"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - I'M BACK IN! AKA Strategy for a points race.

So... I had planned on doing a stage-based race in two weekends, until some family plans got in the way. Today, said plans were cancelled. 'Oh, I'm sorry honey...'

In any case, I'm back in. This was originally going to be one of my 'A' races, although with the mixed results I've been having lately with my training, I'm not sure I'm going to do all that well. Still, I'd like to try my best, so I'd like some advice on how to go about things.

So - there are three stages. The first is a very short (2.5 mile or so) time trial, worth a maximum of 40 points; the second is a crit (for me it will be a 25 min +2 laps) later that same day, worth a maximum of 25 points, and the third, on the following day, is a road race (23 miles), worth a maximum of 25 points.

Let's assume that these are all flat courses (pretty close to true). Problem: I suck at sprinting. Here's a graph from last year; I'm a little better at sprinting, but maybe a little worse at FT.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w309/eljamoquio/maxpower-1.gif

So what should my strategy be? Personally, I was thinking I should basically kill myself on the TT, and try to stay as close to the front on the crit and road race. Any thoughts for how the maximum-power-challenged should try to do road races and crits?

Since the TT counts for nearly 2x the points, and appears to match your racing strengths better than the crit and rr, you have to go max. on it, with no worry about subsequent stages. You should be able to recover from a 2.5 mi. max effort. Since it's a points race though, you'll likely need to be getting points in all 3 stages to be on the podium. Given the characteristics of the crit and rr, very short and flat, without a good sprint, you're probably a bit fooked. You should start at the front for both mass start races, hold your position very near the front (never out of top 5 to 10), and hope to follow wheels through the finish line.

Be sure to warm up properly. Since these are all so short, you're warmup should be long and include some very hard pops/max efforts. Good luck.

Do you have a time trial bike and/or have you worked on an aerodynamic position?

--Steve

Don't have a TT bike, but I have worked on my position. With the saddle all the way forward and aerobars installed, my back is flat, and I doubt it'd change much on a TT bike.