My USCF racing experience is limited to 4, cat. 5 races last summer (2 RRs and 2 crits), but I can say that, at least in those 4 events in Central Ohio, there were most definitely very deliberate, planned, team tactics in play. Blocking, leads outs, organized retrievals of breakaways, etc. Not that these couldn't have been better done. Not that they could have been more effective. But tactics were there.

At least in our backyard, riding unattached puts you at a very real disadvantage. There are several teams in Central Ohio that have large numbers riders who are 4s and 5s, and oftentimes those fields are combined, so you can have several large teams well represented in a field. I don't think that completely ignoring the fact teams are out there trying to work together in the race is a very viable strategy, even in a lowly cat. 5 event. Figuring out how to deal with this issue is what I think the OP is getting at.

Personally, I've tried the "ride the entire field off your wheel" approach. Didn't work for me. I'll give it another shot sometime, I'm sure, but it's low percentage.

I've also chatted up other strong unattached riders in the pack and tried to work with them in organizing breaks. Some success there. Of course, once you pull that off, you're a marked man in future events and you'll get run down in short order.

Very interested in other suggestions that might bear more fruit than my aimlessly jerking around out there....