From: kkrueger@cwis.unomaha.edu (Kurt Krueger)
Subject: Re: How fast is fast enough???
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 13:13:15 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.220014.19462@chpc.utexas.edu>  
apas611@chpc.utexas.edu (David Boles) writes:

> I was wondering how fast people ride in USCF cat 3,4,(?)5
> races here in the U.S.  I know that if you can time trial
> 25 miles in 1 hr (I can't) that you can enter races and not
> embarass yourself, but how fast do the lower end (absolutely
> no offense meant since I'm sure you could all blow me away)
> riders ride?

What everyone said about recovery being more important than holding a
particularly fast speed is true, but I'd like to add a few things.  And,
BTW, I don't currently race, but I do know something about it.  I ride
with USCF racers on training rides, and there are some of them I can beat
when we hold a high speed as one does in time trials.  Still, I'd say I'm
in the bottom third of our big group.  When it comes to hills, I am much
better than many of the racers and am probably in the top eschelon.  In
windy conditions, I am probably average, maybe less.  So, given this in-
formation, some obvious tactics arise.  If I were to race, I would not
worry a great deal about the speed I can maintain for an extended period of
time, but rather the type of course.  Since I am not as fast as most cat.
3-4 USCF racers on flat areas, I wouldn't race a flat course.  Or if I did
race a varied course, I sure wouldn't want to attack or even make myself
noticed on the flats.  I'd wait for a long hill, then attack.  This is what
I do on the group training rides, and I go from being one of the last mem-
bers in this big group to being one of those first into the parking lot.
    Conservation of energy is another very important point.  I have learned
to stay close to someone's wheel at all times, and in doing so, I am capable
of keeping up with the really fast people.  When they've burned themselves
out, I am fresh and can sail past them.  Likewise, I try to hold a steady
speed I can maintain, and I don't go charging off, then having to drop back
to rest, then charging off, and so forth.  Some racers do that, and they pay
the price when they get burned out and someone slow like me has a lot of en-
ergy in reserve.  Of course the downside to this is that one might miss
critical attacks that he thinks are worthless wastes of energy.
    Finally, sometimes time trialling ability is important, especially if
one does stage racing.  In addition, there are those times when you think
you might risk a solo breakaway if only to break things up and to psycho-
logically damage your opponents.  This is always very risky, but I remember
a 100+ mile (I think it was a good deal over 100, too) solo breakaway that
won a stage in the Tour de France in 1991.
    As you can see, speed is sometimes important, but beyond a critical
minimum level, I don't place as much stock in it as I do in tactics.  In
time trials, speed means virtually everything.  Remember that a 38-year-old
(he might have been 37, but I think 38 is right) won the World Championship
in the late 1980s and beat out Greg LeMond.  He wasn't as fast as LeMond,
but he was experienced.

Kurt R. Krueger
kkrueger@unomaha.edu