Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Photo by Dan Darkins

Mixing things up in a Criterium is probably the diciest form of bike racing there is. Except of course if you are Lucas Brunelle, but that is a whole ‘nother category of craziness. For the Weekend Warrior such as myself a Crit is as close as you will get to total chaos. The speeds are usually very high, corners make for some interesting changeups and the pack usually stays together for most of the race. Sometimes the pack is in a bunch or strung out depending on the speed. Most of the time spent racing a Crit you are thinking about various things such as how long you can hang on to the speed, or when to attack. You are always watching for a shift in speed or potential crash.

I’ve been racing Crits here and there for the past couple of seasons. While I theoretically know what to do and can stick in the pack technically, my legs/weight/fitness would not allow me to stay in the group for long. Other situations could cause me to lose touch with the pack and eventually get lapped or pulled. All of this Crit stuff started well back in 2004 when I tried out the Syracuse Race Weekend Crit and placed third. First time luck did not translate well. I’ve been trying to get things right ever since.

Things started to come together at the Ascension Crit this past weekend in North Tonowanda (Buffalo) New York. My race this time was the Cat 4-5 race which started promptly at 4pm while the outdoor Ascension Church Mass was starting. Maybe the fact that Mass was going on only a few feet away from the start finish line was a reason that the race had zero crashes. There did not seem to be many Cat 5 racers in the pack either. If they were Cat 5 they were generally riding well, no squirrels in this pack which made things much easier.

Photo by Dan Darkins

To get ready for a Crit you must do two things first. You should use a trainer to warm up before the race. The pace of a Crit is fast from the start so there is really no time to get going. Up until the Rochester Crit recently my warm up did not include a trainer. This made warming up for a race sketchy at best. No way to really get ready for a race and make sure my legs went through the paces. Now with the trainer I am able to warm up, get some decent sprints to test the legs and get over the initial pain of the first sprint before the Crit actually starts.

The second thing to do for a Crit is to start near the front. This time I lined up right at the line, maybe a little bit over as the race organizer bumped my wheel back a touch. Starting at the front is key for many reasons. You don’t have to work your way through the pack therefore you work less. Second key is that you don’t get caught behind guys that get gapped and fall behind the pack. That happened to me at the Rochester Crit where I was caught behind a few gaps and had to work to bridge back up to the main group. The extra work just bruned me right up and made for a shorter race.

So with all of these keys in mind I started the Crit. The laps went by fast with some high speed laps at the start followed by the occasional lull. In a bike race the start is always fast. If you can stay with the main group until there is a lull then chances are good that you will be able to stay with the main pack for the rest of the race. Remember everyone else feels just as much pain as you, so if your legs and lungs are burning chances are that the guy next to you if going through the same pain. With this in mind I decided that I felt good enough after a few laps to get to the front and try an attack. I went through the pack to the front around the start finish line and tried to get things strung out. At first I thought there was a lull in the group to let a break get some time, but after rounding the second corner I saw the pace car and some riders that looked like they were getting lapped. Just at that time the group behind swarmed me and I tried to not get shot out of the back as I was redlining through the next set of turns.

The rest of the race went by like a blur. There were moments when riders in front of me looked like they would get gapped, but I was able to get around and sometimes give them a push up to stay in touch with the group. I don’t know why I felt so generous. Maybe that was a dumb move overall. With eight laps to go I felt good, but also felt that I could blow up at any moment. Its the odd feeling of not knowing if the next “match” you burn will result in a total explosion. At some point I felt like I could possibly try to win the race, but at each pass through the start finish I did not have the extra speed to get to the front.

Going into the final five laps the pace dropped slightly until there were three laps to go. The guys near the front set a fast pace but I stuck on close. My survival instincts were in tact and the goal at that time was just to get to the finish with the pack. At the end things strung out and I finished near the back, but the result was that I completed the full distance and did not get pulled/lapped/dropped which was a big accomplishment. So that is progress.

Next up is the Chris Thater Memorial race on August 26th. That race features a nice little climb that helps to break things up. An 8am start will make things interesting too.