Specific Race Questions...

[BalaRoja]

I got nothing as I have never raced but I wanted to wish you luck! Let us know how it goes!

That's kind of you, thanks for the encouragement. I wanted to spare people all the tedious details & all, but I'll post my results if anyone is curious

First, I have never heard of a place where all the teams are "full." Even so, you don't really need a team in a lower category race, because team coordination isn't really there a lot of the time anyway, for various reasons.

Yeah it seems a bit counter intuitive, but I've gotten that response more than once. I can actually see some reasons why, for example, newer racers usually need mentoring. A team might only have so many members willing to do that, so that might be one reason why they limit members. Like you said though, team tactics at low level cat races are probably not so good. I hear many stories of teams chasing down breaks when one of their own team members is in said break

Question 1: Yes, most of the time, attacks in a cat 4 race will be chased down instantly. On rare occasions, people who know the attacker might say, oh, there's no way that'll stick. However, that doesn't matter unless the whole pack thinks the same thing. If anyone who is a threat thinks it's cool to chase, then you have to too (or the threat will get away and/or you'll get dropped).

Gotcha, ok. That's confirmation there of what I'd been told and suspected. I imagine in higher category races people get a much better feel of who is a threat and who isn't, not to mention having far better tactics.

Question 2: The main strategy of racing is to be at the front but not ON the front. This means, you want to be in front of any mayhem and crashes and big splits and surges, but you want to stay out of the wind. Yeah, some people like to drive the pace and to attack. They may do this to try to shell others, to break away, or to help teammates. The trick is being where the action is without wasting too much energy (in the back, you are wasting energy for other reasons).

Good point! You are definitely right about wanting to be near the front but not necessarily pulling the pack along :-)

I notice that being in the back, when the folks at the front surge, there is a sort of yo-yo or accordion effect and it is always worse at the back. I'd bet that riding in the front 1/4 of the pack is probably easier in terms of physical effort/power than being at the back.

While I am a fan of the race number crinkling, it's technically against the rules (and the officials can fine you). Instead, make sure the number has a sufficient number of pins in it and is pinned to be close against you when you're in the riding position. It still looks stiff enough but won't be that loud, flapping sail on your back.

style points are always important

You are reminding me that I have been slacking on cleaning my bike and putting on new tires (my first race is on Feb 13). That will have to be my snowy weekend activity.

Glad my question was semi-useful to ya....

Much appreciate the advice