Is one stronger during a certain period of the day? For instance, I do nearly all of my training mid-late afternoon. Would this mean that I would have the best race performance at times when I normally train?
I'm wondering this because I have been doing evening crits lately and I finish decently, but when I tried a morning one I got dropped and was pulled out pretty early. It could have been just bad day/bad food ect. but I'm wondering if just my muscles are accustomed to being used later so they are not yet "awake" in the early races..

The only time effects I've seen have been related to hydration and diet (like if I mow the lawn before a race and don't take in enough water). Other than that, I can have break-out performances at a 7am even or a 7pm event, or even a lunch-time power test.

Don't let BS like time of day get into your head. Your fitness is yours. You own it. You don't have fewer red blood cells when you wake up or something. Just ride.

Quite often for morning events, athletes don't wake up early enough and their bodies are still blocked come race time.

I'm clearly a morning person. I wake up around 5:30 without the alarm and feel like I'm crashing by 6pm. I've always been an early riser even as a kid.

I'm also a morning person, but usually race better later in the day.

My favorite scenario:
1) wake without an alarm, take hot shower
2) drink/eat a bit
3) head out for 45-90' depending on length of race (efforts included)
4) shower and then eat until my stomach pops
5) nap for 30-45'
6) drive to race
7) short w/u and ready to go

+1000 Late starts are one of the best perks of p/1/2 racing.

Been there and done that, but I didn't get the T-shirt. If I had the T-shirt it would probably say in large font "I am a total idiot."

I wish that I knew what steps lead up to those days where you can ride several levels above your normal self. I have experienced those days in every sport that I have competed, but I cannot find the recipe
to do it at will. Perhaps the elite competitors have figured out how to do that and that is what makes them elite. And for me it has happened all over the clock so it isn't a "morning person"/"night person" deal.

"Just ride" sounds like a Nike sound bite. I should have expected that now that you ride a Trek.

I'm terrible in the morning, but it's because I don't wake up early enough. My body is partly asleep, and I'm also dehydrated from the night still.

I think racing early in the morning is definitely a skill, and one that I'm still working on.

Due to kids and schedule, I do doubles on M,T,W if I ride. Usually SST or Tabatas for 60' in the am then 60-90' SST or a MTB/Cross workout in the PM. Thursday/Friday is my long ride of 3+ hours leaving around 700am. Anyway, my comprehensive study is that I have at least 5% more power in the pm. Comprehensive in that I look at my powermeter data in WKO+ Older racers have told me that my legs are blocked because I don't wake up early enough. I go to bed earlier the night before then get up at 0600, drink some OJ eat about 250 calories, get dressed and go. So from waking to on the bike is ~25 minutes. I get what they're saying, because I feel like I'm not even awake yet.

But I did find this artice which I thought was interesting. There may be something to the pm boost in power.

https://www.bikeradar.com/road/fitnes...cking-on-20339

I'm doing the Thater 4/5 race. It's the only race besides the pro on Sunday (and I have to work on Satuday all day) and begins at 8:30am. I don't get home from work until 1am or later though. My plan (if one can call it that) is to get up at 5, have breakfast, arrive at Thater several hours early, and do a long easy warm-up ride, with plenty of hydration.

Thoughts? (I cannot skip this race, the team considers it the AAA race of the year).

yep, a totally vanilla existence. "What did you do today?" "Just ride." <sigh>

Well, at least it's a Project 1. It's getting old enough now to almost be eclectic in the carbon world.

Get good sleep 2 and 3 nights before. I routinely race on 36 hours of no sleep and the key to feeling okay, for me, is sleep the 2-3 nights before the race.