Super Secret Miss and Out Strategy
August 14th, 2007 |I have alluded to it before. Now, due to popular demand, I will reveal my Super Secret Miss and Out Strategy for all to know and learn.
Here it is: Work your ass off.
It sounds easy and obvious, but in the heat of the racing action you tend to forget what you need to do to be successful in this special event.
From Wikipedia:
The principle of the event is that every lap (every 2 laps in the case of our track due to its short length), the last rider to cross the line is eliminated from the race, until a predetermined number of riders remain to fight out a final sprint for the win.
The principle problem with the Miss and Out race is that you always need to be able to move forward in order to keep from being eliminated, but it is very easy to find yourself in a situation where you can not move forward. This is due to the fact that you have but one escape route on the velodrome, to the outside. It is both dangerous and against the rules to advance on the inside (blue apron) of the track surface.
When you find yourself on an elimination lap and you are boxed in with riders in front of you and riders to the right, or “on top of you”, you have very little recourse. You have to slow down, allow the entire field to pass over the top of you and then accelerate and attempt to prevent yourself from being the last rider across the line. On a short track like ours this can be very challenging to say the least. It can also be dangerous as you are trying to rapidly accelerate at a speed greater than that of the field. Once the front of the field crosses the finish line they begin to slow down, which slows the rest of the field down, which can create a situation where a rapidly advancing rider finds him/herself closing on the field much more quickly than they intended. Disaster is inevitable.
So, how do you avoid this problem? As I stated, work your ass off.
You must remain in a position where you can advance at will with no riders in front of you and few, if any riders, on top of you. There is only one place where you have this opportunity and that is at the front. Not at the front on the bottom of the track, but instead at the front one or two riders up from the bottom of the track. If you stick yourself on the black measurement line at the bottom you allow plenty of space above you for riders to swoop over the top of you. Some of these riders may take over the lead and you can quickly find yourself surrounded by riders on all sides and in a situation completely out of your control. Being at least one, better two, riders up takes away some of the real estate on the surface of the track and demotivates others from attempting to come around you. It’s the perfect position as you have open space in front of you for sprinting and open space to your right to advance if necessary.
However, and this is where the real work comes into play, you are not only completely exposed to the wind the entire time but, because you are up track, you are also traveling a farther distance than everyone else below you on the surface of the track. The longer the race goes on, the harder it is to maintain the front position. But, as long you occupy this position the race is your oyster. Stay up front, up high, out of trouble and you will find yourself staying late into the race.
The minute you start looking for a break you may as well punch out of the race. Riders who look for a draft, or decide to sit in a lap, or take it easy, those are the riders that are going to find themselves at the back on the elimination lap. If you find yourself in this position in the last 100 meters, and you don’t see a way to get out of it, just stay there. Don’t do anything stupid, don’t cause a crash, it’s not worth it. Just take your medicine like a grown up, think about where you screwed up and try not to repeat it next time.
One last thing. If you do happen to win a Miss and Out race make sure you turn to your runner up riders and say something like “Gotcha Bitch!” You earned it.
Now you know. I expect to never win another Miss and Out race so long as I live.
15 Responses to “Super Secret Miss and Out Strategy”
All I can think of is you in that basement coming up with these gems.
or turn and yell to everyone that you got Adam Bergman out. it is almost as much fun as winning the damn thing.
…
oh thanks for telling everyone what all the cat2s knew already(i just have had trouble staying past 5 guys to go
damn legs.)
Thanks for imparting your wisdom on us newbies oh great one.
Much Respect.
“or turn and yell to everyone that you got Adam Bergman out.it is almost as much fun as winning the damn thing.”
Understand that that strategy has a downside to it when in the next race you can almost win a sprint but Adam Bergman will hunt you down like a cheetah and nip you at the line. Remember that SR? Afterwards Adam tells SR, “that was for the miss-n-out” Doh!
Just make a point not to yell, OK?
I don’t buy it. I think your real Super Secret Miss and Out Strategy is still secret, although it may be different now.
Whatever may have happened before, now everybody will try to superimpose themselves onto everybody else at the same spot in the race, “at the front one or two riders up from the bottom of the track.” The player has changed the game.
Thus, the race will turn into a Keirin, the Miss and Out as we know it will no longer exist.
So the real question becomes: How do you win a Keirin?
Hard Work? Dammit, I thought this Super Secret Strategy track thing was going to be easy.
So the real question becomes: How do you win a Keirin?
Phht, easy.
Just ride it like a Miss and Out.
I knew it.
So nothing has changed. Except that there will be one less rider to worry about in the future, as a. kruse is stuck in an infinite loop trying to parse this post.
Good work.
now THAT’S funny.
if anyone ever thought I was a rider to watch in a keirin or miss and out - they weren’t paying much attention in the first place….
Try putting a narrow set of handlebars on your bike. For added bonus points, bend the front of the bars inward using a vise at home.
Then sit mid-pack for most of the race saving energy. When you need to move up and are boxed in, just punch straight through instead of going around.
Fools!
Please please. The whole idea that this strategy is sound is fundamentally… so very un-sound.
This whole thread should not exist and in another dimension of infinte dimensions, it does not exist.
That is where I want to be right now.
“Oh master time bender Black Hole generator dimension smasher infinite mass ultimate inny. Please Irresistible Gravity stab at me grab at me spaghettify me yet allow my conscious self not to feel a thing only only ONLY IF THIS WHOLE DAMNED THREAD DID NOT EXIST!”
You race a Miss&Out from the back.
The Devil you fools, the Devil.
Why do people need Smithers Science anyway? In this age of scientific explanation is not religion (i.e Smithers Science) superfluous?
It is clear from Team USA and elsewhere that people in general are not entirely satisfied with the Smithers Science; they need answers to the question: “What will happen to me when I lose a Miss&Out?”, (something Smithers Science can never answer), and they will not accept the idea that Smithers Science will simply cease to be, as an atheist believes. Meanwhile, the Smithers religions of the past are hopelessly outdated and irrelevant.
So be the Devil
Black Metal Rules!
Ha! That advice is about as sound as telling someone that Natural Family Planning works. What do you call parents that use NFP? Parents! Playing the miss and out from the back will only get you the short ride. I know from experience since it’s my super secret strategy for getting back to the infield as soon as possible so I don’t get crashed out by charlie green wheels.
I forgot to mention you have to be fast. Likely the reason none of you are getting it.