For literally decades I've tried to peak in March/April. I tried all sorts of things to do this, settling on the following:
- Phase One - Massive for me hours in Dec/Jan, usually 8-12 hours/week. Throw in some 3-5 hour rides (on the trainer) in preparation for the next phase.
- Phase Two - Even more massive week or two in Jan or Feb (25-33 hours/week for a week or 10 days). Do some sprints in there, attack hills, etc. Intensity goes up, even on long days there are intense periods. I'd get my "crick in the neck" (I get this on my first 100% sprint after lots of less intense riding, usually in Feb, hopefully not in March), feel my leg speed coming back.
- Phase Three - Taper a bit (it's forced really, since I'm too busy catching up after my Jan/Feb training camp trip).
- Hit March/April hard. Although I may not be in great shape relative to the rest of the year, I'm in great shape relative to the other racers. So I can do well, even against riders who are normally much better than I am (during the year).

What I've found is that even though I try and peak in March/April, I improve throughout the year, probably until July/August. I do an easy period sometime in late April/early May, then focus on the Memorial Day - late July crit season.

The thing that would kill me is doing intervals or other repeated short efforts in the early season. This would burn my out pretty quickly, late June or early July.

One of my teammates had the best year of his life when he just did long steady miles in the winter. Ends up that although initially he was rolling a 42x16 or 17 most of the time, by the end of his winter training he'd be rolling a 53x15 all over the place. We trained together the next winter like this, two ~120 mi rides per week, and I had literally the best year of my life. We were both super enthused as late as November of that year, driving to Baltimore for a Turkey Day race.

We took inspiration from from Giogio Furlan, an Italian pro that claimed to have done 15,000km over one winter season. He came roaring out of the blocks, dominated the early season races. Granted he was toast by mid-season and this happened to be just about when EPO first came out, but we didn't know that. We just did what we thought he did.

I guess ultimately I'm saying that if you avoid the super intense stuff then you'll have a great solid base for the whole season, and you'll start off a bit more fit than everyone else. If you race smart and selectively the results should follow.