How to Make the Winning Break
Learning how to effectively and consistently make the winning breakaway is pivotal for your success in races and group rides.
Here are seven winning tips to help you make that golden move.
1. Commit to making the break. This means to throw away plan b and c. Most people try to attack only a few times or cover only a few moves. They don’t work so they then call up their crystal ball which informs them no break is going to go. Usually, this phone call is when the winning move goes.
2. Don’t attack full gas. If you are going on the offense, use lower zones to attack with. This is so you have gas in the tank if there is a counter-attack. I see many riders drop themselves right out of the winning move by attacking so hard they can’t stay on the wheels once in the break.
3. In you are going on the offense, attack in places where there are distinct changes in speed from slow to fast. This can be out of corners, headwind to tailwind, or the tops of climbs.
4. Stop trying to pull the Houdini. Attack in places that work instead of trying to time your attack so you magically vanish when the best rider sneezes.
5. Make a 30-second leash limit. If you are taking a defensive strategy, commit to not letting any rider (s) get up to a 30 gap. This way you are in all moves that go, both covering and bridging to breaks.
6. Stop obsessing where the best riders are. Everyone always marks the best riders to get in the moves, but unless you are in the yellow jersey, you should be trying to go places without them! This strategy usually fails everyone is doing the same thing and they cancel the best riders out and you in the process.
7. Go ALL IN. This means to keep trying. In order to snap the elastic, you have to keep trying. You can stop trying when you get in the move or your legs seize up to the point they are quivering.