Originally Posted by
Radish_legs
In my first 2 C crits, the breakaway was successful. I was told that breakaways are rarely successful in C level crits. Like on the order of 5% chance.
Team tactics were in full display this past crit. Breakaway of 6, 3 on the same team. Then something like 10 teammates (of the 3) in the pack, blocking, and chasing down people trying to bridge.
As long as there is going to be one team with 13 teammates, and then a weaker team with 4 teammates, and then everyone else is basically a one-off guy--I think you have to be in the break or you're done.
It's not a great situation for a sprinter who wants a pack finish.
In a situation like this you mark the 2-3 strongest teammates. They'll get into a break. You will be with them.
Ignore the other teammates, totally and completely. They'll get into breaks as well, but if they're not one of your marks then let them "chase themselves down" up front. You want to mark the ones that will make it.
If one of the other teammates makes it then you added that rider to the pool of "riders to go with".
I rarely work off another team's efforts, but if there's a team with 13 riders in the field you have to take into account their numbers. I like when there's a team that has numbers and seems to race together because I can generally use their efforts to my ends.
Generally speaking when you have a lot of people from one team racing they'll feel obligated to attack the field so that other teammates can "block". You rarely see a large team sit together at the back (with one or two at the front chasing stuff down) waiting for the finish. You'll see them up front, attacking the heck out of the field, even if they can't stay away. Unless you raced with me, then everyone on the team chased stuff down and at the bell they'd look at me and say "Okay, do good in the sprint!". For me, if I was the designated leader for the day, this was the best way to use my typically much stronger but significantly less experienced teammates.
With blocking/chasing teammates what you want to do is to isolate them. If you counter, for example, counter where there's a crosswind and sit on the curb. If the wind is from the left, sit on the right curb. Although you'll be working hard, everyone else will be working hard too. If there are no blocking teammates then move over to give your allies some sitting room, because you don't want to blitz their legs. But if a chasing/blocking teammate shows up you need to be merciless and put them into the wind.
Attack/chase in friendly wind - cross-tailwinds, tailwinds. You'll force everyone to work almost as hard as you. Not into headwinds, where others can benefit from your efforts. Push hard on false flats or uphills, where drafting is less significant.
If there is some road debris and you have reliable tires then push through the road debris (sewer grates, sand/dirt, etc). A lot of riders have fragile tires/wheels and are afraid of putting their good stuff through crap like that. I once used a 2 foot wide pothole in the middle of a very steep hill to move up (Worchester Polytech Institute Crit) - everyone went around it, bogging down because the pothole basically made the road a two bottleneck thing. I rode through it. I started at the back of an almost 140 rider field, had to wait something like 13 seconds after the start to get moving (due to pack slowly starting), and after 4 laps I found myself sitting about 15 back from the front... in LAST place in the race. They'd pulled everyone else out of the race, but for the first 4 laps I smashed my way through the pothole (on 17mm Panaracer tubulars no less) and finished the race in something like 13th and last place, winning the only cash prime of the race on the way.