Breakaway stories

Would love to hear anyone’s experience(s) with attempting breakaways. As race season is still a few weeks away, the reality of racing hasn’t set in and in my mind I’m poised to be a breakaway threat! lol (my repeatable 7min power will be at 4.5 w/kg halfway through sustained power build, so maybe?) Although the first road race I can do is 65miles, I don’t really see myself trying to do anything nuts there, I’ll take risks on some shorter events!

Anyhow, just curious to hear, among other things, at what percent of ftp do you usually go to make a break stick and for how long, and ultimately where do you settle for pace? I’m thinking mostly about some road races, but of course any crit stories are welcome too!

Everyone at the start of a 75 minute crit decided to take it slow and I didn’t get a good warm up in prior to the start. Launched an attack 5 minutes in. Hammered solo for 20 minutes before another rider bridged. We eventually lapped the field and I won the sprint. Still the best 60 minute power I’ve ever done.

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Only 9 races this year so far but, 3 breakaways that worked.

I never race looking at the PM until established. So, I just try and counter or go over the top of people at strategic times/places etc…Even when in the break I don’t worry too much about the power. I just try and keep pulls even with the others. I’m always trying to do more work in tailwinds, after climbs (I’m bigger), through corners, etc…anything to give me a relative advantage in the work load. Meaning, time wise I’m spending as much as the other guys pulling, I just spend the time on the front when everyone else has to work more when sitting on my wheel if that makes sense.

Three years ago we started a bogus team, four very close friends, called it a “Road cycling fashion team”, claimed we were friends with Oleg Tinkoff, even wanted to call the team Tinko Saxoff; made really great looking kits that are still fabled in the area, called the team “Grupetto Fiasco”. Our deal was that all four of us were raised on British comedy, would typically troll the race field and play games with them like hold a “best legs in the peloton” competition and advise riders how they were doing, advise other racers we were assembling a double-reed funk band and were looking for members, or start rumors about who would start a break and ask people to go with us. Again, we were extremely annoying though slightly entertaining.

Well that all came together one race where we would fire a bunch of soft-breaks and then I stuck one with two other non-team-members. Back in the peloton there was a small mutiny created over forced patriotism, holocaust denial, and women’s suffrage and racers were insanely angry. Meanwhile I’m with one other guy and railing corners, using exit-curbs as banking, and my teammates are starting a political melt-down while sitting on the front. Sadly, I was caught on the last lap.

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