HA same…I’m waiting for the “I told you so” follow-up that says he solo’d away from the gun and won by 10 minutes.
Or the equally likely “I got my teeth kicked in and barely stayed with the group”
Will do! And thank you
I think you are relaying too much on your triathlon experience when thinking about the categories. Tri usually has quite a few ‘slow’ people, because it is seen as a personal challenge, and something everyone can participate in. Road racing is not like that. Road racing is aggressive, where the aim from the start is to thin out the field and get rid of as many people as possible. If you can’t keep up, you’ll get dropped, and if you get in the way, you’ll get shouted at.
But that’s the thing; the system was changed so the phenom doesn’t have to start at novice and start at 4 and accumulate points. Probably hasn’t caught on yet since the rule change is new and not much racing. This point being moot in this race since they grouped the 4’s with the 5’s and the 3’s.
The high probability is most likely in the middle of those two
Soloing from the gun but only winning by 5 minutes? 
At the risk of being blunt, based on those numbers, you belong in the 4/5’s.
Now, you can absolutely complete in the 3’s with those numbers (I should know since they are similar to mine 
)…but I have been a 3 for decades (and now primarily race Masters) and understand the dynamics of races. W/O having raced before, you’d be in for a rude awakening in the 3/4.
like me! LOL! Never raced, but want too…but gaining fitness all the time. Just watch out for me! ill wear a warning or something
Soloing from the gun and finishing five minutes off the back?
It’s not being dropped. I’m socially distancing and attacking off the back.
LOL, there you go. Don’t be afraid of “adjusting your goals” in the midst of the race… 
I still remember my first crit lol. My only race experience was cross…so really all I was doing was focusing on staying out of trouble, and taking good lines into corners as that was probably the one applicable skill I had from cross.
Anyway…first couple laps I just hung on the back…but I kept rolling past a huge portion of the field as I’d take a more aggressive line than the rest of the field. Anyway…this happened again going into a straightaway and I had a big head of steam coming out of the corner without really working very hard at all. So I just kept on the gas…passed the whole peleton in this straightaway…and rode away off the front.
That lasted about a lap before I got sucked back into the peleton, swallowed up, and spat out the back lol. I still actually finished fairly respectably as I passed everyone that got dropped from the peleton afterwards…but yea it was definitely a learning experience.
My first crit went like:
- “Okay I’m just going to stay in the field and out of the wind and get the feel for racing in a group”
- “It’s much nicer in the back anyway. Much less bumping and barging for position here”
- “Getting gapped a bit. Oh shit there’s no one behind me anymore. Just gonna go hard out of this corner and attach back on”
- “Welp. There they go. Now I’m just gonna go as hard as I can until I get caught.”
My goals were changing like every lap haha
My first proper bike race (sportives don’t count!) was also a crit. Came in with 320W FTP at 80kg from doing triathlon and with absolutely no idea how to move up or even maintain my place in a pack where everybody wanted to be near the front (as opposed to the group rides I’d done where you nicely take turns…). So I burned matches moving up to the front on the outside of the pack. I burned matches moving up on inclines. I burned matches doing pulls on the front when I had no real reason to as I had no team mates, but it was kind of cool sitting on the front of a big peloton bombing along at ~45kph. I burned matches closing every gap and every attack I could because I was scared of getting caught the wrong side of a split. Thought all was going well until the last lap. Then the actual racing started and turned out I didn’t have any matches left 
Not enough “thumbs up” available for your post
Yep, we’re looking at road race Saturday morning, short TT Saturday evening, longer road race sunday morning. Saturday are entirely different courses due to covid, but the “lollipop” sunday course is the same. It’s quite sporting. Feel free to ask me (or anyone) questions about it at the venue. I miss the atmosphere and hanging out with fellow racers on the sidelines just as much as Racing againts them!
Now we all know what race to avoid 
You just don’t want to get beat by a first timer 
Now that the fun part is settled and FWIW…
Experience is the main difference between cat 5-4-3 not w/kg Since you can achieve cat 3 with “experience” many folks eventually figure out how to survive in a field, get their pack finishes and make it to cat 3. (The experience upgrade rules could have changed. I don’t pay attention to USAC upgrade rules anymore because I’m a 3 for life - lol)
My experience, cat 3 used to have some tactics and breaks and such. Not really any more as there are always pack welders who can’t stand to see something go off the front or teams who are “working for their sprinter”. Sometimes a mega strong dude or small group gets away and that is fun. Unless you are chasing and then it’s not fun.
Finding a good spot to sit in the field is a skill. Learning how to go around in a field is a skill. Look for the guy who appears to be out on a Sunday easy group ride while the field is flying, sit on their wheel and take notes. If you have friends, ask for tips on who those guys are ahead of time.
Races almost always start much harder than newbies expect. Think about the big pro races after the neutral and when the break is being established. That’s what the start feels like. It is very easy to not expect this as a novice racer and get blown off the back before you know what happened. Be ready to go very hard for a while and it will eventually settle down. Or it won’t and you’ll either hang on or get popped - that’s racing. But be warmed up and ready to go.
Do not look at your power meter until after the race. It will psyche you out. In pack racing you are off the front, in the pack or off the back. Power meter don’t matter.
Don’t ever give up. If it feels really hard just suffer a little longer. Often if you can just hang on for another 20, 40, 60 seconds things will let up and you can recover. It’s very easy to give up in a bike race because when its hard, it’s really hard.
If you are near the front and it feels easy, it’s because at that moment nobody is actually racing and it actually is easy. Newbies will often think it is easy because obviously they are super heroes and everyone else sucks. Then they make a move off the front. That move usually lasts about 6-7 nanoseconds and then the super hero who thought it was easy is shuffled back and out. Don’t be that guy.
Near the front is not the same as ON the front. If you find yourself on the front by accident, and don’t know what to do, just take a quick little pull at whatever pace the field is going and get the hell outta there. Seek shelter and stay there.
If there is a crash, and there’s probably gonna be a crash, the riders ahead of the crash are gonna drill it. Be ready to go hard or to chase hard depending on where you are in the field.
If you didn’t win and you didn’t finish top five, don’t go bug the officials or the timer. You were probably 30th or 40th. Everyone thinks they are much further up than they are in the field sprint. Bigger races have cameras now anyway so you’ll get placed properly.
Most of all, just have fun. Pin on a number and afterwards tell stories after about how it coulda, shoulda, mighta gone if only this that or the other thing happened or that bozo didn’t block you in the last 20 meters. That’s what 99.9% of those who race do. It’s supposed to be fun so have fun. Tells stories after. Everyone loves to hear about how it shoulda gone down. Particularly wives. Wives absolutely LOVE long inch by inch race replays. It’s good to recap the race multiple times. They always enjoy it. Trust me on this 
I’m really old school on field sprints. If I’m out of position and can’t win, I don’t “sprint” for 15th, 20th, 25th place. Ride through the line then go enjoy the after race banter and beverage.
-Mark
heh, just did the math and I’ve had a USCF license for 40 years. That first crit was a long time ago now.
