Message #1862

[Boostland]

In quite a few situations it's actually easier to be up the front and doing short turns rather than back in the pack, try riding some opens with narrow roads and big bunches and crosswinds, if you think you can sit down the back and wait for a sprint finish then good luck as you might find you are watching the race ride up the road when the bunch splits up, this has happened quite a few times in the G2T race on the Breeza plains, I got caught out the 2nd year I raced there and had to do a very hard chase back on, I was up close to the front but someone let the wheel go as the pace was really on Ian Lovell almost got dropped as well after doing a hard turn to help get back on as he did not realise we had dropped so many riders and missed my wheel as he came back.

The last couple of years I have taken note of the winds and made sure I was at the front and even turned it on with Max helping and got the others working to split the bunch, I think we dropped over 1/2 of the bunch by just putting in a bit of effort at the right time.

When in the lower grades if you want to get up the grades it's pointless sitting on and winning the sprint even if your a sprinter, as when you do go up the next grade you will find it very hard to keep up, best thing to do is go to the front do turns, chase attacks then counter attack and try to win in a break then when you do get up a grade you will be able to ride at or near the front and be competitive right away.

When I came back to racing after a 16 odd year break I got dropped in the first lap of a C grade race, it could have made some not come back but I decided that I need to train more and harder, so the following week I raced and asked to be put in D grade I managed to finish it on the back of the bunch I even managed to do a few turns here and there but damn it hurt and I had no chance of sprinting at the end, 6 weeks later I was one of the strong riders in D but I was not getting places as I wanted to get my skills and speed back before attempting to move up.

A few months later I was just sitting on the front of D and dragging them around, one race I think I did 3/4 of a lap on the front before anyone rolled past, and was driving them into head winds at 36 - 38 km/h, I think they were glad to see me get put up to C grade by the end, and when I was put into C I rode on the front as much as I could as I had built my strength up to a level where I was comfortable in the higher grade.

It's all how you look at it and what you want to get out of it.

At the moment I will probably be called a sitter as I have lost quite a bit since my crash, and have not finished a race since (well two were due to a punctures, but I was hoping I got them to stop the pain )