SCCU 100

[quote="Snoopdawg"]I was in tears as I limped up to the HQ - I was completely and utterly spent and I just couldn't stop hurting.

[Sylv]

Thanks Tamar for your detailed reply

I had to laugh though when George announced his new wheels made him a couple mph faster

[richv]

Sylv from my one almost successful attempt at it last year, on a dead flat course with no sharp corners (i.e Dunsfold) for me to keep away from a 4th Cat race on a road bike would require a steady power output of somewhere in the region of 310 to 320w. For the sake of comparison I reckon that 325w is necessary for me to break the club record on a good course on a good day and would produce a time of about 55minutes on a reasonable day on the Horsham course.

The difficulty is that is simply the power output to stay away once you're away. First you've got to break the elastic. If I simply sat at the front of the bunch doing 320w, a rider directly behind me would only need to do about 260w (if he was the same size as me) to keep up. That is equivalent to the difference between my 25-mile power output and 100-mile power output.

In order to ride a bunch off my wheel in a 4th cat race I reckon I've got to hit 900w as I go and maintain about 450w for the first 1 to 2 minutes to make the gap stick. If I do that I've gone hugely anaerobic and that bu**ers up my sustainable power output. When I did roughly that at half-distance at Dunsfold last year I got a good gap and then struggled to maintain an average power of about 305w which meant I got caught on the last lap just before the final corner.

It is possible to ride away from the bunch (I have seen it done) but you need to be able to produce that initial burst of power and then sustain quite a high power output having shocked your system getting away in the first place. That emphasises the main difference between time trialling and road racing (apart from the bike handling skills). A road race tends to involve going into the red numerous times in the race and then having periods of relative recovery whereas when you're timetrialling you want to be right on the edge of the red the whole way round without going into it.

George being 2mph faster doesn't bear thinking about

[Sylv]

Thanks Rich this makes a lot of sense and I had an inkling it might be the limiting factor - after all aren't testers called "diesel engines".

It is indeed quite hard to judge how hard in the red you can go in a road race without risking blowing out. I'm sure intervals would help (me) with this.

I'd love to be able to measure wattage too as it seems like the only way to accurately and precisely keep track of your performance and progress.

[Sylv]

I tried riding with both hands on the stem on my commute - in places where I'd usually reach 25mph I can go up to 2mph faster easily.

[Mike I]

According to Hutch's book, if you try to take a road race by just riding steadily off the front, two things will happen. Firstly, you will in all probability get hauled back by the bunch; secondly, when they do catch you, the bunch will mutter a collective "F*cking tester!" (even if you do stay away and only get caught at HQ) and not speak to you again.

[Dominic]

Aah yes but if you could ride a bike that fast would you mind?

[Mike I]

[quote]Aah yes but if you could ride a bike that fast would you mind?

[Maria David]

Occasionally on the women's circuit racers ride themselves off the front - from about 2 thirds of the way through the race - and win. That happened
when people underestimated the form of the breakaway rider ! Leda Cox (who is now based in Italy) did that when she first came back after injury.

On the women's circuit there is a clutch of racers who are very good time triallists and good road racers - Jo Rowsell (Global Racing) and Mel Williams (Agisko Viner) come to mind.

As good as it sounds, they don't win on a breakaway and end up being more tactical in their racing.
I've seen them use their time trialling skills for cranking the pace up and "doing a long one" to wear down sprinters like Janet Birkmyre (Planet X) who normally relies on the 500m track riding specialism to get the win.

Yesterday at the women's race I noticed that the Agisko Viner girls (who were out in force) kept firing one of their time triallists up the road at regular intervals, and eventually set up their sprint specialist for the win.

Of course this only works when you know people's game plans and what their racing specialisms are. Not that easy to learn if you have 70 in a bunch ! Luckily we don't have that problem on the women's circuit !

[Maria David]

P.S. Well done on your time trialling Tamar. That is so impressive. Should I watch this space for the 12hr ?

Maria
http://www.2wheelchick.blogspot.com/

[Toks]

Good question Sylv and great replies from Tamar, Rich and Maria. As you know I'm a fan as well as a competitor so I've seen quite a number of racers especially last year ride off the front and win. You definitley need a number of things to work in your favour for this to happen. The main ones have been mentioned I've just put them in a list with a few others
solo win desirables.

1. A high functional threshold (~300w)- being a good tester qualifies you immediately
2. Not being too well known to the bunch - its very unlikely that Hutch could now win an Elite road race.
3. Have a bunch that are half sleepy or not paying attention (its generally best to wait till the second half of the race for your freedom bid - less likely to get chased down by fresh legs)
4. Favourable wind conditions (tailwind)
5. In a crit, be technically better than the others, eg W.S
6. Know the circuit well
7. Good tactical nous - read the race well (eg don't go when the big guns are still lurking)
8. Have your team do some subtle blocking
9. Occassionally in a 4th cat race you can go from right the gun and if the guys up front aren't really compeititive types or it might work.
10 - LUCK!!!!!

[Stu Merckx Man]

i was at a race where christian yates went off the front to win it, pretty impressive stuff!

[quote="Tamar"]I realised how slowly I was going when Keith caught me for 22 minutes in just over 40 miles. Should've taken him 55 miles at our normal paces, but he was going well and I was going like a dog.

[Snoop Doug]

[url]http://www.mikeanton.com/Cycling/SCCU10029Jul07/slides/MAA_5468.html[/url]

Y'see - tri bars!! What's the world coming to eh..? I don't know, when I were a lad a proper tune had a nice melody and you could hear all the words.

Snoop

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Toks,
I would say that I only have the abilities of no. 7 on your list so I think I'll stick with the bunch