Hi all, I have a question regarding gravel racing and strategy. I’ve done a few gravel races over the past 2 years and each time I feel like I’m underperforming in the sense that my power stats are below what I do in training. I basically feel like I’m not pushing as much as I could and I believe it’s because I’m very hesitant at the start of the race to follow the leading groups and get stuck in groups that are a little too slow for my fitness. I tend to get intimidated a little at races by looking at all the other participants and don’t seem to thrust my fitness which ends up costing me better placing. I still finish within the best 10% but I think I could be closer to the top 5% with my current fitness. Is there any tips to help me pace my starts and event better? Thanks everyone!
I think you explained what you need to do. Go harder at the start.
Good point 
. I’m just wondering if there’s some pacing strategy to this so that I do not blow up during the race.
Imo this is the hardest part of MTB and Gravel racing. You have to go so hard at the start that you almost pop, and then have the fitness to survive for several more hours once things settle down.
Bike racing is not an interval workout or a pacing strategy. It is a sport, a game. There are lots of people that are very strong at pushing on the pedals that are bad at racing. Racing is about positioning yourself in a pack, conserving energy as much as you can without getting dropped from the lead group, and then knowing how to widdle the group down. Sometimes the terrain will give you opportunities to do so with a climb or a more technical section. Sometimes it only happens through attrition if the course is not hard enough. But regardless, races aren’t really about who put out the most power. I think you hit on the real issue, being intimidated to position correctly. There’s no way to feel comfortable in a fast pack other than doing it. So just do more races or group rides and learn to safely move yourself around in a pack. You’ll notice certain people are just super good at this. They will always be somewhere near the front, but not necessarily ON the front. They will be on the correct side of the pack that is the opposite of where the wind is coming from. These are the sorts of things that make someone good, not just their 5 or 20 min power.
I agree with a lot of what’s being said here.
Long races (both running and cycling) used to be more about negative splitting the course and keeping a really steady effort throughout, while “saving something” for the end.
This isn’t how these long races really work anymore, though. It’s about riding hard and seeing who fades the least.
Of course, you don’t want to try to ride at threshold the entire time, but you also can’t be afraid to get into Z4 at the start of the race. Just find your balance and don’t completely cook yourself early on.
It’s a tough thing to master, but you’ve really got to learn to connect your effort with RPE and your gut feelings.
Try entering one or more “training” races. The aim in these will not be to win but to try some things out - like going much harder than usual at the start. You might go pop - but, you might learn that you can do it and then recover enough.
IMO, the fastest way to figure out your best strategy is to blow up during some races.
Lots of good advice already, pacing at gravel races is a learned skill and the best approach varies depending on the course/competition and also your individual physiology and fitness.
If you are a punchy rider without great endurance, you probably don’t want to be in a group early that has you pushing into the red for extended periods of time.
If you have great endurance, but struggle with the punchy surges at the beginning of races, it can make more sense to go in the red for a while while all the punchy guys sort the race out. The punches tend to soften after the first 1-2 hours of racing and if often becomes more of a grinding race of attrition at that point.
The best way to figure out where your limits are is trial and error in actual race situations. You can watch things like NP during a race to get some idea of how you might be approaching your limits, but there is really no formula/approach to follow that works for everyone. If I were you, I’d go out and treat the next gravel race like a road race. Basically, stay with the fastest group you can hold onto until you get dropped. You might surprise yourself and be totally fine in that group as the race calms down. Or you might completely implode and burn a bunch of time limping to the finish. That implosion can inform future strategy and training decisions. Unless you have sponsors breathing down your neck for results, nobody cares what place you finished and that kind of trial and error is what will ultimately lead to better results.
Don’t go too hard at the start. Don’t go too easy either. How do you know the best effort level for you? Trial and error. Sounds like so far you’ve gone to easy. Try going harder.
Thanks everyone, I know that the obvious answer is to experiment and perhaps blow-up and learn from it. I’m more of a diesel as time goes on so I’m not very explosive anymore but will outclimb most if the climb is long and steady. My next race is a UCI gravel race so I’ll probably try a bit harder at the beginning to stay the first groups and see how long I last. One thing I forgot to mention, I’m a father of 2 and my priority is my health and I’m amazed at the risk some of my competitor are taking while descending so I’m losing some time and have to chase back. So yeah, no ones cares where I finish as long as I finish on my bike and not in the ambulance.
I think you just need to hold onto the main group as long as your can. If its a rather flat race, you should be fine. If it’s super hilly, then you can do your own pace. But the flatter it is the more important it is to just hold on for dear life.
Just have a plan for when you do get popped. Don’t do like an all-out sprint to stay on an extra 10 seconds unless there is like a downhill or a big drafting opportunity.
When you do get popped dont just die. Focus on recovering and holding some power. Then slowly build back as you recover more.
Have you done any zwift races? Usually the starts are crazy hard. Maybe give some of those a try and see what you can do and that may give you some confidence that you can go real deep and not blow…or at least give you a mental bench mark for real life (ie I went way harder on zwift than this and survived , so I should keep on smashing the pedals.)
That’s a good idea as I’ve never tried any Zwift race. I do a few XC races as well during the summer and I usually have issues with the start and lose too much ground too quickly.
Your answer lies in your own question, you have to hang on to the faster groups.
VO2max over/unders trains for this. Same with XC MTB (esp short track) and cyclocross.
This is a great suggestion.
I find in IRL races that sometimes I am scared to take risks (as in fitness risks) as I don’t want to blow up and limp home last. In a Zwift race, it doesn’t matter - nobody is watching you and you can just get off the bike if you need to.
One thing I find that helps is to train durability. I’m not a very structured trainer (despite being on this forum), so my way to drain durability is just to go out for a 2-4 hour moderate intensity ride and either do a few hard hill repeats at the end or hit some MTB Strava segments hard, something that resembles VO2 effort. I find that when I start doing these kind or rides, I can recovery quicker during a race and I can “drain the tank” more times during the race. Then go hard at the beginning, and even if you blow up, do your best to draft.
From a mentality standpoint, you’re ending up in groups that are too slow for you. If you go too hard at the beginning and still get dropped by the lead pack, you probably won’t blow up hard enough that you can’t hang with that 2nd “too slow” pack, so no harm, no foul. Worst case you get a similar race result but went harder during the race, best case you end up sticking with the lead pack.
Agreed with your reasoning. One thing I notice, even when doing hard interval session is that it takes me a good 15-20min to warm-up and I feel like the first efforts feels way harder that the subsequent efforts. In a racing context, it means that once the rolling starts is over and the flag is dropped, everything feels like hell for the first 15min and mentally I need to be better a knowing that It will get easier after that (relatively speaking lol).
Fascat has some great videos on Gravel-specific training. They have a “Gravel power workout” which starts with VO2, drops to threshold, then down to sweetspot for as long as you can maintain it, then tempo/high Z2. In my experience this is very similar to how gravel races play out, if you don’t give it the beans at the start it can be hard to find a good group later in the race. They have a general Gravel training video and an Unbound-specific video .
Maybe a good reason to do a hardish warmup?
It’s rare that I do a gravel race where I’m not on my limit for the first hour or more. It does typically ease off, sometimes 30 minutes in, sometimes 2 hours. Not usual for NP for the first hour to be near threshold.