Seriously I think one very revealing way of checking just how efficient you are is to use a helmet cam (or bike cam). Although I show some efforts (esp in 2010 when I was pretty fit), in many of my races I literally do not see wind for more than 60 seconds in an hour, or until the last lap of the race. The Contour (and other wide angle lens) make the gaps larger than they actually are - a seemingly one foot gap might really be three. When you see more than a foot or so gap in my clips that's not good.

Granted there are some standard risks when I tailgun but if I thought it was truly risky I wouldn't do it. In 2010 I didn't want to risk sitting too far back in the Cat 3s at Somerville so I killed myself to be near the front. It worked - although I was behind one crash, I was ahead of all the others, including I think 3 in the last lap, and the last crash was the 6th place guy going down with about 400m to go. Unlike a lot of my friends I didn't go to the hospital. I averaged about 200w for that race, killed myself to do it, and couldn't sprint at all.

In most of the other races I tailgun. Very few people race like me, but the ones that are back there with me are usually either struggling just to hang on or a sure bet for a top placing in the race. One year I saw Charlie Issendorf at the back - he's a former Mengoni teammate of George Hincapie and a main character behind Champion Systems. It was a P123 race, I was struggling myself, and Jeff Rutter (Chevy LA Sheriff) was the big and unexpected name in the field. Issendorf was at the back looking very, very relaxed. He had the Scott Rakes, I think he had TriSpokes. He was obviously saving up for a huge attack - all or nothing for him. I thought to myself, man, when he goes, that'll be the race. Then he started to move up with I dunno like 5 laps to go. I couldn't go with him, not even within the field, it was too fast for me. He launched a lap later and soloed to a well deserved victory. He saved his attack for most of the 50 lap race, launched just one attack, made it stick, and won the race.

My one attack is the sprint so I save everything for the sprint. If I were a better time trialer I'd go for an appropriate length break, whether it be a WR kilo, a friend SOC's 5-7 lap effort (he seems to be good at those), or a former teammate's 30 minute breaks (he seemed to be good at those). I definitely wouldn't go more than once, I wouldn't go too early or too late. I'd make a plan and try and execute it.