Did I just enter a crit?

bikeguy

I thought it was a road race, but I seem to have entered into a crit. 10 laps of 3,5 km through a small city. I need some quick tips on taking corners in a pack (my first time doing a crit). My 1st objective is not to crash. My 2nd is to win it. Avg speed last year was 38 km/hr.

-Bikeguy

Bobby Lex

Crit laps by definition are shorter than 1 mile (typically .7). Your laps are over 2 miles. So your race would be called a "circuit race". Circuit races fall in between crits and road races, but generally are more like road races than crits.

Actually, the difference between a crit and a circuit race is huge. Your circuit race involves doing 40 turns (assuming a 4-corner course) in 20+ miles (which roughly translates into 1 turn every 90 seconds @ 20mph). In a 4-corner crit of 20+ miles you could be doing 114 turns (which roughly translates into 1 turn every 30 seconds @ 20 mph). In other words, you are doing 3x as many turns, with 1/3 the recovery time between each turn.

Crits highlight repeated accelerations coming out of corners, with little recovery time before the next acceleration.

Circuit races allow you much more recovery time, and place less emphasis on cornering skills.

You cannot learn to corner by reading tips on the internet.

Go out and ride in fast group rides.

Don't brake in the corners. Don't be behind someone else who does.

Search these boards for other race pointers. They are numerous.

Bob

bikeguy

Thanks for the clarification. So it's a circuit race. My cornering skills are quite good, I ride with cars through downtown streets at over 40 kph quite often. I usually pull away around the corners. Is it better to be on the inside or outside in the pack through the turn? Outside is farther, but safer, I think.

-Bikeguy

RapDaddyo

Taking an outside line sounds like the logical thing to do in a crit to avoid crashes, but corner crashes tend to slide out, taking out those on an outside line. For this reason, I think it's better to take an inside line. An important thing to do is to prevent someone from cutting you off coming out of the turn. You can do this by ensuring that you keep your shoulders ahead of the guy outside of you, which shouldn't be hard to do since you are tracking the shorter line. Also, watch how far back you get from the front. If somebody goes to the front and launches an attack, the group will gap somewhere and you'll have to go around a bunch of riders and then close the gap. If you stay up in the top 10 or so, this is much less likely to happen.

bikeguy

Thanks for the cornering advice Rapdaddyo, this is what I really don't have any experience (none, actually) with going through tight turns with a group of other cyclists who are very close by. I know I can TT the whole 35 k faster than what the average speed was last year, so I think I have good chances. Ride is on sunday and will be made more difficult by some rain in the forecast. I think there might even be a few sections of cobbles and a hill somewhere. I think I'll leave the Zipp 404 alone and run with my standard ambrosio wheels. If it comes to an uphill sprint at the end the race is mine for sure. I've done a few 5 km TTT type efforts with club members and we did a rotating 40 km TTT type effort in two columns with the right column accelerating to pass the left column to simulate attacks.. Our club has done really well this year, one of our guys won an elite road race with all the best riders present except professionals and a number of other riders have placed top five. I want to add to that.

Since a number of other riders from our team will be riding with me, we will try to move as a group I suppose.

-Bikeguy

RapDaddyo

If you have a few other equally matched teammates, you might want to try to control the race from the front. If you throw down enough 1-2 minute attacks, you will deplete the AWC of much of the field. Then, if you launch an attack 3-5 mins from the finish you should end up with only a few up front with you for the sprint. If you allow the race to proceed at a steady pace, their AWC won't be depleted.

RapDaddyo

One more thing you can take advantage of when you're riding with some teammates. The accelerations out of the corners are typically hard and, because there are so many of them, they can add up and deplete your AWC. Working with your teammates, you may be able to smooth out these accelerations a bit, saving some of your AWC for the more important attacks and the sprint finish. If you don't have teammates, you don' t have much choice but to go hard and stay in the draft.

bikeguy

You seem to know something about these races. Apparently we'll have traffic in the form of buses (yeah, those long blocks of plastic and metal) on the course on one side of the road and road construction during the race, so it's going to be interesting. No support vehicles are allowed on the course (fines issued). During the warmup there's also a 50 euro fine for passing the finish line for some reason. The start list was just posted, 47 riders in our group total. 3 riders from our team total.

-Bikeguy

RapDaddyo

Oh, there are guys on this forum who have ridden hundreds of crits. I ride only a few per year and never seek them out. I don't like them much because they don't play to my strengths, I am just a student of training and racing with power and exploiting one's power profile to his advantage in a race. I think it's very unlikely that the race will push you close to your FT limit, but it's very likely that your AWC will be challenged by the constant accelerations out of the corners and the constant attacks. I think AWC is the binding constraint in crits (and many RRs) and not FT. I agree with your first priority (don't crash) and your greatest threat is those who are nervous that they don't have enough power so they will do almost anything to stay in contact and in a good drafting position. There may be a handful of others who view crits as a contact sport, but hopefully you can spot these jerks early and stay clear of them. If you have more power than most of the field (as you seem to), you don't need to panic about being left out in the wind from time to time or a small gap opening up. So, you can take the safer line, especially if you have a few teammates. I'm sure you'll do well.

bikeguy

I just found a map of the area, it's not at all like I thought:
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/...x=192&map.y=202

It's actually in a park, mostly on a bike path, with a small section where the buses are (street). There's a steep 40-50 meter rise every lap, with 10 laps so 400-500 m total climbing in 35 km. I definitely would be pretty slow solo with that much climbing, but looks like I will be able to try at the uphill sprint at the end. We could be doing 80+ downhill. There are nice rounded curves, maybe one sharp corner, but a steep hill up and a dive down. It's going to be brutal. The course looks designed for V02 max intervals. Nobody better walk their poodle across the bike path when we go down that hill!

-Bikeguy

RapDaddyo

That type of course probably works to your advantage. You can attack on the climbs and sit in on the downhills. You definitely don't want to go to the front on the downhill because it takes an astronomical amount of watts to cause the field to even have to turn their pedals over. I've been working with a group on a TTT format and it takes an unbelievable amount of power on front to get the guys on back up to 200W and it's almost impossible to force them over 200W. We did a practice ride last Sunday and everybody just bashed his brains out on front in a 7.5 mile downhill segment and my AP was only 213W (and that was with 400-500W pulls every time I was on front).

bikeguy

What I hate is that being in the back down a hill I tend to run up the tail of the riders in front of me. With the steep hill down I don't think anybody will pedal too hard after suffering on the way up particularly after we've gone through several circuits. I intend to just sit in and feel and look at how the other riders are riding for the first 5 laps, particularly at how fast they go up the hill. I'll use the first 5 to get familiar with the course. If I feel energetic, I'm going to charge the hill on the last round, get a gap and try and hold til the finish. The other members on my team have mentioned that I climb well so I think this race does play to my strengths.

Thanks again for the advice Rapdaddyo.

-bikeguy

RapDaddyo

If you're going to attempt this tactic, it would really help to get to the top of the climb with one or two of your teammates. A team can go fast downhill, but it takes a lot of practice to do it right. It's virtually a continuous rotation of the lead, with each team member taking very short pulls (e.g., max of 10 seconds) at ~150-200%FT. It takes lots and lots of practice to do this well, it's very fast and furious. The key to it is when to begin accelerating to catch on the back of the team. It's all about timing. By keeping the pulls <15s, you avoid the full physiological response, so you can use AP rather than NP calculation. Fortunately, you have time to work on this if you choose to.

bikeguy

I'll be sure to discuss it with the other team members. I'll have to remember to run a low gear before attacking, as I seem to be using too high a gear (hard to accelerate in a high gear, particularly up a hill) in general. No more time to practice though, the race is this sunday.

-bikeguy