Howdy folks. I am a co-captain of the Primal 4's squad, and I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in about our methods and my thoughts on team racing in our category.
For the record, I'll explain our tactics in Deer Trail. First of all, we had 14 riders for the race, almost %20 of the field. That's a lot, even for us. Realistically, only half of those guys were strong enough to have any real impact on the race. Our whole squad consists of 25 riders, so that was a more than half of our team.
We stressed to our riders that it was important to be up front going into the 1st turnaround, both for safety and tactical reason; being at the back of the pack at the turnaround could mean the end of your race, even for reasonably fit riders, plus, the rubber-band effect of those first kilometers is no fun if you're at the back. We had no intention of blocking attacks by other teams, or sending guys up the road and effectively blocking the entire field, and we didn't do that. Neither did we attack immediately following the turnaround. As a rule we don't use negative tactics, the kind of thing Leopard-Trek complained about after the cobbled classics, namely, sitting on the wheels of the strongest guys and forcing them to drag us to the finish. We race aggressively and with the intention of animating the race.
I was supposed to be a protected rider that day, but lost my cassette 1k in. When I finally got it together and passed the field coming the other direction, I saw a couple Primal guys on front, but nothing that would prohibit an intrepid rider from making a move.
After that I saw the remnants of the wreck, with a Primal man down. A few K later I passed the group again coming the other direction. 4 Primal guys were left in the front group. From race reports by the remaining few, our tactics went as planned. The remaining protected rider (my race ended with my loose cassette, the other with the crash) was looked after as long as possible. Our guys worked into the headwind, as well as a guy from another team who seemed intent on being on the front, for reasons that are unclear to us. Our man won the race in a sprint with one other guy.
In any case, we had an unusually high percentage of the field, even for us. I'll explain our philosophy and methods, not because I'd like to reveal trade secrets, but I'd love to see other amateur teams organize and communicate as well as we do, and provide us with some stiffer competition in the BAT points competition.
As I stated earlier, we have 25 guys on our 4's squad. That's more than some teams, but much fewer than others. We have several guys upgrade each season and occasionally lose a couple who retire from racing, or other reasons. Many guys are brand new racers. Some of our guys race nearly every weekend, others almost never race. Our strength lies in the work we put in as a team. We start riding together in January, with our all-team ride, for all categories from 4's to our elite squad. We have an all-team meeting in January as well. Beginning in February, we have 4's practices every Sunday where we work on basic skills such as pace-lining as well as team tactics. We encourage every rider to attend Wadsworth Worlds on Saturdays. We connect riders with affordable coaching, have a team-building meeting for 4's, and have a weekly email that everyone is expected to respond to to RSVP for practices. This level of communication builds trust, knowledge, skill, and motivation, and continues into the racing season. We stress racing as team, and we put our money where our mouths are. In my opinion, team tactics are a large part of what makes our sport so beautiful. Guys are excited to race, because they know that even if they don't have the fitness or experience to make a big impact on the race, or get a good result, they'll have a very specific role that they can play to contribute to the team.
So I'll end there, except to say that I certainly don't think limiting the amount of riders a given team can register for a race is the way to go. I'd rather see unattached riders join teams, and established teams improve at racing as a team. I think that would go a lot further toward leveling the playing field, increasing competitiveness, and encouraging participation.
If anyone has questions about our organization, or would like to apply some of our methods to your team, I'd be happy to speak with you.
Thanks! See you at the races!
-Blake Cohen