photo courtesy Mark Gunter
Following on from the Crit racing thread, I have been thinking along the lines of what makes for an attacking mindset in a cycle racer. Fortune usually favours the brave in bike racing and I was wondering why some people will take a risk to try something in a race, and others won’t. Statistically there seems to be a huge number of older guys who have taken up the sport later in life who weren’t cycle racers as kids or teenagers. Part of the fallout from this is the possibility that there is a huge number of people who have spent their risk taking years of youth in other sports, and now enter the cycling game with a more cautionary and sensible approach – which in bike racing is a bad thing.
Young guys are full of bravado and naturally take risks and they do this when they race as well. This is a great photo of a young guy in last Saturday’s Melbourne to Warrnambool. At 270km in length most guys were sensible and conserved their legs, but here we have a kid who is 18, in a small development team in his first Warny, not afraid to get in the first break that goes up the road, not afraid to pull big turns with seasoned NRS veterans, and not afraid to attack them and take all the KOMs along the way. At the finish he was on the podium 3 times, picked up sprint and KOM jerseys and made a name for himself. You’ve gotta admire that.
Sure this kid is a decent rider, I took his brother on an overseas tour in 2009 and he came back and got some great results all over Australia in the next 2-3 years. I think he was 19 or 20 at the time, I remember he asked me on the first day how to say “Attack” in French. That was the only word he needed to know. Similarly, my son is 18 and I told him the other day to keep an eye on a certain rider in a race who is a multiple Australian champion, he replied “Im not worried about him, I can beat him”. I had to bite my tongue because I didn’t share the same opinion but I didn’t say anything, because self-confidence and ego is a great asset in bike racing, and these young guys have got confidence to burn.
Aggression and a positive mindset is important in cycling. Shrinking violets rarely win races. Sitting back doing nothing and hoping the stars and planets will line up for you is a poor strategy. I think as older riders we need to follow the example of the youngsters and not be afraid to have a dig in races. Stupid crazy moves should not be the sole domain of the kids, there is no reason why older folk cant get ridiculous too. Who knows what might happen as a result!
... Only been in one race in the last 4 or 5 months, woefully out of form and fat, but boy it felt good to bury myself for 50 kms in a small break, couldn't walk ( literally ) for the rest of the day due to overdoing it on old muscle / tendons. Got caught 3k's from the finish but better to try and fail than be pack fodder 
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Making the pace hard all race, is another thing altogether! If you have another rider that wants to work with you, you can do the yoyo attack, one goes and the other sites till the bunch pulls them back and the you go again. 