I did a 30 mile race in Central Park this morning. I raced Cat5. As low as you can get. I did the bike leg of the Chicago Tri in 1:04 - which isn’t getting me into the Olympics but isn’t slow either. After riding all summer with rodies I figured I’d hang with the pack and finish in the middle. I had fantasies of finishing in the front.
I got popped out of the back of the pack within 2 miles. i was nervious about riding in the pack so I was probably in the wind more than I should have been. But, even at this lowly level they were moving.
I ended up riding the entire race taking turns pulling with a cat 4 guy. Alone at the back. I ended up the LAST over the line. DFL. I did not even see them finish.
Lessons I learned
Roadies are fast
There isn’t a particularly strong corelation between TT and pack riding
If you want to race in a pack you have to be in the middle of the pack
I have a LOT of work to do before I can actually hang with these guys
From my limited experience in road racing, I did 3 races this last year and two TTs finished top 10 in in 2 and with the lead pack in a 4/5 race. My Oly bike times are around an hour give or take depending on course.
Bike leg in a tri doesn’t deal with constant surges and changes of speed, like road racing.
Some races for some reasons people like to hammer at the start, but it will eventually slow in a cat5
Hanging in the back is a lot more work than hanging in the front 1/2 or 1/3
If you can do 1:04 (oly I’m assuming) you shouldn’t have that tough of a time hanging with 5’s
I was at that race. I saw a with long hair rolling in way after the pack had finished. Was that you? If so, you should consider getting a cut. It’s not very aero.
hmmm…if I was riding with cat 5, I wouldn’t ride in the pack either…bloody dangerous there…either at the front or at the back but the cat 5 are a bit all over the place…
Congrats…sounds like you had a good time, which is the main point, right?
A few things to consider:
I’d imagine Cat 5 in NYC would be pretty tough. With the recent surge in RR, you’ll have stud athletes from other sports coming in ready to kick ass. Cat 5 is wildly coyote racing…with not much reason to strategy. Cat UP ASAP. Are your Cat 4/5 combined? Depending upon your age, Master’s 4/5 might be more “fun”.
As other folks mentioned, RR success is dependent upon your Slinky speed. You MUST drop the slow guys early in the race to see who is in for the all haul. Then, plan strategies with other riders. If you get dropped, your race is done. So, if you need to blow your wad at the start…then do it. Otherwise, it’s a long way to TT. In each race where I’ve thought I was doom’d from the fast pace, it’s eventually slowed down.
Check the lap speeds with other Cats. Not uncommon for Cat 3 to be faster than Cat 1/2.
Where did the break begin? I’d imagine it would be on the northwest hill, correct? I’ve only ran Central Park, but imagine a RR there would simply be awesome.
In Cat 5, constantly change your position. NEVER sit behind one person…especially in Central Park. It’s a dynamic race. Just like gambling…you need to vary your bet in order to win.
As for work…from my biz trips to NYC, it seems pretty easy to jump on a group and hammer. There are a lot of stud cyclist crammed into a small strip of land. Work on your surges/recovery.
It’s basically all Joe Friel stuff. If you want to kick everyone’s ass next year, join up for Ultrafit today and get started. If you’re reasonably fit (which it seems like you are), you can Cat up every year…if you follow the plan.
The number 1 thing you can do to improve RR performance:
Learn to pedal at a higher cadence in a lower gear.
This will make dealing with all the accelerations much easier to take.
When triathletes bring their gear stomping ways to a straight up bike race, they usually get shelled, unless thay are way stonger than everyone else. This is because they are usually used to pushing a good sized gear at 90 RPM for about an hour or more. Pushing a big gear to try and keep up with all the random sprinting and pickups around the corners will wear out your legs REAL FAST in a bike race. It’s easier to accelerate if you are downshift and pedal at about 100 - 110 RPM, especially in crits.
Also, don’t get too caught up in tactics in a CAT5 race. Keep it simple. Stay near the front, keep your cadence high and your gear low(lower than in a tri anyway), and NEVER be the first one to go after a break. In fact, in CAT 5 racing, don’t chase at all. Let all the other nervous nellies do the work for you. Nobody has a clue at that level anyway.
It’s obvious that road races require agility and balls. TTs and Tris do not, usually. I’ve only done tris and hill climbs, but this is just an educated guess.
There are reason for using different combinations of gearings within a bike race and it generally depends on the terrain, draft, potential threats…and mostly strategy. There are pros and cons
high cadence/low gear - keeps the heart rate up and quickens reaction time…however, you’re still in a low gear and will ultimatley have your pants around your ankles come hammer time. The amount of time needed to shift may lose your break…or break your chain, slip a gear and a host of other problems. Many of sprints have been lost this way.
low cadence/high gear - more economical/efficient, faster at the same cadence (duh) and less hyperactive. Easier/quicker to respond to subtle changes in the peloton…providing you have the engine. When a break occurs, you’re not giving notice to all the guys behind you (i.e= a shift is a sure sign of war) However, very rarely is the guy in front of you making the move…it’s the guy coming around the side. Spinning circle isn’t going to help…you’ll need power at this point.
Generally speaking, I’ll ride 1 gear higher than the guy I’m drafting…
For Cat 5 racing, sit in the pack until the end, and then sprint. Period. Those guys do not know enough to have, or use, stategy. (You need to work on your sprint, obviously.)
I used to train with a lot of Cat 1 & 2s, along with a few pros. I was strong on the bike. They talked me into doing some road racing. The first race I did, I was trying to go off the front and crap. I did not do well. My trainng partners sat me down and yelled at me “Sit in the ^$%&#% pack, and then sprint about 200 meters from the finish! Quit screwing around. Get your points and move up.”
The next three races I did I finished first once, and twice second, (and won a fast lap prime) and I moved up to Cat 4. They were right. Sadly, I then started racing Ironman, and quit road racing.
It is fun, and dangerous. Find a local training crit and start riding it on a weekly basis. It will help you. Also, you just have to get used to being in a pack. Ride with roadies. Learn to draft well, hold your position in a pack, and how to sprint.
Breaks are where the fun is! Maybe you shouldn’t try 'em if you’re just trying to hang tho. But In my first road race I tried three breaks; first two were swallowed up in a few minutes, but on the thrid one they thought I was just being a fool until a few other guys joined me and we broke and held it. Even if you get pulled in by the pack, in 5’s you can sit in the back till you recover and go again. Its like interval training. IMO falling of the pack because you tried to break 10x is more fun than finishing in a pack with 80 other guys. Crits are a different animal tho.
Correct, it was a blast. Nothing like a new challenge
I will race masters when available
The pack scares me. 1 mile in the guy next to me drifted to the right and took out 3 guys next to him
Next time I will try to get to the front of the pack and see if I can survuve up there. I am not brave enough to sit in the middle of the pack until things really settle down.
You are only lacking a few things to hang in there. One thing is to recognize when the pack is accelerating. When you have to sprint in the back it is red line riding and being dropped is not far away. This leads to skill two, as a TTer you are used to riding hard, but not varying your speed. You need to practice riding hard but changing your pace with jumps and sprints. It’s not as hard when you get good at riding way in the red line as it calms down and comes and goes. The miles in which you got dropped could have been close to the hardest laps of the whole event. What’s funny when you get the hang of it, it can be easy to road race, that’s when you know it’s time to hit the front.
First off, good job for finishing!! It’s easy to pack it in after getting popped quickly.
While I think much of the advice given so far is well-meaning and useful, it’s almost too over the top.
It’s been a long time since I was a 5, but I’ve driven enough lead/follow vehicles at races, and have enough Cat 5 teammates, that I can give you some very simple advice which will make a huge and immediate improvement.
1)LINE UP AT THE FRONT!!! Too many people won’t do this because they think “oh, that’s for the experienced, fast guys”…they’re Cat5’s too!! You deserve to be there. Let everyone else line up first, then back into the front. Act like you’d have gotten there early, but forgot something.
2)STAY AT THE FRONT!! Given your TT ability, you’re plenty strong, and as already said here, you’re making things WAY harder by being at the back…especially at the beginning of the race. If if you have to take a turn at the front, or several…do it, just don’t get out of the top 10 guys in the first couple of miles.
Welcome to the Club!!! I got my arse spanked bad this weekend at a 3-stage race. I laid down the fastest TT and had a 21 and 27 lead on places 2 and 3, and 1:20 on 4th. Later that night I faded off the front of the combined Cat4/5 crit field. The average speed was over 26. About 1/4 of the field did not finish. We had two major state teams competing for end of season team rankings, and they were fierce. Today I missed a very solid 3-man break and ended up in the second pack with 3 other guys trying to rope them in, to no avail.
The difference between what we do as triathletes and the crits is huge. We can hold a high rate of speed nice and steady. They can accelerate like Banshees at the drop of a dime, and after every turn. That is where I get burned. I do not get burned in road races. The pace change is not much different than local group rides.
My hats off to seasoned crit racers. I can’t believe how hard they can be.
