Need Some Help Please....

BullGod

[QUOTE=Alex Simmons]It's an easy answer: Ride in a pack and follow wheels.

In addition to what Alex says - try to relax. Don;t tense up. If the pack starts braking just calmly reduce your speed - try not to overreact.

Basically Pelotons tend to oscillate between two states. Short and fat, using the whole width of the road when it is going slow, and noone is attacking or chasing, or interested in going hard, and then long and thin, often single file when the speed is ip.

Moving up places is hard when the pack is flying, if the riders are in single file doing 48km/h and you want to ride to the front you'll need to come out of the fradt and ride 50+ alone against the wind to move foreward. This will not be easy or pleasant. Also, moving forward is tough when the peoloton is trundling along, as riders are bunched up elbow to elbow across the width of the road.

Here are the places to move up: just before and just after corners, if safe / possible. Don;tbrake late at corners and zoom up the inside of the pack. It's dangerous and people don't like it.

When the peloton has been doing single file and fast for a while, and you see it slowing and bunching up ahead of you you can kill your speed a few seconds later than the others and look for gaps in front of you to ride into before you brake. You might even find space on the outside you get all the way to the front if you're lucky.

Audible communication can help - if you're wanting to take a bike sized gap on the left and you're worried another rider might move accross as you get there shout "left" to him before you go.

Here's another great trick - when you see a strong rider moving up the field. jump on his wheel - get a free ride up to the ffront. He'll find a way through and give you a draft.

Sorry to say this but the only thing that really worls is experience and nerve. Some guys who are really strong and talented suck at riding in a pack - Tom Danielson for example - and waste lots of energy. .

Sometimes it can be plain dangerous - in the lower categories you have inexperienced riders swerving aroundnot paying attention, and in the top level there is so much at stake and so many strong riders that sometimes there just isn't enough road. Last weekend i rode a 180km classic in North Holland. These races always have a lunatic dangerous neutralisation and thenonce the race starts it's 55km/h with everyone trying to get up ffront before the crosswinds tear the bunch up iinto groups. There were traffic calming bumps and some other road furniture around and i knew someone whould come a cropper. But I still had to try and get up front. I was moving up a nice gap on the inside after 10km when some riders tangled in front of me, and a nice pile up at 50 was the result. I tried to mount the kerb to avoid it but the kerb was too high and I went over the bars. Totally unhurt, but everybody behind the crash couldn't get back to the peloton and was out of the race. Everyone knew there would be a spill in the middle somewhere, and some guys had actually given up the race effectively and gone to the back for safety. It's sometimes a question of being sensible and weighing up the odds and what's important to you. Even at elite level guys have jobs and families, and broken bones aren't worth risking unless you're sprinting for the win or something.