Charm City C1 race strategy: Saturday, October 3
- Athlete: Sidney McGill
- Prepared: 2026-10-02 by Coach Luca
- Race: Charm City Cross C1, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, MD (B race). Start expected around 2:45-3:00 PM; confirm the start time.
- Evidence:
- Friday's pre-ride file.
- This week's rides.
- Every past race at this venue (2023, 2024, 2025), identified by GPS rather than by date.
- The hourly forecast for the venue.
Readiness: recovered enough to race fully, with a careful first lap
- Her heart rate is responding normally again. On Tuesday and Wednesday it was suppressed after Roanoke; by Friday it was back in her usual pre-ride range.
- Openers and starts are sharp. Friday's starts were the strongest of the season.
- Fuelling is in good shape. Two big rice-and-chicken dinners on Thursday and Friday have restocked her glycogen after a depleted week.
- The caution: Thursday's race-pace reps fell 11-24% short of target, so she isn't at her best yet. Race fully, but don't spend the race on lap 1.
Conditions
- Saturday around 3 PM: about 20°C, mostly cloudy with some hazy sun, humidity about 60%, wind about 10 km/h. A dry, fast course. The heat protocol isn't needed; normal pre-race hydration is enough.
- Sunday: about 18°C, 96% humidity, rain likely (60-70%). Expect a slick, possibly muddy course: mud tires, lower pressures and the pit bike ready. Mud is a strength for her.
Her history at this venue
Placings aren't in the record.
The lesson: every Saturday here, lap 1 is her fastest and she fades 7-9% by the end. It is a full-gas race: 50 minutes at an average HR of 185-189. Last year she started at 247 W and ended at 221 W. An even race at the same overall power would finish faster and leave her able to race the last lap. Saturday's plan is built around that.
The course
This map comes from the 2025 race file. Friday's pre-ride matches 25 of 29 checkpoints to within 20 m; the section around 1.1-1.8 km and around 2.4 km looks slightly re-taped, so trust what she saw on Friday where they differ. A lap is about 2.8-2.9 km, about 8:15, six laps.
Race plan
Targets, read from the race file afterwards:
- Best 15 sec at the gun: 550 W or more.
- Lap 1 NP: 240 W or less.
- Laps 2-4 NP: 230 W or more.
- Laps 5-6: 225 W or more, raced.
- Overall: about 230 W NP, roughly last year's 231 W but spread evenly.
- Warm-up and staging.
- 35-40 minutes on the trainer: 15 min building, 2 x 3 min at 247-260 W, 3 x 15 sec starts.
- Stay on the rollers until call-up.
- 2 x 20 sec hard at about 10 and 5 minutes before the start.
- Target a heart rate of 120-130 at the gun. It was 114 here last year and 95-98 at Roanoke.
- The start, first 60-90 seconds. Her starts are her strongest weapon this week. Go for a top-5 position into the first corner, then settle by the first technical section (about 600 m).
- Lap 1. Cap it at about 240 W NP. If the leaders go harder than that, let the gap open. At Roanoke on Sunday she showed she can match the front of the race by pacing evenly.
- Laps 2-4: steady pressure.
- Ride the climb (1350-1650 m) strong but not maximal; it is where an overcooked lap costs the most.
- Carry speed through the technical descents instead of sprinting out of them.
- Sit in the wheel on the power drag and the finishing straight when she's in a group. The draft at 34 km/h is free speed.
- Stay smooth through the barriers.
- Laps 5-6: race. This is where she has faded every year; this year it's where she should be strongest.
- The climb on the last lap is the selection point.
- Be first into the technical section after the power drag (about 2.4 km) on the last lap, so she leads onto the finishing straight.
- If it comes down to a sprint, the finishing straight is about 150 m at 34 km/h: stay in the draft and go at about 100 m.
- If the legs are flat in the warm-up (she can't hold 250 W in the 3-minute efforts, or her HR won't rise above about 165): race it controlled. Lap 1 at about 225 W, then steady. Sunday's mud may be the better day to go deep.
Fuelling
- Breakfast 3-4 h before the start (about 11:00 for a 3 PM start): about 1.5 g/kg of carbohydrate (roughly 90-100 g), familiar, low fibre, low fat, GF/DF. For example, GF oats or rice porridge with banana and maple syrup, or GF toast with jam.
- Keep breakfast moderate. After two big dinners her glycogen is already topped up; a heavy breakfast only adds GI weight.
- Before the start: 500-750 mL of fluid with electrolytes across the last 2 hours. 30 g of carbohydrate 30-45 min before staging, and a gel 10-15 min before the gun.
- Caffeine only if it's part of her normal routine. Nothing new on race day.
After the race
- 15-20 min easy cool-down, then a recovery drink within 30 minutes (GF/DF, about 1 g/kg carbohydrate plus 20-25 g protein).
- A carbohydrate-rich dinner and an early night.
- Prepare for Sunday's mud tonight: mud tires, pressures, pit bike and washing plan.
- Debrief within 24 hours: placing, gap, start row, how lap 1 felt, where she lost or gained time.
- Sunday's plan comes after the Saturday file is in.