OP - you're lucky in that you learned a lot through Walden etc.

I just had a discussion with a long time co-promoter. He raced for a long time and quit recently after a slew of family and friend illnesses/deaths (among others a 41 yr old business partner, a 32? year old friend, both parents, both wife's parents, etc). He moved to a different area and started riding again after a year or two off. We caught up on the phone the other night and he was telling me how it seems that there are a lot of strong but ignorant cyclists out there. He laughed at himself.

"It's hard to give someone advice when they can drop you any time they like. Problem is that they don't know how to race, they just know how to ride." He described this insanely strong but chaotic rider who just monstered huge gears up hills but was totally unpredictable on the bike. Dangerous but strong.

I prefer racing against strong and ignorant racers, it makes life much easier on me in a race. I think that the racing skillset/knowledge is not documented well and what knowledge there is is being phased out as the riders who learned all this stuff gets older.

A long time ago I decided that I wouldn't offer advice openly, I'd only offer it if someone asks. This was because a racer giving advice unsolicited can be construed as obnoxious. I'm not talking safety stuff, I'm talking race tactics.

Since then I've had a few guys ask me for advice openly, i.e. really seriously ask. One won the next three training races he did plus got 3rd in a regular race. Another won his next race. Another got 3rd two weeks after my advice talk. I gave them no training advice, only racing advice, and it was not on the bike so it was all theoretical talk, no drills or anything. They were strong enough, they just didn't know how to apply it.

Given a bit more time (and maybe some helmet/bike cam feedback) I bet I could have made them race even better. My goal is to try and document this information a bit more formally.

I gave advice to one guy without his asking, just last year I think. He is a BF guy and I noticed a huge habitual flaw in a race we did together. I mentioned it to him and I think he understood that the advice came with good intentions. I don't remember offering up advice to anyone else like that for 10-15 years.