Laws of race physics....

Tom Butcher

Agreed but Mike isn't talking about chasing down an established break there - he's talking about chasing down anyone that tries to get off the front off the bunch. If a decent group have 30 seconds plus on the bunch then I agree it's not negative to work to bring that back - chasing anyone who goes off the front down is negative.

emx

it's only negative if nothing happens after. You would expect the riders doing the chasing down should then be attacking...

'low level' 3rd cat racing has always been that way though. It's no different now than it ever was...

Chip \'oyler

MikeWW wrote:

Cat 3/4 races tend to be a bit negative which does bunch things up(I'm a Cat 4) When someone goes off the front the bunch immediately look to chase them down and then ease up again. Its far better to let someone get away a bit and then bridge across to them-that way you have more of a chance of splitting things up a bit

No you're not. You're a 4th Cat[/b]

Chip \'oyler

MikeWW wrote:

Cat 3/4 races tend to be a bit negative which does bunch things up(I'm a Cat 4) When someone goes off the front the bunch immediately look to chase them down and then ease up again. Its far better to let someone get away a bit and then bridge across to them-that way you have more of a chance of splitting things up a bit

No you're not. You're a 4th Cat

MikeWW

OK
4 th Cat-happy now
and Tom's right-I'm talking about chasing anyone down that get 30 m off the front
maryka did a good post about it mid last year

Its more common for the bunch to sit up when they have closed the gap than it is for someone to immediately attack. Would be interesting if it changed though

Down the Road

That's bike racing idea is to make sure no-one else WINS

Chasing everything is sometimes the best tactic. was it negative when Boonen and Pozzato went with Cancellara in the begining on Sunday?

Tom Butcher

Down the Road wrote:

That's bike racing idea is to make sure no-one else WINS

Chasing everything is sometimes the best tactic. was it negative when Boonen and Pozzato went with Cancellara in the begining on Sunday?

That was Boonen attacking and two riders going away with him - not pulling the whole of the bunch up to his back wheel and sitting up.

MikeWW

LOL
Sprinting done-onto race tactics

kieranb

I seem to remember over the years of pro-cyclists entering varous races with the stated aim of training rather than to win? Simply as training does not simulate racing enough to prepare them for their target races.

The 'peloton' in races is usually much tighter than a club run grouping, also unless you're part of a large club the number of riders will be a lot smaller, so whilst chain gangs and club runs can help they don't recreate racing conditions.

Many good 3rd cats will race in E/1/2/3 races to have the experience of doing good open road races, without the realistic chance of winning, again it is good training for when they then race 3/4th etc.

When you race, as you are paying money, you should have some purpose, for some it is to win, for others to help a team captain win, for others it is to get race experience and training.

Chip \'oyler

kieranb wrote:

I seem to remember over the years of pro-cyclists entering varous races with the stated aim of training rather than to win? Simply as training does not simulate racing enough to prepare them for their target races.

The 'peloton' in races is usually much tighter than a club run grouping, also unless you're part of a large club the number of riders will be a lot smaller, so whilst chain gangs and club runs can help they don't recreate racing conditions.

Many good 3rd cats will race in E/1/2/3 races to have the experience of doing good open road races, without the realistic chance of winning, again it is good training for when they then race 3/4th etc.

When you race, as you are paying money, you should have some purpose, for some it is to win, for others to help a team captain win, for others it is to get race experience and training.

Good post. Back in the day I used to do 1,2,3 RRs to get fitter and gain more experience for the 3rd Cat races. As you pointed out, I didn't have a cat in hell's chance of winning, my aim was to get round in the bunch, try and get in some breaks etc.

However going back to the original post - I certainly didn't bother sprinting if the top ten places were already taken up!