Who Wins Races?

Before hockey last night, I was working on my bike and watching Battlestar Galactica. It was an episode where one of the pilots had to do some nearly impossible mission (which he accomplished, of course), and there was a big celebration when he got back.

So, on my drive down to hockey last night (my last skate of the year, by the way), I got to thinking about what makes something like that possible. How do you achieve a peak performance? How do you win a bike race? Assuming we don't consider cheating or luck, I think it comes down to preparation. Not just physical preparation, but mental, equipment, strategic/tactical... everything. You give yourself the best chance to win by being prepared in all facets.

I've been thinking lately about how I achieved my best race results. Certainly, I was usually reasonably fit, but there are other trends. One is that I have gotten all of my best results when I've gone out hard early and have been at or near the front for awhile. The second trend is that, in my better races, I'm usually focused outward, watching about how the race is unfolding, thinking about what my moves are going to be, etc, rather than focused inward, thinking about my pace or how much I'm hurting. Granted, there is some link between them, if you're not fit, you won't be able to get to the front (or stay there long). This may also lead to you riding by yourself, in which case it's hard to focus externally. Anyway...

I was thinking about one race in particular, Munson 2007. This was an interesting race for me, tactically. I got a good start and made a group of 4 that were well off the front. I got dropped by this group after one lap, and I ended up riding most of the second lap by myself. Eventually I got caught by Mark C, who I worked with for a little while. This gave me a chance to recover a little, and I eventually burned Mark off my wheel and rode in for 4th place.

In this race, it didn't turn out to matter, but here is the question: "When I got dropped by the front group, should I have sat up and waited to be caught by Mark (and maybe John O)?" I think, most of the time, the answer is "yes", especially if there had been more than one or two in the group behind me. Since it was a windy day, I burned a lot of energy on lap 2 riding by myself. It also happened early enough in the race that it would be tough to stay away. So, I would have been better off sharing the work in a group. Coincidently, I just read a race report from Mike Simonson where he was in a similar situation, and he did drop back.

I guess my point is that it's important to prepare for races in other ways besides just getting your fitness dialed. I think a big part of it needs to be planning what you will do in certain situations. As with the example above, your first instinct may be wrong, and it might pay off to have considered the situation beforehand.