Originally Posted by
jsutkeepspining
Two things, most likely a mix of lack of top end, and not being close enough to the wheel in front of you. If you're close to the wheel in front, jumping is a lot easier (ever looked at a power file for a lead out versus the sprinter?). The other is probably using too much energy during the race to stay way to far forward. You said they're 20-25 people in the race? You could literally sit in last place the entire race, and just move up for the sprint. Even strung out that's not a lot of people, and there is almost no incentive to stay close to the front.
I concur.
There's no reason to be in the front 5 or 8 of a 25 rider field. In fact there's little reason to be in the first 15-20 wheels of any group, regardless of size. 21st wheel, okay, it can be important
Seriously though the first 5-10 spots really see a lot of wind, no matter how well you're sheltered. Unless the entire field is single file and hanging on for dear life it doesn't make sense to be up in that first 5-10 spots.
You're doing exactly what my very fit teammates did in May. They used all their energy maintaining a "front" position (so first 10 spots in the field, regardless of field size). For us on Tues Nights the fields are typically 35-45 riders. My teammates were so blown from maintaining that front position they couldn't even follow the moves in the last 5 laps of the race, forget about actually making a move.
A month later, after some practice and some learning, not only did they have energy for the final moves, one guy lapped the field solo. Two more followed and also lapped the field and they actually did it solo as well, although one caught the other while lapping the field so the two finished together. All three guys were too blown to follow moves in previous weeks. Their fitness didn't change much but their tactics did.
The fact that they could lap the field solo meant two things:
1. If you use bad tactics you can neutralize yourself even if you're a very, very, very fit rider.
2. If you use good tactics you can do much better than you might even imagine.
Personally at the lap-the-field race I had a hard time pulling for more than 20-30 seconds at a time at a speed about 2-3 mph slower than the teammates that lapped us, and in fact I was accused, somewhat vehemently, of blocking unfairly when I was actually chasing my own teammates (my policy at the Tues races is to chase everything once they get clear, even my own teammates). The teammates that lapped the field were away for 20 minutes or more. However in prior weeks when I made moderate efforts to follow last lap moves, or when I started pulling hard, the same teammates immediately got gapped off and/or blew up.
The second race post, which has a link to the first (disastrous) race plus 4 information posts in the middle:
Sprinter della Casa: Racing - CCAP Tuesday Night Race, May 27, 2014
The lapping-the-field stuff happened in June:
Sprinter della Casa: Racing - June 24, 2014 CCAP Tuesday Night Race, Bs
I directed all the successful moves - when to sit in prior to the move, when to not pull prior to the move, and finally when to attack. Every attack I said to launch led to that teammate lapping the field. Some shed riders that went with them but the fact is that the teammates were significantly stronger than me and as long as they had well directed efforts they could accomplish a lot in the race.