Be patient if it is early in a race, early breaks rarely succeed and you will just burn yourself up by doing too much work. If a break gets away with some legit riders and you want to bridge to it, do what the previous post said and sprint away to open a gap and then diesel/time trial onto the back of the break. If you intend to shut down the break by closing them up, be aware that the pack is behind you and you are setting someone up for a classic "catch and attack". To prevent this, fight the urge to relax when you catch the break, keep the pace up to prevent a counter attack. If you catch a break and you are going much faster, they are doomed, just keep going.