Crit advice

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Rode in first criterium Saturday. 1.2 mile loops for 10 miles. 3 - 90 degree turns, 4 sweeping curves. 2 short hills. About 25 cat 5 entrants.
Kept in the first third of the pack for the first 5 laps then suddenly a breakaway took off followed by a chase group. Fell behind and played catch-up for the remainder.
Question: Would it have been easier to break with the first group rather than try to catch-up? Also, it seemed that I lost time cornering.
Any advice for this weeks race?

Rode in first criterium Saturday. 1.2 mile loops for 10 miles. 3 - 90 degree turns, 4 sweeping curves. 2 short hills. About 25 cat 5 entrants.
Kept in the first third of the pack for the first 5 laps then suddenly a breakaway took off followed by a chase group. Fell behind and played catch-up for the remainder.
Question: Would it have been easier to break with the first group rather than try to catch-up? Also, it seemed that I lost time cornering.
Any advice for this weeks race?Top 1/3 and you got dropped off the back of the main group? Sounds like a power issue more than a tactical issue.

Also, learning to corner without using your brakes is important and saves a lot of energy. Practice on 90 degree turn streets at high speeds. Learn to lean/turn the bike while keeping yourself upright, as it helps with bike control. LOTS of weight on the outside pedal, not so much anywhere else (like the handlebars to keep from being twitchy). Practice practice practice.

*edit for retarded 1am spelling mistakes.

A small group (under 40-50 racers) means very little shelter from the wind. Any mistake or extra effort can cost you dearly. Sitting in the first third (i.e. top 8 riders) may not be ideal - you can get more shelter 5-10 riders further back and still respond quickly to moves.

At the same time, a small field will have much less of an accordian effect. This is when the front riders slow for a turn, forcing everyone else to slow with them (otherwise the riders behind would simply crash into the front riders). When the front riders are exiting out of the turn, they can accelerate. The riders behind have to get to that exit point before accelerating - and since the front riders accelerated first, the riders behind have to do a little sprint to catch up. In a 100-150 rider field, the effect is enormous - the riders in the front might be going 35-37 mph while the riders at the back are still slowing for the turn. In a 25 rider field the accordian effect should be minimal.

You pinpoint corners as a place you lost time. First, think about what you mean by "time". If in a field, time is irrelevant - staying on wheels is what counts. If behind the field, time is critical.

If in the field, it's more illustrative to point out the distance you lost - a bike length, two, four. If this is the case, think if the distance you lost was due to lower entry speed, bad line, lower exit speed, or lack of acceleration after exit. I've found that most racers who lose distance do so due to improper cornering line and/or lack of speed after the exit.

The first you can work on just by following a "good" rider in the field precisely (a good rider being a rider who is steady, seems unflustered, and seems to be able to hold a consistent position in the field). Knowing how to corner is free speed - you don't have to train for it. Here is a link (http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2006/10/cornering-lines.html) which talks about cornering lines. You can pick up any good car racing book and read about them. The cool thing about cornering lines is that you can practice anytime you want - while you're out training, driving the car to work, or even maneuvering a shopping cart at the grocery store. You can even think about it - mental imagery - something many (if not all) car racers do - and for them cornering is absolutely critical.

The second, the acceleration needed for launching out of turns, requires some training. If you're new to the sport, it'll be just a matter of time before you get this extra punch you need to jump out of corners. You'll need to be in the right gears and shift as you accelerate. You can shift while accelerating 100% - as long as your bars and levers are set up to do so (http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/03/your-hoods-are-jacked-or-why-i-hate.html). Many riders can't or don't do this so you can take advantage of that fact.

If behind the field, think about the same factors, although it might be a simple case of you being alone versus a group of riders who draft each other (the group usually wins, especially if the solo rider just got dropped). Usually once you get dropped your race is over. Work on cornering as smoothly and as quickly as possible. And ride hard until they pull you off the course.

The two short hills will magnify some of the accordian effect - not only will the back riders need to sprint to catch the front, they'll have to do it going up a short hill.

If you're racing on the same course again, I'd think about some of the following ideas:
1. Stay a bit more sheltered - further back than 5th or 8th is fine.
2. Go with the chase group, not the break. (It's easier to go with the chase group since it's very hard to go after every single break attempt). It should be the case that you can bridge a 10 second gap solo - so if there is a chase 10 seconds ahead, you better get up there. It's easier to bridge a smaller gap - so if a strong chase goes away, go after them before it's 10 seconds. And cross the gap quickly - steady time trialing has no place here in a Cat 5 (or 4 or even 3 race). Go very hard and get to the chase. Then recover.
3. Focus on cornering well - good lines, high speeds, steady - you should feel totally stable

hope this helps,
cdr

Echoing much of what has been. Cornering is a big issue in the lower category races...and especially amplified in crits. There technical and fast nature place a lot of inexperienced riders in an uncomfortable position. They may have the power and fitness for the speed, but they lack the handling ability to take the corners at speed. Watching higher level categories race the same course will help you learn how to corner better. You'll see that they take the same corners you took at much higher speed and with more riders across.

A few tips you probably already know...but just to make sure:

1. Brake before the turn - braking during a turn is a big mistake. The tires are already being pushed to their static friction limit because of the turn. Braking...contrary to what you might think...creates more force at the contact point of the tire and will make it more likely to break loose leading to a skid.

2. In a VERY technical crit...IE. containing a corner or 2 where it has to be taken only 1 or 2 bikes across...the breakway will move FASTER than the field. This is because the accordian effect of cornering is almost nothing for the breakaway, while it still occurs in the field.

3. Learn the other riders in your field. Some are probably better handlers than others. Stay on their wheel and follow their line through turns. In the opposite notion, avoid the squirrely riders.

Rode in first criterium Saturday. 1.2 mile loops for 10 miles. 3 - 90 degree turns, 4 sweeping curves. 2 short hills. About 25 cat 5 entrants.
Kept in the first third of the pack for the first 5 laps then suddenly a breakaway took off followed by a chase group. Fell behind and played catch-up for the remainder.
Question: Would it have been easier to break with the first group rather than try to catch-up? Also, it seemed that I lost time cornering.
Any advice for this weeks race?
I can relate to this. I rode my first crit in the elite / Cat 1 (I am 1)on monday, and spent the first half an hour losing contact at the back on every corner and having to bust my guts to get back on. After half an hour I hit a pot hole and flatted, so that was the end of that.

Lessons I took home with me (apart from remembering to bring spare wheels) were -

1) Brake before the corner, Not in it. (if you have to brake - sometimes just slow down in the approach - don't worry if other guys are still hammering away and a gap opens up- they will have to brake and you will cruise back up to them without wasting any energy)

2) stay low on the drops in the corners, and get your weight on the outside pedal.

3) you need to know exactly how far you can lean and still pedal without the inside pedal hitting the ground. Even if this does happen, you should be able to avoid crashing. Sometimes the bunch is going so fast round a corner that you simply can't stop pedalling.

4) click up into a lighter gear in the run up to a corner.....18,19 is often fine - then you can accelerate really quickly out of it.

5) look for a line through the corner that works for you - I saw a few guys swinging onto a low pavement in the run up to a particularly tight corner in order to get a wider turn angle. Ideally you want to turn into it late from the outside, swing through the corner as close to the inside as you can and then immediately start accelorating as you swing back out towards the outside of the road. If you turn into it too early, you will have to steer tightly as the others are already straightened up and speeding off into the strait.

6) ride as many crits as possible......nothing helps like experience. Cat 5 is mainly beginners and weak riders right? Maybe you can upgrade to 4 as soon as possible - the standard will be higher and you learn more from "watching whilst doing" rather than just "watching".

7) do a whole load of 20-30 second microintervals in your training 1x per week to simulate those jumps out of the corners.

Properly turning is the key to a crit. A lot of people, esp in cat 5, will not know the proper line of the course, so use that to your advantage. Practice taking turns wide. Start from the fathest point outside the turn, hit the apex as close as posible, and track out from the turn real wide. Ideally, you want the angle that you take to be as close to a straight line as possible. As stated above, a car racing book or something of the sort is probably your best read on turning. By taking wide turns, you are not slowing down as much, so the more speed you have coming out of the turn, the more speed you will have in the straight. as i found out the hard way, messing up just one turn in a crit is all it takes to get separated, and its all downhill from there

In a Cat5 race most of the riders who dont know anything about what they are doing will crash within the first 5 laps. So be causious at the start. And at 1.2 miles, thats not a very tight crit. There should be plenty of room for moving around. The 1 Km's are the tricky ones.

We race on a 750m circuit and breakaways rule the course.

Don't go over max HR too early, its hard to recover in a crit.

Try and stick with any break aways, if possible.

If you 'know' your field, try and estimate whether the breakaway will stay away. It might not pay to chase.

I just rode my first crit sunday, 41 km, 24 laps, 3 90 degree turns and 2 sweeping curves. Approx 40 riders.

Once other piece of advice is about wind. We had a strong wind during the crit
and you can shield yourself from it by riding on the side of the group that is opposite to where the wind is coming from. I was happy to ride leading the group yesterday for 2 laps out of 24, usually I grovel at the back, but the end
rush started with 3 laps to go and I was not able to position myself for a good placing. Placed a little worse than halfway, but only 1.8 seconds behind the winner.

-bikeguy