by Toks » Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:51 am
[quote]..thanx for the advise on Hillingdon '..the average pace is 19mph' ...not sure if we're talking about the same track but mine clocked 24.2mph yesterday, an Adam advised it was 25mph last week....
Its always tricky trying to give out average speeds as an indicator of how hard a race will be. You can be cruising around on a summer's eve at Hillingdon in a bunch at 25mph and feel fine; but then at Eastway in an even bigger bunch at you could be dying at 24mph or worst still find yourself dropped from an even smaller bunch at Crystal Palace despite the average speed only being 23mph...The thing that both myself, Matt and others have tried to indicate is that if you feel ok at 19/20mph group
intensity without feeling you're about to have a cardiac arrest you'll be fine with the
intensity (pace) at Hillingdon in a typical 4th cat race
Sadly unlike in most TT's races good 'threshold' power is not enough to do well in crit races. If you don't quite measure up when it comes to negotiating hairpin bends, powering up short drags, holding on to wheels and responding to attacks your performance is gonna be seriously compromised, especially on some circuits.