Imagine if Keegan thought this way /s
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C’est la guerre. If its a race, go and race! If your prediction is correct and you crush the competition, then celebrate your win with your cold beverage of choice and look for your next race.
But be aware that races are won and lost by how smart and fast people are on the day of the race, not how fast and smart the were in training, or last year, or on their average ride, and not by whatever their TSS or FTP show. Don’t get cocky and assume you own the race.
Also worth considering is that if you plan to race in this area again, and you destroy the competition, you’ll be a marked rider the next time you show up. If you really are that much faster, maybe save your big move for late in the race and spend some time practicing strategy, trying new techniques, and making a few new friends.
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Absolutely! After these posts, I expect to see Kurt take every KOM on the route, and arrive at the finish line early enough to send a post card back to the chase group telling them how the weather is.
If I were registered for this event and read this thread, yeah, I’d feel disrespected. I don’t think that automatically makes you a jerk or anything.
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Yeah, fair point
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Wrong person. 
What’s your Strava id? I am really interested in checking out how you do.
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Also, if it’s relatively flat, all they need to do is sit on your wheel and outsprint you. Average speed on strava isn’t going to tell you much about their sprint one way or the other.
It’s also possible that they do their hard training indoors and it doesn’t show up on strava.
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(also, if I was one of those ppl and did read this thread, that’s absolutely what I would do, or at least attempt to)
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Tbh I think trying to dictate your effort by how you think the other riders are going to feel is just going to needlessly overcomplicate things, and it involves a fair bit of assumption on the part of the other riders.
Ultimately the only thing we can control is ourselves, so it’s up to clearly define your own goals- everyone else’s are their own responsibility, not yours.
Just my opinion, but I think your objective would be better served by just being the best rider/person you can be on the day- get to know your competitors, encourage others during the race, be there to cheer on the last people as they cross the finish line. Faster performances tend to raise the standard for everyone else and attract more competition, and that along with contributing to a positive atmosphere is what makes communities and races grow.
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I would just start taking hero pulls on the front. If you roll off the front then you can sit up a time or two until you feel like just going solo. They will then clearly know who is the strongest. The competitive ones will close the gap and ride with you. Otherwise you will still be getting in a good workout overall.
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Oh man, this is a no brainer.
Start at the back of the pack, move through the field, chat, make friends, stop to help with mechanicals, pull frequently, come to the front with 5km left, offer a pull to whomever is left, and then go.
Presuming your assumptions are correct you’ll finish with everybody’s respect and a whole bunch of new friends.
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No way. Start from the back and as you pass people just say to them “oh. I guess you’re party pacing it today” 
What is this? someone who helps set a consistent pace? That doesn’t seem that useful.
Set a pace others can keep up with if they are in your draft so you pull the whole time and they go faster while still not really holding anything back? So you do all the hard work and get nothing in return. If you’re already planning to go solo letting others draft off you doesn’t hurt other then they may beat you at the end
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I realize that the event says it is a race, but in reality this is like a timed fondo. It is a fun ride that attracts recreational cyclists and supports a good cause. Most every participant is going to be there to enjoy the day and doesn’t have an ego about results.
There are several of these around my area, and my race team members and I make a point to attend if we can. The promoters are always happy to have an additional 10 or so entries to support their cause. When we go, we don’t ride it at a hard race pace, but ride our own training pace which is almost always one of the fastest on course. We start late if we can, that way we pass a lot of people, take our time, say hi, help anyone who needs it. We sometimes get passengers on our group and that is great too. All in all, these are good zone 2 days that support local cycling and local charities. I would suggest that a similar approach might be better than stalking strava profiles.
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What I would do if I was you is not turn up, consider the entry fee a donation. I’d also suggest you post on their Facebook page that you’re not riding and done that because the calibre of riders signed up is not high enough.
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What are you racing/riding for? I think you’d do your competitors a disservice if you held back. I’d be dishonest. What do you want to do, ride Z2 while your competitors are running full tilt?
Look, it is a race, and you have signed up for it. If I were you, I’d set myself a few goals to make that into a learning opportunity. E. g. assuming the roads are closed off, the race would give you an opportunity to safely work on your descending skills. You could practice riding aero and being smooth. You could practice nailing your nutrition. There are so many ways to challenge yourself.
Plus, perhaps there someone really strong might sign up late, and you don’t have the race in the bag.
Do you have experience with this particular race? I don’t. But where I live, events are races unless specified otherwise. For “true” gran fondos the organizers would usually say explicitly that this is not a race.
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people show up at gran fondos all the time and blast off the front with a small group and race it. Nothing wrong with that as long as they’re not doing things to disrupt others. The reverse is true as well. people show up to races (probably not crits though lol) and just participate
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Dialogue here needs to stay within the upper part of the triangle of constructive debate; what we’re looking for when athletes challenge each other to learn on the forum. Thanks, all.
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All I have to say is here are my 5 scenario’s when I show up to a ride, race or charity ride.
- I lose and get dropped - I drink
- I finish in the front pack - I drink
- I finish top 3 in my age - I drink
- I finish top 10 overall - I drink
- I crush the competition and beat them into oblivion and laugh at their futile attempts to stay with me - I drink
As you can see - no matter what I’m there because I choose to be there and its for fun… Every thing mentioned above has happened during my cycling career, I eventually am going to end up at the same place after the race and no one really cares haha.
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