Looking for some advice here from experienced racers. So at a recent sprint du race I came into T1 at the exact same time as another competitor I lost a lot of time in T1 compared to him however by the 5k point on the 20k bike leg I had caught up. I decided to put my foot down and make the pass like I usually do and hold a high intensity to make sure that the person im passing doesn't grab my wheel and this has always worked.....until now. I thought I had dropped this guy and I never look back so I kept going at near 100%. Anyway I get to the 10k turnaround point and to my disgust the guy is right on my tail!!!! what the. This has never happened before and I didn't know what to do so I decided to try and go even harder for the next 5k of course without looking back. So I get to the 15k turn around and again still on my tail so again I try to go as hard as possible the last 5k. We enter t2 together and again I lose time but make it back up only to lose in the last 600m of the run i couldn't hang on any longer.
So obviously this guy raced smart and was sitting probably in the legal draft zone right behind me for 15ks on the bike while I did all the work out the front. The bike leg is my strongest leg so all I knew how to react was to keep trying to go harder to shake him. If this happens again what do you do in this situation? Should I slow right down and let someone pass then hang on their tail? This is not my natural instinct as it would require me not to bike at full capacity. But i feel I lost this due to my stupid race plan. I have been thinking about it for a bit but i still don't know how to react or what to do if this happens again in a future race? Any advice
So obviously this guy raced smart and was sitting probably in the legal draft zone right behind me for 15ks on the bike while I did all the work out the front. The bike leg is my strongest leg so all I knew how to react was to keep trying to go harder to shake him. If this happens again what do you do in this situation? Should I slow right down and let someone pass then hang on their tail? This is not my natural instinct as it would require me not to bike at full capacity. But i feel I lost this due to my stupid race plan. I have been thinking about it for a bit but i still don't know how to react or what to do if this happens again in a future race? Any advice