Im not a great racer, but one thing not mentioned is using the rubber band effect. Be the guy at the corner who pulls moderately hard, we all know the effect on the back half of the group. Guys will go with you, its great fun and if you time it right its never a hard effort.
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Where was the crit and how big was the field? Solo break sticking from lap 2 and lapping the field sounds like either a very short circuit and/or a relatively small/weak/lazy field that just wouldn’t or couldn’t chase! Unless it was just one of those guys with a huge engine passing through Cat 4 very quickly on their way to Cat 2+ in which case not much you can do about it.
If it was more the case of a field that couldn’t or wouldn’t chase, I normally reckon it’s worth rolling the dice and going yourself at some point, on the basis that if the first guy didn’t get chased down then you won’t either. Certainly sounds like you were one of the stronger or at least more willing riders in the bunch in which case I’d have thought an attack would have a good chance of sticking. Or if you’re worried about your ability to stay away solo then try and engineer a break with the other guy who is working who was probably as frustrated as you were - at least then you’re in a guaranteed podium spot and a 2 up sprint instead of a bunch sprint, so the odds are a lot better.
I also like to use those gaps you mention as a platform for launching an attack. I.e. do exactly what you were doing of letting somebody else close the gap and follow their wheel instead of closing it yourself. What nearly always happens in that instance is that when they close the gap they ease up to sit on again and recover from the effort, and the rider(s) in front of the gap ease up as well when they realise the gap has been closed. As the gap closes therefore, instead of following the wheel and sitting up yourself, you move out and keep the gas on. When it works well you get a big momentum advantage as you’re still accelerating as everybody in front of you is decelerating, so you can sweep past the front of the bunch and get a decent gap almost immediately. If the timing works so that you’re going off the front as you go into a bend, downhill or tailwind then even better as they have to work even harder to get up to your speed. Even if you get chased down it’s a good expenditure of matches as your acceleration has been relatively smooth (the guy you initially followed did the hard work) and won’t have cost you that much, whereas the bunch behind are going to have to accelerate much harder to reverse the momentum and start closing you down.
Pack sprinting is as much about timing and positioning as it is about peak watts. Also wouldn’t expect to ever hit your training numbers in a race unless you’ve had the luxury of sitting in doing minimal work which is very rare indeed! I know plenty of people who have won sprints on less than 1000W, though obviously size is a factor.
Sounds like good progress though! Hopefully you get your cat 3 upgrade by end of season and then can spend the winter working on things without the pressure of thinking about points.
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Very short (2 thirds of a mile) oval outdoor concrete circuit. And yes 1 the chasing group didn’t want to do any actual chasing (at least consistently) but a couple of riders kept attacking then easing off so it was a bit frustrating.
Thanks, good idea - I may give that a go next time if a similar scenario comes up 
As above - sounds like a plan that might work well so will bear it in mind 
Yep - definitely noted and agreed - need to work on this aspect a LOT.
Thanks - hoping for the same but have now ‘let go’ of the outcome goal of an upgrade this year given so few races left and instead am (based on advice on this thread) aiming to just concentrate on process improvements - taking the pressure off myself might also help
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Mountbatten is a hard race to ride well. It’s always fast and surges horribly. I have had my best results there by sitting in (mid-pack) doing short pulls on the front if I find myself there but never going too hard.
The first few times I raced there, I did everything you described which did not end well. In 4th Cat the breakaways are less likely to succeed as most riders chase every move and there aren’t a load of really strong individuals.
If you’ve got a good sprint on you, sprint on the last lap.
If you have a good 2-5 min power then go with 3 laps to go.
PS- may see you there sometime.
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This is entirely normal! Everybody gets advice like you have above, whether from the internet or talking to other racers, and knows that they shouldn’t just sit on the front working. So nobody does. Especially at Cat 4 where everybody is racing for themselves and it’s all about the points. Which is also another reason why taking a gamble and going for a flier is often a tactic that pays off as it did for the winner of your race - if somebody needs 3 more points for their upgrade it’s a pretty logical decision to not burn a load of matches chasing somebody when you can just sit in and get the points in the sprint instead.
It does improve a bit at Cat 3, and then more so in the higher categories. As you start to get teams/clubs turning up with some numbers, you get people who aren’t as focussed on points (e.g. they’re happy racing at Cat 3, or already have the points needed to stay Cat 2 and don’t want to chase Cat 1) and you get people who know each other through years of racing together. So there’s more people willing to race a bit selflessly, and/or willing to take more risks for a win or podium.
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So things are looking up
Applied more of the ‘learning’ from this thread and came up with a 3rd place and 7 points.
Focused on the process goals - which actually (again) made the race so much more enjoyable.
Bonus was getting consent from British Cycling to us an on-bike camera so I could add power data to a video
Feel free to critique my approach - I tried hard to avoid sitting on the front and if I did, I held off the power a bit and quickly sought to peel off.
Gave a credit to this forum in the description for all the help I’ve had
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@Crosshair thanks for the feedback
I’ve still got soooooo much to learn but the golden nugget I’ve taken from this thread about ticking off process goals has been the biggest win for me - it’s completely changed my mindset in the moment and made everything a lot less stressful and much more enjoyable 
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I’m also new to Cat 4 racing in the UK and still getting used to it… (read “struggling”)
First race I got dropped about 1/4 of the way in. Second race I lasted halfway (better positioning and fitter).
I’m vaguely about 4.2w/kg so don’t think I’m completely outgunned in terms of fitness but think my VO2 and threshold capacities needs more work.
What are some peoples “go to” workout so that they know they are in good form for Crits/Circuit Races?
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Wow - I’d be VERY happy to get anywhere near 4w/kg at this stage.
4.2 would give me a 403w FTP 
I think maybe you just need to work on ‘repeatability’ of intense efforts so look at whatever plan (probably short power build?) addresses this.
Good luck
That’s what I’m thinking. In the two races I got shelled in it was I think to do with the spikey, on-off nature of the riding.
Eventually it was one repeat too many…
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Unless you’re super light and 4.2W/kg is like 250W or something then that really should be enough to get round pretty comfortably. At this stage of the season when most of the stronger cat 4s have already got their upgrade then that’s likely to be one of if not the highest W/kg in most cat 4 races. Personally I find the best thing for assessing race readiness is a fast group ride in a paceline where you’re never really getting a proper recovery and as well as getting a good workout you’re also learning where the draft is, holding a wheel, etc. Best TR workouts are maybe something like the Pierce ones where you’re “recovering” at ~88% FTP in between short VO2 spikes. That’s quite similar to the moments in races where you get popped as you’re having to accelerate over and over again without any proper recovery, unlike the workouts where you get ~40% recoveries, even if they’re only 15 seconds.
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My most painful crit ever was one where I ended up at the back of a large strung out field. My FTP was 303 and I averaged 245 watts for the 25 minutes before I got dropped. Sounds easy, but that average was made up of 3 5 to 10 second 600-800 watt efforts every 35 seconds (every corner) with decent amount of coasting or very low watts between.
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Thanks to all the helpful responses to my query.
I agree with all the good points made. The first race where I got dropped about 15mins in was where I started at the rear, never was able to move up and was having to put in massive surges each corner (Cyclopark in Gravesend).
The second one, where I held for 30mins I was positioned much better, had a lot fewer surges and was comfortable in the pack until it became very “attacky”.
I’ve been thinking that it’s workouts like Taylor that I need to get good at but the points about Pierce and some of those is equally good, I’ll try to build up in that type of workout too.
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Well things are on the up
Took my ‘learnings’ and applied them again, leading to another third place and crucially enough points to secure my 3rd category upgrade 
Thanks for all the advice on this thread that has definitely helped.
Bit of footage below of the race:
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How did you go about getting permission for the video? I think if more of us could do that and put up videos, it would really help keeing participation in BC races high.
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Needed to seek special consent from the BC regulations committee.
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