Originally Posted by
globecanvas
I hear you, you are saying "prepare for a harsh reality check." My goal at this point is to settle into a similar path to @
carpediemracing: some opportunistic successes in the context of understanding that much of the time I'm simply outclassed. No offense intended to CDR by using the word "outclassed", but he seems quite open about knowing when the competition is simply stronger than he is, and as the vets here keep saying, the most important step in making the most out of your abilities is being honest with yourself about what you are capable of.
I never thought of the way I approach racing but yes, that's the way I do it. And no offense on the word "outclassed", I know full well just how much stronger some of my Cat 4-5 teammates are. I've even had Cat 4 teammates try to lead me out and drop me, which is both funny and a bit pitiful at the same time. Even my sprint - I got inspired to get a powermeter after a Cat 5 non-sprinter told me his peak power was about 1500w. When I say "non-sprinter" I mean that I never considered him a threat in a sprint. So I got one and I was shocked (in a bad way) when my first big jump was something like 1200-1300w. It took me a bunch of jumps to break 1500w and at that point I was jumping like I was trying to break the bike.
At some point I ended up head to head with a NY sprinter, multi Nat Champ (crit, track) and former Olympian. I jumped as hard as I could and he just rode away from me with absolutely no effort. Two pedal strokes and he was an unreachable 15-20 feet away. He turned around, smiled, and essentially soft pedaled to the line, maintaining his gap. I don't know how fast we were going but it was a massive field sprint, I was on form, and I got pipped at the line for 2nd (so I got 3rd). I realized then that even my sprint wasn't that good.
My 22-23 mph TT speed, my life-long lack of climbing ability... I just try to do what I can with what I have on a given day.