Open to critique/suggestions (race video)

Hey all,

I wanted to see if there are any couch coaches out there who like pointing out everything that’s wrong (and right) with positioning/tactics. If so, here is my race video from this weekend. Level is Masters 3, which is unique to Ontario, Canada racing (I think) - think about it as Cat 4/5 for 35+ (whereas Masters 1 would be Cat1/2 for 35+).

The course is 11 times around a very flat race ~5k circuit - wide, open, with a small bump around 1k from the finish and a small kicker after a hairpin right before a longish (250+m) finishing straight. Wind was from NNW and noticeable.

Personal fitness fairly good - likely around 3.8ish w/kg FTP (270FTP, 70kg) but absolute FTP a bit low due to lower weight. Relative fitness good and this is my 3rd full racing season (started in 2016 but got taken out in first race, so only raced a fullish calendar in 2017/2018). My short sprint power is utter crap - tops out around 900w on a good day (and you’ll see from the power numbers that today was FAR from a good day - not sure what the hell happened there). However last year I held 750w for 30s in a long sprint for my best result.

Turnout was low with only 22 racers. Only one teammate with me and he’s pretty new, so I’m coaching him while we’re racing. One team had 5 guys but it was obvious early on they weren’t organized, so essentially a lot of individuals out there. My general strategy going in was hope that the team of 5 had some organization and either hop on something they organized or start something and see if they bridge up with 1 or 2. When I realized early on that wasn’t going to happen I tried to draw out a few counter attacks to hop on by attacking on the bump (also was doing so to put a bit of pain in the larger guys as I realized that everything was being chased, so I pretty much knew that they’d push the pace on the hill to try to catch me versus just wait and pull me in slowly).

Video below. Last lap starts around 1hr22min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXVfBGeyRBM

For a start, you’re riding in the wind all the time. If you’re not 5 inches off of someones wheel you have to have a good reason.

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Fair point! Even when the pace is low (as it was most of that race) I should do a better job of conserving energy. The poor wheel following may also be due to it being an early race and me being out of practice with pack riding, but that doesn’t excuse it.