How Can I Stop Getting Dropped?

Question: I'm 44 and a masters racer. Last season, I'd be riding well and hanging on during hard surges or climbs only to find that toward the end, one surge did me in. I'd come off just enough to lose the group. After a minute, I could chase at close to my lactate threshold, but by then it was too late to catch. What should I add to my spring program to plug this hole? -- Steve O.

Coach Fred Replies: Your situation isn't uncommon. A mass-start road race (or any spirited group ride) is far from a steady-state aerobic event. As former pro Jonathan Vaughters notes, bike racing is more akin to soccer or basketball in its demand for abrupt pace changes.

Here's the usual pattern: The pack goes fast from the gun, settles down, then suddenly you're flat-out on short hills. It slows again before another crunch. And another. You don't get dropped when the pace is steady, you get dropped during the power surges.

As you noted, they don't last too long. If you can just hang on, you can recover when the pace eases. But after a dozen hard efforts, you're cooked just enough to slip off the back.

Here's training that should help: Do hard 10- to 60-second intervals to accustom yourself to the pace changes. And ride with an aggressive training group where the pace is as varied as it is in races.

You also need to do longer, steady-state efforts at time-trial intensity. That sounds like a contradiction, right? If road racing features abrupt pace changes, why train with 20- to 30-minute steady efforts?

The reason is that they raise the speed at which you can ride at a given heart rate. Then, moderate surges won't make you anaerobic. When the pack hammers up a short hill and everyone is 5 beats over their lactate threshold, you'll be 5 beats under yours.

All riders, even Lance, have a finite number of "matches" they can burn by going extremely hard during surges. So if you're aerobically fit enough to stay out of the "red zone," you'll have more matches left for later. You'll be able to hang on to the end and maybe even go for the win.

Bottom line: You need to build your lactate-threshold power with longer intervals at time-trial intensity, your short-burst resistance with shorter intervals, and put both skills together by training with fast groups.

Do it and I bet you'll see marked improvement in your ability to stay with the pack.