to a field sprint, at least with a couple laps to go.

(Here, if one of the Expo guys had been sitting in all race, he could have made a move to try and solo the last couple laps. With at least half a dozen Expo guys not chasing in the field, such a move might have worked…)

I was intent on offering a leadout to someone, anyone, and I found Nick nearby. He and I talked a bit at our fortuitously scheduled team meeting the night before so I knew he was up for doing something.

Rolled up to Nick and told him to follow my wheel.

I don't know if he heard me but within about 50 meters he wasn't on my wheel. I think I need to be more clear, even if the riders around us get the same message ("Hey he's leading out Nick, get on Nick's wheel!").

Next week maybe I can try again, but at that moment I needed to offer my help to someone else.

Nick wasn't there so tried to help Heavy D and Co here.

I found Heavy D leading a string of Expo riders as we approached the bell lap. I rode just past him, told him to get on my wheel (with the assumption that everyone else would follow), and started rolling hard.

On the hoods, upright, to give a better draft.

I went to the hoods to offer a bigger draft but Heavy D was blown from earlier efforts (sound familiar?). So too were the guys on his wheel. This meant that none of them were on my wheel within about 50-75 meters.

One rider did get on my wheel and hung on for dear life. Since he wasn't an Expo I didn't feel the need to offer him as much shelter. Once I realized that he was the one I got into the drops and drilled it,  although had I known how tall he was maybe I'd have sat up more.

At any rate my legs were screaming and I had to get lower to maintain my speed.

One guy left on my wheel (riders to the right were getting lapped).

The one guy hung on as we passed a group of lapped riders. The shadows were pretty long and there was no one from the field visible when I looked down.

This was good.

A good leadout gifts the sprinter the race. It shouldn't even be a contest, the second guy should be able to pedal somewhat leisurely to the line and win, so to see the big gap was nice.

When I rounded Turn Three I yelled at him to go. I knew the wind would zap his legs but I hoped he had enough to get to the line. His expression, his pedaling style, his reluctance to go, they all signaled he was about to detonate, but he gave it a shot.

One guy left, I'm blown, into the headwind.

The guy was tall so I felt bad for trying to get low and fast. I should have sat up more, given him more shelter, but those thoughts had gone out the door once I realized that I was gifting a lead to a non-Expo guy. In this situation, with the massive headwind, I think he'd have been better off sitting and trying to get aero, but he stood up and practically stopped moving.

The next two guys. I think they caught him.

You can see the gap he had to the next rider, and the guy that I led out was struggling hard to keep going. A good leadout gifts the sprinter the race. A good way to counter a good leadout is to have a guy that can not only hang on to the sprinter's wheel but also sprint around the the sprinter getting the leadout. Another way to counter a good leadout is to do one of your own. That's almost never the case in a Cat 3-4-5 race but sometimes you see drag racing leadout trains in the pros. Quite the sight for sure.

My leadout wasn't that fast for a 3, and would have been ineffective in a Cat 3 race, but in the B race it worked really well, leaving just one rider when I pulled off.

As it was the field had blown apart behind me. Obviously the racers were collectively struggling already, with virtually no reserves. Two guys looked good and smooth and I think they overhauled the first guy (the one I dropped off at the last corner).

If I'd gone another 50 meters, into the wind, I think he might have hung on for the win, but I was really zapped and wanted to get out of the way.

Junior, with his shoulder baring Flashdance shirt, checking out my brake lever after the race.

I rolled back to the Missus and Junior, my "cool down" simply soft pedaling down the finishing stretch. Although my heart rate had averaged 171 in the leadout I was at 145 when I got to Junior (based on what I could see on the helmet cam clip).

Strava link here.

Strava playback here (you have to choose more riders to have in the playback).

Junior instinctively reached for a brake lever. People do that to bikes on the showroom floor so a good rule of thumb for a bike shop is to have the brakes adjusted so they feel firm and responsive. We always wondered why people did that. Now I know that it's partially wired into our brains.

We packed up and headed home. I'd talked to a couple of the Expo guys about everything I posted above, so it's not new to them, but race craft is race craft. Maybe by the end of the summer we'll see some good team duals as different groups of riders try to get the upper hand in a given race.

(Final note: Although I put forward the idea of not chasing, at some point this is a training race. My take is that once a break gets half a lap at the Rent then it's now just a "break", not necessarily a break with teammates. I'd start working to catch the break, partially because I know I won't - haha - , partially because it's easier if no one laps the field, but also because it's good practice to chase down a break as a team. Once the gap closes a bit, so the break isn't half a lap up, then I'd ease off as the break members regain their team identities. In the A race this isn't the case, as I'm ineffective in such races, but in the B race I'll chase any break that's more than half a lap ahead. Ultimately it's better for everyone involved to have both active as well as passive racing. Active means chasing, attacking, leading out. Passive means sitting in, not chasing, stuff like that. If everyone raced passively then races would be 12 mph and really boring. You need both to make a good race, for the racers as well as the spectators.)

Racing - CCAP Tues Night Worlds, B race, May 13, 2014

Ah, Tuesday Night Worlds. It's really my favorite part of the season. The races are low key, it's social, and you get to get some good racing done. For me it's been tough for a few years because the A races are so hard. In fact I don't think I finished a single race in 2013 and in 2012 I don't think I was much better. I have to go back to 2011 for a finish. Even in 2010, my banner year, I only finished a couple races here and there.

Things have evolved. After some changes behind the scenes of which I know virtually nothing, there was an apparently friendly change of hands and CCAP is now running the Tuesday Night Races. With it came some changes - they added a Junior race (CCAP's main focus), they now allow Cat 3s to enter the B race, and some extra stuff outside the race (music tonight, baby sitting 5 year olds and up through activities, BBQ next week).

Having been sick last week I just went to watch and take pictures. It was a different world compared to last year. The A race was insanely fast. A lot of the guys I race with got shelled pretty quickly. The B race looked more like a Cat 3-4 race and had many of the racers I line up with on the weekends. I decided that I'd try the B race, if I could make it to the races on time (6 PM instead of 7 PM), instead of doing the A race.

Between last Tuesday and now I've gotten a bit better, enough to ride an hour and a half one on Sunday. This put my month's total at about 4.5 hours, and combined with April's 6 hours, put me at about 10.5 hours for a month and a half, 4 hours of those spent racing.

Not much, right?

Still, though, I figured the Bs should be doable, pending getting there on time.

We left pretty quickly, tried using the HOV lane, and learned that there are a lot of exits off the HOV lane going north but virtually none going south. Of course we were heading south. After some shenanigans the Missus got us to the race with a few minutes to spare.

Typically she'll drive to the Tuesday races so I can change in the back, and one of us sits in the back with Junior anyway. As I tell people one of the reasons I married her was because she knows how to drive well. Few people make me feel at ease in a car but she's one of them, and even with all the back and forth (we both agreed on trying the HOV lane), I never felt uncomfortable.

Once there I hopped out of the car to register while the Missus parked the car. After a short jog to the car I got the bike together while the Missus distracted Junior, who wanted me to hold him (as he does in any new or busy environment). I got everything together, started Strava, turned on the Contour, and went to line up.

Fortunately for me there are a few changes in the way they do the Bs (at least compared to the As last year). First there are a couple neutral laps, so that was nice. Second, with the 3s in there, the field was pretty big, and I could count eight teammates in the group.

(Of course I hadn't talked with anyone so there was no plan.)

My goal was to "participate" in the race, as much as possible. I had this fantasy that I'd spend a bulk of the race at the back, helping the newer riders stay in touch, keep gaps closed, stuff like that. Then when the lap cards came out I'd go to the front and try and help my Cat 4-5 teammates do a good finish.

For me, personally, winning wasn't the goal. It just didn't seem fair for me to race 100% against the newer racers. Plus I'd rather enjoy trying to help others become better bike racers.

With that I lined up.

 

The start. A great sized field.

After a couple neutral laps the official blew the whistle and the race was on. The field immediately overcooked it going into the first turn, with some nice bobbling going on. Fortunately no one hit the deck, a few riders made some good saves, and everyone realized they need to turn in a bit harder when the speeds are up on the prior straight.

First turn bobble.

At this point I realized that my fitness didn't give me much room for generosity. I tried to find some room to blow my nose (still have a ton of stuff coming up/out).

Moved over to clear my nose.

I didn't want anyone to even run over the stuff so I really moved over.

The race started breaking up, attacks going up the road. With so many Expos, and with a lot of strong ones, inevitably an Expo would get up the road. One group, with Lance and SOC from Expo, seemed to hold some promise, but the field never really let them go. When a few more riders bridged, and then the field started to splinter, I figured I should get up there.

The view when I passed the front of the field.

I'm actually not sure where the break is in this picture, but they're up there.

I never meant to counter as much as I wanted to move up and cover the inevitable move that would bridge the gap. I didn't realize that I'd be the one making that move, and I'd make it on my own.

I did a "little" jump, which ends up being the biggest wattage of the night (a touch over 1000w). I rolled up hard on some lapped riders, who were inexplicably pretty far into the middle of the road. I had to yell "RIGHT!" at one because I couldn't go to his left, and if he moved right we'd collide. Although the rider jumped a bit he stayed on his line and I passed on his right.

Shortly after I rolled up on the back half of the break - apparently it'd just split. I pulled the back half to the front half and then totally exploded.

Rolling up on SOC in the back half of the break. Lance is up the road.

A lap later I was groveling in the field, wondering if I should drop out.

Ultimately I kept going. A few laps of good shelter, staying tighter on wheels, a general slowing of pace, and I was okay.

I was too far back and got caught up in either lapped riders or riders coming off the back. At one point I had a decent gap to close, and I did.

Gap to close after getting around some other riders.

 It took a lot out of me and I realized that my fantasy world of dragging the others up to the field wasn't going to happen. I'd make the move, as conservatively as I could, and the only thing I could do was hope that everyone sat on my wheel.

Bobble by a single speed rider on the left. I think his chain dropped, ironically.

I noticed that one guy had a single speed. Which is fine, but ironically he bobbled pretty badly when something happened with his bike. I think his chain dropped off the cog. He had no derailleur to keep it in place so if the chain line is off just pedaling will eventually pull the chain off the cog; also if the chain is loose it can fall off simply because the bike is leaning to one side.

(It's ironic because one of the reasons to go to single speed is for the mechanical reliability - no derailleur to adjust or break. I once dropped a chain on my track bike because I set it too loosely, but fortunately nothing bad happened.)

He couldn't pedal but veered to the right, directly into my path. I yelled (again) and he held his line. This time it wasn't five fee to the curb, it was more like a foot and change.

At any rate I didn't realize it was the single speed guy that almost high sided off of his bike until I looked at the clip.

With all the various interesting things going on, with the pace that was somewhat human (even if I contemplated quitting), and with a shorter race, we hit the 5 lap to go mark sooner than later. I decided that I'd sit back a bit, let things play out, do one big move on the last lap, and see what happened.

I moved up a bit with two to go but at the bell I was still in the back of the group of riders really gunning for the sprint. I didn't move up much for the first two turns as things weren't playing out well, meaning gaps didn't appear magically. This meant that I'd have to do a lot of work in the sprint, which was fine by me.

Last corner, just the sprint to the line to go.

Lance is at the front. He wants to lead out.

At this point I didn't have a plan. I just wanted to move up and do a jump. My goal was to navigate the field, to get in an effort, and see how I felt. I'd recovered from my bridge and my gap closing; now I could see how that work affected my sprint.

Although it didn't dawn on me at the time, I realize now that I didn't cramp or come close to cramping, so that was good. My Sunday ride was good. My recovery was good. My lack of consistent sleep for a number of days didn't really affect me.

It also meant I had a good jump left in my legs.

Exiting the corner. A lot of work for me at this point.

Leaving the corner things were a bit blocked. The wind was coming from our left, sort of, and as the course curved left it'd be a cross tailwind of sort. This meant that, hopefully, the left side would open up. Plus it's shorter to go on the left side, if there's a gap there.

However I was buried in the field so I needed to move up.

A gap opened (the rider in front of me went right).

As the rider in front of me moved right I started to move up. He moved back left, closing the gap a bit, but there was still a lot of room for me to move by (keeping in mind that I might be sprinting past a Cat 5).

Once through the gap I wanted to go left since it was so clear over there, but it'd be a big move so I had to check first. Generally speaking if I move over less than half a bike width I'll do it on my own, taking into account anything I hear and my last check of my six. If I move over more than half a bike width that's swerving (to me anyway) so I'll check my six first to make sure it's okay to swerve.

Check my six before making a big move left.

It was clear so I moved left, basically a lane and change over.  I lined up behind a guy who was starting an effort, which meant that I had no room to go. I had to wait.

Now waiting for things to open up again.

At this point I still hadn't used my jump and, in just about 150 meters of road, I was much closer to the front of the field. Lance, at the front was just about to pull off, and I could tell the guy on his wheel would go as soon as Lance eased.

Opens up, now I go.

The guy went. As my marker (the guy I was following) eased to the right, leaving a gap on the inside, I jumped.

It wasn't a great jump. It felt weak, I wasn't getting the speed quickly, and I'm pretty sure that even if I sprinted all the way to the line I wouldn't have won. After looking at the power data my jump was pretty low (peak was about 1000w, less than my bridge effort jump) and my sprint was in the 560w range (15 seconds). A normal sprint for me is 1200w peak and 1000w sustained for about 18-19 seconds. This meant that my peak power in the race, for one pedal stroke, was about what I normally do for 18-19 seconds.

At this point I've decided to get around that hump/bend (3rd fence post or so in the picture above) and sit up.

I didn't want to place highly in the sprint so once I jumped I tried to pick a line so I'd be really close to the inside curb after a pretty hard "hump" in the bend. Everyone at speed goes wide after the hump thing because it's literally impossible to hold the curb around that hump. If I went a touch wider at first, then went left, I'd be next to the curb. It's a spot that riders really won't get to in a sprint.

Once I got there I sat up, hoping that others would jump past me.

They did.

A bunch of guys passed me just before the line.

I have no idea how I finished but it was well back, maybe 8th or 10th or something. Which is fine. I could check off all the things I did:

 - bridge to a break

 - huge effort then recover

 - bridge a gap

 - move up in the field

 - do a tactical sprint

 - don't win

I can also list things I didn't do:

 - help a newer less experienced racer

 - didn't work with my teammates (no lead outs offered or given, etc; I didn't race against them, I just didn't race with them)

 - no real plan going into the race

On the other hand I had a fun time on the bike. It was challenging (I saw higher heart rates tonight than I have in any recent memory), I got to put my nose in the wind, I got to do some field stuff, and I could take a pull or three. For me that's much more fun than groveling at the back of the field and then trying to do a sprint. It's more fun to get involved.

We had to get going to eat before Junior fell asleep so we left a few laps after the A race started. First, though, we had to take care of business.

Some things take precedence over, say, hanging out with other racers.

In this case it's a diaper change.

All in all a really good evening at the races. I'm definitely looking forward to doing more.

Training - Clearing the Lungs Out

So for the past week and a half I've had a pretty bad cold. Junior had it too, before me, and I think the combination of staying up much of the night while holding him closely has made it only natural that I get the cold also.

I've been pretty fatigued as well, with four or five wake up calls sort of common. Usually I get a couple hours of straight sleep but often I've been up a number of times during the night.

To top it off my back has been pretty tweaked. I think it started when I sat through much of the night holding Junior in my arms. I did this before, when he was an infant, and my back really went out, to the point that the Missus shoveled the walk a number of times. Fatigue makes my back worse so all the interrupted nights haven't helped much.

At any rate I really haven't been able to do much of anything. With such a runny nose I did manage to go through a couple boxes of tissues and even a few rolls of TP (which is much less expensive than tissues). Sunday, when the temps were supposed to hit about 80, the Missus asked if I wanted to go ride. Initially I thought no, but later, as the sun really came out, I changed my mind.

This would be the first training ride outside in forever so I had to gather my "training kit". I decided to use the Jet 6/9 set of wheels simply because they have fresher tires on them. Just as a note I ran 100 psi front and rear, in 23c tires.

I also thought that I'd put a 60 mm valve tube and an 80 mm valve tube in my spare kit, from the rides down in Florida. When I finally found them (basically where I put them after returning from Florida) I took a picture for posterity sake. I also checked to make sure everything was still in there, since the bag has been in "Junior" territory for half a year (i.e. Junior can reach it, even if I think he hasn't).

What I carry, from the left, going clockwise.

Saddle bag

SRM computer

Planet Bike Super Flash (2)

Tube (80 mm valve)

Spare rear dropout (on top of tube)

Multi tool including 8mm Allen (for pedals)

Spoke wrench, black (for most higher end exposed spoke nipples)

Two tire levers

Tube (under the tire levers, 60mm valve)

Multi tool including chain tool

I realize now that the KMC Missing Link is, well, missing. That's the easiest way to connect a broken chain. You still need the chain tool, to remove any damaged links (like if you twisted your chain); the Missing Link then lets you connect the chain without having to carry an assortment of master pins.

All packed away, except the tail lights, SRM computer, and that tube box on the right.

I actually carried an extra tube, an extra metal-core tire lever, money, driver's license, some money, and cardboard (tube box, for booting a slashed tire). You can see it to the right in the picture above. I did this "just because".

I although brought some food, my phone (for Strava), and one bottle on the bike.

I carry all this not necessarily for me but because a lot of other riders don't carry stuff. I've used my own stuff, of course, but often I end up using my emergency supplies on other riders' bikes.

Jet 9 with 80mm valve tube.

Jet 6 with 60 mm valve tube.

Just as a note I prefer to have my valves extend just past the rim. This way I can close the valve nib but it doesn't stick out further than necessary. I use a valve extender (strapped to the frame) to pump up the tires and put it back on the frame when I'm done.

After gathering everything I finally got out the door. I decided to bring the mini Blackburn pump instead of the full size Park frame pump simply because I didn't want to spend any time looking for the straps to hold the pump on the frame.

The ride itself wasn't very notable. After the initial half mile descent I spent much of the first 45 minutes in the 44x23 or the 44x21.

I've been trying to see what sort of rpm I do when I'm just tooling around. In a headwind low effort spin state it seems that I'm in the 96-98 rpm range much of the time. In a tailwind low effort spin it's a bit higher, like 104-108 rpm. When I go "slow" after a mile or two of the faster rpm I'm at 90-100 rpm, so about 4-8 rpm lower than when I'm pedaling sort of fast.

At 115 rpm I felt like it was inefficiently fast.

I could barely breathe at first - it felt like I was trying to breathe while someone poured water over my head.

I spent a lot of time blowing stuff out of my nose.

I coughed a lot.

After about an hour I ran out of stuff in my nose and my lungs, and for the first time in eons I felt like I could breathe sort of normally. I could feel air stream into my nose.

This brought me to the end of a lap of my Quarry Road loop. I wanted to keep going so I decided to do a half loop extra.

My head started getting clogged again.

I ran into a local rider that I've run into a few times this year. My main memories of him are when he slaughtered me at Bethel one year, when he killed it at the Nutmeg State Games another year, and then when he crashed with me in the Big One. He and his son were sitting by the side of the MUP (Rails to Trails, or Multi Use Path, or MUP). I stopped, noticed the prevalence of poison ivy right there, pointed it out to them, and after a brief chat we went our separate ways.

Father and son rest stop.

The yellow spots are poison ivy that I highlighted.

Most of the shoulder, that I could see, was about as densely afflicted with the evil weed.

I put some test spots on the road, but there's no poison ivy there.

I headed back home, a pleasant easy ride done. I wasn't spinning quite as freely, now using the 44x19 or 17, but still, no real pressure on the pedals. Ultimately I'd average 143 watts (one moderate effort netted me a bit over 800 watts so it was pretty minor), 155 bpm (which is actually close to race pace for me - 160-165 bpm is about my limit - so I think my lungs were more clogged than I thought), and 83 rpm (indicating my pedaling really slowed down at the end).

Bike Friendly Community sign.

I didn't know it but after I got home my head and lungs would get congested again, my back would become almost useless (the Missus had to pick up Junior for much of the rest of the day).

I'll see how things go with my back and my breathing passages in the upcoming days. If I'm feeling slightly better I'll give the CCAP Tuesday Night Race a shot.

Tactics - Strava Playback

So the other day on bike forums someone mentioned that Strava lets you playback rides and such. I saw something about this but it didn't seem relevant to me. Meaning I almost never ride with anyone else and the majority of my training rides are indoors on a trainer, so Strava is more a public training diary than anything else.

Then someone said that he "watched" the playback of a race and saw someone stop for a lap and then jump back in, saying it was sort of funny to see it right there in "real life" if you will.

This made the "playback" feature seem a bit more interesting to me because I'm always curious about analyzing race tactics after the fact. Rehashing a race fascinates me because I have some solid data, like my power and heart rate numbers, my "perceived effort" memories, and a better understanding of what was happening around me.

I went to look for the "playback" feature on my Strava pages but couldn't find anything. Google rescued me - it's not really a "feature" yet, it's sort of in testing.

So this is how you do it.

First you need to go the Strava Laboratory.

The Strava Labs screen.

From there click on Activity Playback. This brings you to the Flyby Page.

The Flyby page, with a box up at the top right for putting in a URL.

Based on the name and the notes it seems that Strava put this in place so that if someone rides by you ("fly by") you can look for your activity and any Strava riders near you. I suppose that you could use this to learn about and follow a local rider, see if the rider that blew by you turned off and stopped, stuff like that.

For me, though, since no one rides past me while I'm on the trainer, my interest sits in recreating a race.

To look up an activity you need to go to one of your activities and copy the URL.

For my sake I'm going to use the last Bethel, the Zwiedzanie Bethel. The URL for my activity is
http://app.strava.com/activities/129982402

Copy/paste the URL/address from your actual activity.

I copy/paste that into the activity field in the Flyby Page.

My activity copy pasted into the Flyby box.

This brings up my activity plus a list of riders that were at the same location that day. Each name has three columns. The first is the green "C", for correlation. The higher this number the more likely the rider actually rode with you. For a race if the C is too low then the rider probably did a different category race. As a rule I find that anything over 50% is pretty good, it means they usually rode with me.

The second column is the purple "S", for spatial. This means the rider rode the same roads as you did. Obviously if they did a crit on the same course then the S will be high. I ignore this for race reviews since everyone does the same course, at least the ones I race.

The third column is the red "D", for distance. This just tells you how far the particular person rode. This is a sanity check since some riders will do a couple races or warm up for an hour or get shelled in a few minutes. I tend to ignore this also, but I think it would make sense if you were, say, checking to make sure riders completed a required loop (like in a road race, time trial, or gran fondo). It would help catch out those that sit out a few laps or do a shortcut.

Finally you can hover over each name to get the title of their ride. For the Bethel race I did the Cat 3-4 race so anything with some reference to that gets picked. Those that say M45 or P123 etc get skipped.

For me, then, I check off all the riders whose C value is over 50%, seeing if their activity title matches the Cat 3-4 race. A lot of people put non descriptive titles so it's hard to tell (like "Bethel race"). Obviously I recognize a few names so I make sure to get them checked off.

Then I hit play and see if it makes sense.

Each rider shows up with their avatar/picture in a circle. If you selected one that wasn't racing (or whatever) you can hover over the circle, get their name, and uncheck them from the list.

So during the race you can see things develop.

It also plays in fast forward so it's not an agonizingly slow thing. In fact you need to use the arrow buttons next to the play button to advance a frame at a time, else it's virtually impossible to watch detailed bits of playback.

Tip: the elapsed time seems to adjust automatically so you can sort of ignore it. For example I turn on Strava on my phone pretty early so that it's on when I go to the line. After I turned on Strava I took some podium pictures and such so there's a lot of time where I'm not moving at all, hence the weird time at the start of the race.

Start of the race.

If you do the same event as my example you'll see everyone lined up and waiting as I take some podium pictures. I hustle to the line and we start immediately.

The break develops.

In this particular race a massive break of 14 riders went clear. Since not everyone has Strava it's not clear but it would be cool to see a fully-Strava-equiped field in replay mode.

Field sprint at end of race.

In the field sprint we come close to catching those off the back of the break. I'm leading the charge up the hill and there are some break guys that are already at their cars. Others are blowing up at the line and barely moving.

So that's my short tutorial on Strava Flyby, the playback feature available on Strava.