From Sunday - SoCal 805 "Criterium". HOT high 90s. Only SoCal race junior did this year, and unprepared for the heat although started with 2 water bottle for 80 min.
Anyway - @mattm - as mentioned junior's MO of letting the break go then bridging.

looks like a fun course.

for camera uses:

do you find video stabilization feature very helpful for road cycling videos? I imagine it would help a lot for cobble sections or gravel riding. but most of the time concrete is pretty smooth.

Watsonville crit

Colavita GP - BREAKAWAY FTW

noice! i liked the still image toward the end.

you're on fire!

makes me want to come to Cali and do some crit-racing.

Here's the Lakeport crit. I lapped the field, but only once. The winner lapped twice.

i've been wanting to win this jersey for a year

The Bump circuit race:

man, could have let that gap go when Blaise went and made Coble pull you up there instead?

Could have. Probably should have. Who knows how it would have turned out.

Honestly I didn't think Coble was much of a factor, figuring he was tired from his earlier race.. I thought the Specialized guy was gonna come around Blaise, so I was gonna be an insurance policy against that. At the time it felt like it was down to us three; I felt like we had just dropped Jeff B, Coble, and the other Specialized guy (I didn't look back).

Then the line got closer and closer, so I jumped - honestly at that point I figured I'd win. So it goes.

It's been a while, but I am posting again. Lot's of advice from the previous posting incorporated into this new-look video.
- Commentary is in captions (so hit the CC button for more info)
- Telemetry data added, to give perspective
- More aerial to share the race story.
- Most of you will still hate the music :-)

Let me know what you think.

Love the aerials! Good stuff.

I haven't seen any drones around here at races since one went in a guy's spokes back in May.

Would be interested in any advice, criticism, analysis etc. since this thread has some good analysis in it. I'm a 46 year old Cat 4 and I only do a few USA Cycling races a year. I'm not on a team and don't plan on being on a team anytime soon.

This is the B race, Cat 3 and 4, from a weeknight series in the DFW area. There are several teams that show up on a regular basis in number. There are other videos in this thread from this series.

A three man break starts to form around 11 minutes in the video and then is very well established around the start of lap 5 which is around 12:30 minutes in the video. That break is never caught and has three guys from three different teams in it. PACC is a team at the race with several guys and without a man in the break (red kit with PACC on the bibs you can see at 14:56) but only one of their guys is left and actively tries to chase.

I really had no race plan because I planned to try and do well in the C race and then just "ride" the B race. Traffic jam due to an accident on a tollway made me late and being stuck in traffic like that really messes with your zen.

No chase ever gets organized after the break. I do take several pulls, but by four to go it is clear we are not going to catch. I wasn't really in the mood for a pack sprint for 4th so I decided at two to go I was just going to take a hard pull and let the pack go and so that is what I did. At the end of that lap, 32:36 in the video, the guy coming around me is annoyed with me and tells me I need to decide whether I'm blocking or chasing and pick one. :foo: :)

I know I was way to far back when the break formed, and during the race didn't really see it go so I need to work on awareness. But once the break was out there what could I have done to chase it down and get more people to participate?

Don't have time to watch the vid - but I'm inclined to agree with the guy. Being indecisive in a race is the worst thing you can do. If the break is gone and you don't want to sprint, put everything you've got into a bridge effort. Best case scenario, you catch the break. But at the worst you stay OTF of the pack and snag fifth or blow up and the field catches you and you got a good training effort (it's just a weeknight race anyway).

Also, I would recommend against writing yourself out of sprints. Doing well in most cat 3 and below sprints is mostly about positioning and reading the race than sprint power.

San Rafael pro/1/2 2017.

Most fun I’ve had on a bike in a while.

no one has time for a 35 minute race video.

if you have specific questions, shoot and you'll get all kinds of feedback. good and bad!

I do not expect anyone to watch unless they want to and some people on this thread clearly do and then write long very informative critiques. I also learned recently, no idea how I missed this for years, that within Youtube you can play the video at 2x so a 30 minute video can be viewed pretty quickly at 2x if you skip around a bit too (just putting that here in case others didn't know this like I didn't - or maybe I'm the only one who didn't already know this).

But my specific question is if a small break gets away what are some strategies for a few singles (no or just a few teammates) to get and keep organized to pull it back and keep the other teams from interfering with the effort? Randomly taking pulls at the front clearly doesn't work but getting more than two people organized seems impossible.

why do you expect people to help you? sure if there are teams that missed the break, it makes sense for them to chase, but individual riders have 0 incentive to sit on the front pulling just to get roasted in the sprint by people who didn't chase. the answer is to try to bridge.

No plan of battle survives the first encounter.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Be in that and every other break.

Good question and good point. I guess I naively think they will help for the same reason I am on the front pulling. If we don't work together we probably aren't going to catch. A mini team for a few minutes could bring them back, but a bridge has less chance of success. But I suppose the bigger point is a much earlier bridge attempt has a better chance in the real world than than the chances a mini team forming or a late bridge attempt.

I looked, actually counted minutes, and I spent a little over 25% of the time on the front during the last 20 minutes of the race pulling pretty hard (at least what is hard for me). I was hoping to get consistent help chasing but only one other person was consistent which I guess proves the point of your question.

Thank you - seems the consistent message is be in the break, or worst case quickly decide to bridge to it.

"No plan of battle survives the first encounter." -- Mike Tyson: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" (or something like that).

If a break that you think might make it forms and you don't have a team, you have to bridge. If you don't think you're up to the task, then you'll have to hope others bring it back so you can then counter or sprint or whatever you think will put you closer to a win. Sure, you risk no one chasing, which means you definitely won't win, but that's a risk you'll have to take.

Why take a hard pull? If you don't want to sprint, why not attack? Just go for it. If no one was chasing, maybe you'll get away too. Maybe a couple others will join you, and then you can work together to try to reach the first break. Or maybe you get swallowed and end up in the same place you were before.

The three ideas for tactical awareness I mentioned weren't necessarily meant to form a single strategy. Be aware, head on a swivel. Know your own ability and how to use that awareness with great patience or flash in the pan immediacy. The lower categories are about learning and trying enough options out your skillset becones rounded to the point you can deal with everything happening faster and in closer quarters without losing focus.

Being in every single break might work one week and fall flat the next 10.

How about my 8 minute video??