Anatomy of a Failed Breakaway
We have all tried it once or twice, it never works, but we are always tempted to do it anyway. Our urge to recreate the winning solo pro moves of Stijn Devolder or the always underrated Karsten Kroon, leave us trying and failing. In this weekend’s local criterium up in Santa Cruz, I found myself in the Cat 3 race with great legs and contempt for the field; a sure recipe for disaster. Ken always reminds me that we are fast fish in our little fishbowl, but I always forget about the rest of the ocean despite his words of wisdom.
About halfway into the race, I was feeling great and a $10 prime went out, so I decided to take it and see what would happen. After I won the prime, I found a large gap and decided “what the hell, those guys all suck anyway…. right?” What a cherry I am! Long story short, I held the break for three and a half laps and came back to the pack only to have lost my snap with no shot at the final podium after the effort. I finished 12-15th and wasn’t even able to lead out Ken after the final corner. In fact I couldn’t even get around him. So, my break not only screwed up my chances, but it indirectly hurt Ken’s race as well.
So why doesn’t this type of thing work? What went wrong? When I am training my junior officers, I often preach about tactical patience and setting conditions before the decisive point of the battle, It seems I should listen to myself. Another wise lesson is never underestimate your enemy. A win is a win, minimize the risk in getting it. I often do better in the 1,2,3 races because I have a healthy respect, even a little intimidation, for the riders and never do anything too aggressive. As a result, I have much more snap when that critical time comes.
(breakaway power file, click to enlarge)
From a technical aspect, it seems pretty obvious why it doesn’t work. I just got a power meter and it becomes very clear how much energy this type of thing wastes. If you look at the power file above, you can see the entire breakaway, from start to the catch. The biggest problem is the initial jump. As you can see from the file, I went totally anaerobic, jumping up to 1317 watts and 183 bpm (6 below my max HR). I tried to settle in at a sustainable 400 watts, but the trick is to do that while recovering from your initial hard effort. Too hard to do. To really recover you need to go back below your threshold for a bit, then settle back up to your max sustainable rate. That is why you need a companion in your foolish endeavor or you must be close enough to the finish that your quickly decreasing power curve will get you to the finish first.
Don’t underestimate how much this type of effort will cost you later. Prior to my break, my average HR was 158bpm and the race was easy as can be. After the break, my average HR was 165bpm and I was struggling to get back up to the front. It also had 300 less watts in the final sprint than from my prime lap, and that could be the difference between 12th and 1st.
1. Don’t underestimate your competition.
2. You have to recover if you go anaerobic. It’s science; you can’t suspend it.
3. Think hard about the decisive point of the race and save your energy for that moment.
4. Be patient, most of us only have the power for one crazy effort, choose it wisely and see 3 above.
posted by Doug P at
10:19 PM
2 Comments:
I knew you + a power meter were going to result in the E~Mc2 analysis. I too like data, I find myself taking excel spreadsheets to the bathroom in place of the newspaper these days. However, I have to tell you in this instance a power meter was not a requirement to determine a solo effort of three laps vs. a field avging 20mph is going to leave you in a severe defecit.
Without a power meter my strategy was to sit 10 to 15 back the entire race and then move into the top ten with one to go.
Hell, it worked in one race... but not the other
You started your break at over 1300 watts? I guess that explains your separation coming over the hill, but that's gotta be hard to recover from. Yeah, I think you're right, you'd have been hard to catch if you waited until just before the last lap.
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