Q about break aways.....

venster

Something I don't understand about people in break aways, when they get caught, is that they just disappear into the peloton.

Yesterdays vuelta, the guy from CSC got caught with about 4km to go and once the main group caught him he stopped putting up a fight. As it's easier in the group why dont they try and stay up front with the rest ?

Is it some kind of etiquette that you don't?

Because i'm sure if that were me and put all that effort in I'd try and stay up front...

moray_gub

venster wrote:

Something I don't understand about people in break aways, when they get caught, is that they just disappear into the peloton.

Yesterdays vuelta, the guy from CSC got caught with about 4km to go and once the main group caught him he stopped putting up a fight. As it's easier in the group why dont they try and stay up front with the rest ?

Is it some kind of etiquette that you don't?

Because i'm sure if that were me and put all that effort in I'd try and stay up front...

I think the main reason would be that they cant keep up with faster moving peleton,it has maybe been bombing along 10k/hr faster for 20 or 30 miles , wheras you have been doing a lot more work than thay have. Sometimes you see the odd breakaway caught and the riders stay in to the finish but not often.


cheers
MG

andyp

venster wrote:

Something I don't understand about people in break aways, when they get caught, is that they just disappear into the peloton.

Yesterdays vuelta, the guy from CSC got caught with about 4km to go and once the main group caught him he stopped putting up a fight. As it's easier in the group why dont they try and stay up front with the rest ?

Is it some kind of etiquette that you don't?

Because i'm sure if that were me and put all that effort in I'd try and stay up front...

Why would you though? Most riders are not riding for a GC position so losing a few minutes here and there has no effect on them. Kroon tried to win the stage yesterday but once he was caught he sat up and saved his energy, and I doubt he had much left, for another day. He lost 2:25 to the favourites but as he started the stage in 82nd place, some 13 minutes down, losing an additional two and a half minutes has little effect. (In fact he moved up two places on GC).

venster

andyp wrote:

venster wrote:

Something I don't understand about people in break aways, when they get caught, is that they just disappear into the peloton.

Yesterdays vuelta, the guy from CSC got caught with about 4km to go and once the main group caught him he stopped putting up a fight. As it's easier in the group why dont they try and stay up front with the rest ?

Is it some kind of etiquette that you don't?

Because i'm sure if that were me and put all that effort in I'd try and stay up front...

Why would you though? Most riders are not riding for a GC position so losing a few minutes here and there has no effect on them. Kroon tried to win the stage yesterday but once he was caught he sat up and saved his energy, and I doubt he had much left, for another day. He lost 2:25 to the favourites but as he started the stage in 82nd place, some 13 minutes down, losing an additional two and a half minutes has little effect. (In fact he moved up two places on GC).

Exactly. I'm not a racer and maybe don't understand it. But as you say he wasn't riding for GC but the stage win, so with only a relatively short distance to go I would have thought these guys would try and stay up front and try for the stage win at the expense for another day. I guess it comes down to what he has left in his tank.

I was just curious really !!

andyp

venster wrote:

Exactly. I'm not a racer and maybe don't understand it. But as you say he wasn't riding for GC but the stage win, so with only a relatively short distance to go I would have thought these guys would try and stay up front and try for the stage win at the expense for another day. I guess it comes down to what he has left in his tank.

I was just curious really !!

Kroon is more of a Classics rider so his speciality is one day races and he's a bit of an all rounder, i.e. he can climb a bit, time trial a bit and sprint a bit. In a bunch sprint, albeit with a smaller group of sprinters than normal due to the 1st category climb close to the finish, like yesterday he'd at best get in the lower reaches of the top ten. That would require him to be fresh though and he'd spent a long time out front on his own yesterday so he was far from fresh.

That's the trouble with Grand Tours for riders like Kroon - in each stage they are likely to be competing against specialists, i.e. true sprinters in the flat stages, climbers in the mountain stages etc. It makes it very hard for them to win.

moray_gub

andyp wrote:

venster wrote:

That's the trouble with Grand Tours for riders like Kroon - in each stage they are likely to be competing against specialists, i.e. true sprinters in the flat stages, climbers in the mountain stages etc. It makes it very hard for them to win.

Most stages perhaps but not all, there are stages that are tailor made for riders like Kroon or O grady or Ballan, they just have to get in the right breakaway.

cheers
MG

leonlikestrees

when you've been in a break away for a significant period of time, you're knackared. even if you had it in you to stay up near the front of the peloton, you're not going to be able to win the sprint. If you were strong enough for that, you'd probably have been strong enough to stay away.

Given that, psychologically it's quite a blow when you are caught. it's basically the end of the race for you.

Cipo

Its all down to not having the energy anyomore with kroon and most others. It can happen where they return to the frey at the front but its rare and is only usually after they have bene off the fron of the peleton for a few km and are still fresh.

Titanium

Easier said than done. The guy has given his all to stay clear and in the closing miles he knows he'll get caught but is holding out in case the group behind crashes or sits up, and also to get valuable TV advertising. So when he's caught, he'll be blown away very quickly.

ddraver

remember the peleton is usually haring along by this point - they have been winding up the pace to catch the break and to make the last few km sprinter territory

SteveR_100Milers

This is the beauty of road racing, there are many reasons why a rider makes a break away, and not always as simple as trying to beat everyone else to win the stage. Because of the huge advantages in energy saving that drafting brings, cycling is very much a team sport, therefore who and timing of break aways is often a game of chess: sometimes its a gamble, sometimes its to draw the opposition sting (who have to chase down a threatening breakaway). A lone breakaway in a stage race is often a gamble by an unknown rider, who if caught is usually so knackered compared to the bunch the best thing is sit in the group and take a rest. There aren't many of the top contenders who could ride away from the group and win from a chasing pack - Merckx was a good example of this rare animal.

drenkrom

In my racing days, I was one of the guys on the front of the pack winding it up to bring in the escapees and set up the sprinter. We always made it a point to push it even harder just before passing the break. You want to pass them like a gust of wind to demoralize them and take away any idea they may have of trying to jump again. Anyways, they usually don't have anything left in the legs, but you try to break them mentally, just in case. Plus, the bigger the difference in speed when they get passed, the harder it is for them to jump into the group and grab a wheel. In the finale of a stage that's going into a sprint, that has to be a humongous effort.