Reading the Race: Bike Racing from Inside the Peloton by Smith Jamie

Author:Smith Jamie [Jamie, Smith]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781937716486
Publisher: VeloPress
Published: 2013-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

WINNING THE RACE ISN’T EVERYONE’S GOAL, as I stated at the beginning, and it’s not our team’s only goal. We must also do what we can to cover other places in the results. As we’re standing at the starting line waiting for the gun to go off, we can look around and assess the amount of power that’s in the race. We’ll know how deep the prize list goes. We can then estimate our payday potential.

If I show up with my team at a race that contains 20 of the best pros in the country, it’s pretty easy to figure out how much money we won’t be winning. Still, we race and we try.

It’ll be fun no matter what. Always remember that.

Regardless of whether we win or lose, we must race for every placing as if it’s first place.

In amateur racing, it’s common to see a race end with a single breakaway followed by the main field. Amateur teams with riders in the break will often prevent any secondary breakaways that might threaten their leaders. Content with having placed a rider in the winning four-man break, they will block the field for the remainder of the race, and the field will sprint for fifth place.

What amateur racers sometimes fail to see in that scenario is that if four riders are up the road, then fifth place becomes the new first place and must be treated as such. If the breakaway has a secure lead, it’s time to attack in an attempt to secure the next top placing. Not only that, but the same rules apply: Lead out the attack, get at least one of our teammates in the second break, be judicious in whom we let join the break, and block those who try to reel it in.

The goal here is simple: It’s really nice to see a teammate listed in the results. But it’s better to see several teammates listed in the results. If we can cash five prize checks instead of just one or two, we’ll eat like kings! If creating a second group ensures that possibility, then we have to try.

And as soon as the second breakaway has a secure gap, we’ll try for a third breakaway. We must do this until all places on the prize list are spoken for.

THE HUBER FLYER

If fifth place is the new first place, then it offers opportunities for riders who missed the breakaway. One of those opportunities is for the nonsprinters.

Chris Huber was a five-time U.S. Worlds Team member specializing in the individual pursuit in the late 1980s. He was untouchable at a distance of 3 kilometers. When he converted from trackie to roadie, he rode for the Coors Light Cycling Team, and he had a tactic that worked beautifully. I called it “the Huber Flyer.”

With his team represented in the breakaway, Huber would sit in the main field and wait until the last three laps. As the sprinters began to fight for position at the front of the field, he would launch a scorching attack.

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