Coming from a women’s POV - we often only have 2 members in our team in a race (3 or more is preferential!) and still manage to employ tactics.
You probably need to agree these up front - i.e. what does he want to get out of it? If it’s not to get dropped and you’re a stronger rider than you can help with that by bridging him up or ensuring he’s safely tucked in the bunch. It might be following your line into a corner?
If you want to work together to contest the win then work out who is going to do that. You could go off from the gun and do a 2 up but that’s tough for 45-60 mins! (before Covid) or ensure one of you can lead out the other for the sprint.
I’m also trying to convince a friend to race with me. Again, we wouldn’t be in club kit but would definitely be acting as an informal team. I’m assuming that this isn’t frowned upon but interested in the responses…
Sorry, I meant from an etiquette perspective, not a tactical one.
I wasn’t sure if it might be unfair for two people to work together, whilst the rest of the field doesn’t recognise this because we arent in matching team kit.
I don’t see it being a problem - it might become obvious at some point! We sometimes have other individual’s ‘helping’ our team. We are a fairly tight women’s racing community and tend to know each other though!
I raced there once last year. The hairpin was definitely the main feature, but sounds like that’s been removed. Other than that it is a flat short course, so you’re basically always turning slightly left!
There’s full visibility across the whole circuit too, so you can’t get out of sight.
Correct - no hairpin (possibly as it’s deemed too dangerous).
You don’t need to brake around any of the corners but people definitely will on the bottom one!
It’s always windy so if it’s a full 24 field then you need to be near the front but protected from the wind.
Slight incline before the finish straight which is a good place to break away but it is difficult to get away unless you can get on the front and corner like a pro!
Personally the 15min race set up is a joke. It let’s people start to get fatigued, splits may have naturally occurred at this point and then bring 24 heavily breathing people back together vs let them stay split on the road. Further, for me I imagine it’ll be a lot more chaotic and dangerous, so the people who BC are trying to keep apart and safe end up lying on the floor next to each other or in a hospital…
Worse still that BC still want full race fees from people whilst placing restrictions which make races less financially viable for organisers.
I totally understand the format and/or risks won’t suit everyone (it’s a personal choice to enter) but as a country we need to take steps to get things back on track which may be in place for some time and this is the way BC have chosen to do this.
I guess there’s bigger implications (both positive and negative) than this one race series but things do need to move forward eventually in this new ‘normal’ as Covid isn’t just going to disappear.
Raced last night. Got to say it was really good! Well organised and ran by the team there. Lining up for the second race still a little dead from the first one with 4 primes in a 15 lap race made it hard but well good. 100% worth the trip.
Good to hear. How did you get on? What was your overall thought of the race format and would you do it again? Im hoping to give the potentially upcoming series in Abingdon a go.
