That's my point. If you're working super hard in a crit (and you're not off the front) you can probably do it much better.

Those that focus purely on fitness, on training, they don't do well in racing once they get to a certain point. There was a Junior at Nationals this year who didn't win. His dad was yelling something about calling up the coach, that he was going to sue him or something. The problem was that the coach only taught fitness, not really much about tactics, and therefore the racer was incomplete. Those that incorporate an understanding of race tactics, of technique, they do well. Bike races aren't easy because they require you to think a lot while you're working hard. There's a ton of subtle moves that can make or break a racer.

The clips I do aren't totally detailed because I can only put so much text in it. For example in the 2010 Francis J Clarke clip there are many things that I don't note that were significant to me and my race.

- first off I promote the race series. I was running around from 5 AM that day, and I had basically zero warm up. That's normal for me at Bethel which is why I usually make an effort on the first lap so I can warm up. The race started at 1 PM so it'd already been a long day. The day before wasn't ideal either so I was running on adrenaline.

- my main rival, Bryan H, is a former Cat 2, former New England Crit Champ (in the era of some extremely strong racers from the area). He won an incredibly hard race that day - he literally rode me off his wheel (and I was about as good as I ever was that year).

- our mutual rival, Evan T, upgraded to Cat 2 during the Series and took himself out of the running. Even so he was tied with Bryan going into this race, at 19 points, but since he wasn't racing we were probably going to outscore him. Evan only raced 3 weeks? and amassed a huge lead overall. If he raced one more week we may not have been able to beat him, even without him racing the last 2 weeks.

- the United rider that goes on the first lap is a multi-time national champion (various Masters crit, track titles) who will sit on a break if he can, and if he can't he can absolutely destroy a field in the sprint. I felt it necessary to go after him, even on the first lap. He's M45+, by the way, maybe M50+ now, and he used to win or place top 3 in 3 races a day (Cat 3s, M35, P123 - yes he could place 2nd or 3rd in some very big P123 races). I was shocked at how slow he was going at the end - I think he blew himself up trying to follow the break. Again, immense physical talent but in this case not used effectively. I'll never be able to jump like him - at my best he could instantly get 10-15 feet on me, literally in the first pedal revolution - but in this race he used too much before the finish. Also I'm pretty sure he was doing the race just for training so he was working more than he normally would have if he was trying to do well.

- Guido has soloed to wins and is a top level time trialer, one of the fastest in the area, and I think a nationally ranked triathlete or something. This meant that the first lap move had potential as he's done that in the past, including the prior week. He's also extremely smart - an MD of some sort, neurology or something - so he's a deadly combination of strength and brains.

- the guy that counters at the end of the first bit who just "won the 4s" will later turn pro in 'cross. He's super strong but didn't ride as smart as he could have, and during the next season he'll win all sorts of very tough road races, usually solo. He's the last guy I pass in the sprint. Again, massive talent and fitness, not utilized optimally.

- Stephen G never moves up between riders. The fact that he does indicated to me that he wanted to make a big move (he admitted as such later). He's a former Cat 2, has won numerous Bethel races both in field sprints, in small breaks, and solo, M45, Cat 3-4s, and the P123 race. He's a very smart rider (he's a nice lawyer) that's also very strong, much stronger than me, he was a 2 for a long, long time. He blew the race apart with his move, but my teammates and allies worked super hard to bring things back together.

- my teammate Cliff is an ex-pro mtb racer. He did something like 380w for the race. He's also super smart so he really helped. He does crits for training, to keep his legs going. He placed 3rd at Cross Nationals I think that year, maybe the next year.

- my teammate SOC is also very strong - later he'll solo for 7 laps at a race, get caught at 200m to go, lead out the sprint, and win the sprint. He's also very smart (a nice lawyer as well). A combination of strength and smarts.

- at 3:50-ish, when I get up to probably the most promising move, I move to the left so Stephen can't see me. He doesn't see me for another 300m or so. It happened to give me shelter from the right-side crosswind but the more important thing, to me, was to give myself time to recover before he'd launch the inevitable attack. He launched the attack as soon as he realized I was there.

- at 4:20, the guy in black that scolds me for not pulling? He's M55+, just getting back into racing, ex-Cat 1. I just knew he was strong, and that's why I sat on his wheel when I bridged up to that move.

- the "helpful ally" that tried to move me up the field was racing for the first time after a bad crash. He had debated if he should race or not that year and we spoke at length about what bike racing meant to us. He ended up racing, obviously, and was strong enough to participate in the race. He had one move in his legs and he used it to try and help me. He didn't realize that I simply couldn't violate the yellow line rule (in effect for 3/4 of the course) so I had to move off his wheel.

- before Cliff launches the leadout we're behind two guys doing a leadout. They're not going very fast, 30 mph or so, and so it's not an effective leadout because they're not forcing those behind to struggle. The main problem is that they hit the front too early so they can't go hard enough - it's why I told Cliff to wait because I needed him to go super hard. It was a perfect leadout for Cliff. In the past I've sat on a team with 3 leadout riders, 1 sprinter, and I've beaten all of them because the leadout wasn't fast enough. At that time, in those specific conditions, they should have been in the 38-40 mph range to have won the race, but their second leadout guy blew himself up, forcing them to slow for a bit. Ironically the other team had, at that time, Stephen G and Bryan H, two protagonists in the clip. Bryan was the sprinter in that case and Stephen was the last leadout guy.

- when Cliff does his leadout he does about 35 mph into a pretty solid headwind. He's already done a ton of work so he's exhausted but 35 mph was enough. I got so much shelter that my heart rate dropped 5 bpm during the leadout. While Cliff was killing himself I was significantly resting and recovering. In the meantime Bryan was fighting for my wheel, in the wind, finally getting it just before I jumped.

- I was pretty confident we could catch the break even though they had a pretty good gap. It's possible to close 15 seconds in the last lap, and if the break isn't cooperating it's possible to close 15 seconds in the last half lap. This is one of those "riding smart can beat riding strongly" things - 15 seconds with a lap to go might sound great, and it takes a huge amount of fitness/strength to get 15 seconds, but it's meaningless if a few guys in the field are riding together.

- I launched my sprint when Cliff couldn't go anymore, a bit earlier than I wanted. However due to my recovery during the leadout I could go further than normal and therefore I could maintain speed to the finish.

- the guy that wins the race upgraded to Cat 2 I think immediately. He was also a consistent placer in the Masters races, and he's still a 2 now.

So in the race I'm nowhere near the strongest racer by far. In fact I'm incredibly outclassed by many of my rivals and most of my teammates. Because I really wanted to do well here my team supported me unconditionally, allowing me to hang on for dear life. My rivals tried to make the race hard for me - the prior week I didn't even finish the race - and they came very close to breaking me a few times. Ultimately I managed to do well but it was because I raced as smart as I could, my teammates absolutely killed themselves for me, and my rivals made mistakes that prevented them from destroying me.