Criterium Training. what works?



BullGod

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Apr 6, 2006
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Once again I face the prospect of 6 straight 90 minute criteriums in 3 weeks. I am a climber and TT specialist and about 10 kilos lighter than the average rider here in Holland. I have a crappy sprint (never been able to get above 60km/h) and my bike handling is not as good as it could be. Plus criterium racing is just what's done here in Holland....it's dead flat and racing around a dangerous technical circuit in a village brings the Cloggies out to watch, and that's what matters to the organisers....so most guys here have been doing them for years.

I know all the stuff about starting and staying near the front, I know (from cruel experience) about the accordion effect and I know how one should go around corners at speed. I also don't really need to hear unrealistic guff about how I should ride off the front from the start to be able to avoid sprinting out every corner. Seeing as at this level the average lap speed is usually at least 48km/h for the first 15 minutes I think it is understandable that I have not seen anyone go solo off the front before half an hour is gone in 3 years.

I also know that riding club races is great for race conditioning, but if the club races are 40% easier than the main event and pretty much raced for fun it doesn't help much.

What I could do with hearing is a weekly training strategy to work on the speed and power, and a way of effectively simulating the stresses of a crit. I don't have a power meter, so I use a speedometer to measure intensity (unreliable I know). At the moment I am trying (wind permitting) to ride on the flat at 40km/h, then every 60 seconds or so I slow it down to 30 (as if taking a corner) and then try and sprint to 50+. I do this until it hurts bad twice a week, with some recovery, endurance rides and some intervals. I'm also guzzling protein shakes. I'm worried about either not training enough, or pushing too hard and being tired on race day, and unsure of how much I should rest before a crit at this level.

Does anyone know a better plan? I need to finish a few of these crits to keep my cat 1 license.
 
Then how did you work out your FT without a PM

BullGod 365 70 5.21

Those are impressive numbers. Here is what I recommend, find a vacant block of land where you can practice cornering.

Do TT efforts around that block, lets say the block was 1km long then do 5 laps flat out. Record your time and do the same thing again next week to test your crit circuit fitness.

While your practicing cornering do a lot of 1minute power work. Here is a good routine. 1 min flat out 1 min easy repeat 10 times rest for 5 mins and do it again. You will also need to practice your all out sprints coming out of a corner at high speed. Do 3-6 all out sprints in a session.

Just keep practicing cornering and do those anaerobic efforts really often ( 3-5 sessions a week)

Eventually that 5kmTT should come down, this will give you more confidence to attack on your own on tight circuits.
 
Thanks!

I did those numbers on a Tacx Flow, and most people totally disregard the accuracy of such a device. It felt about right to me though, and even if it is 5-10% off it would still put me in cat 1.

I'll give the training plan you suggested a runout in an hour or so....although it's raining so the cornering might have to be a little slower. awful Dutch weather. 95 degrees last week, 59 this week. bizarre.




dm69 said:
Then how did you work out your FT without a PM

BullGod 365 70 5.21

Those are impressive numbers. Here is what I recommend, find a vacant block of land where you can practice cornering.

Do TT efforts around that block, lets say the block was 1km long then do 5 laps flat out. Record your time and do the same thing again next week to test your crit circuit fitness.

While your practicing cornering do a lot of 1minute power work. Here is a good routine. 1 min flat out 1 min easy repeat 10 times rest for 5 mins and do it again. You will also need to practice your all out sprints coming out of a corner at high speed. Do 3-6 all out sprints in a session.

Just keep practicing cornering and do those anaerobic efforts really often ( 3-5 sessions a week)

Eventually that 5kmTT should come down, this will give you more confidence to attack on your own on tight circuits.
 
BullGod said:
Thanks!

I did those numbers on a Tacx Flow, and most people totally disregard the accuracy of such a device. It felt about right to me though, and even if it is 5-10% off it would still put me in cat 1.
I suspect it is off by a good bit. 5-10% less would be quite good, but a bit more realistic.
 
BullGod said:
Does anyone know a better plan? I need to finish a few of these crits to keep my cat 1 license.
First, I'd like to know a few things. Have you been able to do road races/tt's against similar competition? How did you stack up? Just off the top of your head, what do you honestly think you could do for a flat 10m tt? How much are you training now? How many starters in these crits typically? How early do you get popped, and how many people get popped before you do? What speed do you slow down for in the corners, and how many per lap?
 
In a club race with some elite, 1,2,3 and Masters I am attacking for fun and one of the pros said I was very strong and able to compete at the level I'm at.

a 10 mile TT? I can easily do 36-40km in an hour on the regular road bike providing the wind isn't too bad, and in France a fortnight ago I was covering 100km in 100 degree heat at an average of 32 with some steep hills. I can ride above 45 for regular 3 minute intervals in training and I have no bother holding on to the wheels of motorscooter riders indefinitely at >50km/h. I train about 350km per week, spread over 5 sessions, with mix of fast endurance, sprints and intervals.


The crits here usally draw around 30-80 starters and are usually dominated by the same handful of sprinters. I can usually last 15 minutes, but have been dropped before 5mins once or twice. My best was to stay in the main field for 35 minutes. Always others are dropped before me. That of course makes it mentally easier to quit yourself.

The speed on the straits is usually +/- 50km/h and the bends tend to be 40ish at the front and almost walking pace at the back. I tend to get outsprinted for position at the start and then well and truly "accordioned" thereafter. I spend way too much time doing 55 into the wind to close gaps after every bend or come aroud the fellow sufferers as they pop. I notice also that I work my ar*e off at full speed to close a gap, only to have to slam on the brakes for the next corner, and then repeat. 5 minutes of that and I am ready to throw up.

Usually they like to put a few 90 degree bends in, and the circuits are never longer than 1.5km. Usually about 5-6 corners per lap.

I need to stop hating crits and learn to finish and enjoy them.



whoawhoa said:
First, I'd like to know a few things. Have you been able to do road races/tt's against similar competition? How did you stack up? Just off the top of your head, what do you honestly think you could do for a flat 10m tt? How much are you training now? How many starters in these crits typically? How early do you get popped, and how many people get popped before you do? What speed do you slow down for in the corners, and how many per lap?
 
BullGod said:
In a club race with some elite, 1,2,3 and Masters I am attacking for fun and one of the pros said I was very strong and able to compete at the level I'm at.

a 10 mile TT? I can easily do 36-40km in an hour on the regular road bike providing the wind isn't too bad, and in France a fortnight ago I was covering 100km in 100 degree heat at an average of 32 with some steep hills. I can ride above 45 for regular 3 minute intervals in training and I have no bother holding on to the wheels of motorscooter riders indefinitely at >50km/h. I train about 350km per week, spread over 5 sessions, with mix of fast endurance, sprints and intervals.


The crits here usally draw around 30-80 starters and are usually dominated by the same handful of sprinters. I can usually last 15 minutes, but have been dropped before 5mins once or twice. My best was to stay in the main field for 35 minutes. Always others are dropped before me. That of course makes it mentally easier to quit yourself.

The speed on the straits is usually +/- 50km/h and the bends tend to be 40ish at the front and almost walking pace at the back. I tend to get outsprinted for position at the start and then well and truly "accordioned" thereafter. I spend way too much time doing 55 into the wind to close gaps after every bend or come aroud the fellow sufferers as they pop. I notice also that I work my ar*e off at full speed to close a gap, only to have to slam on the brakes for the next corner, and then repeat. 5 minutes of that and I am ready to throw up.

Usually they like to put a few 90 degree bends in, and the circuits are never longer than 1.5km. Usually about 5-6 corners per lap.

I need to stop hating crits and learn to finish and enjoy them.
Training wise, I don't see anything you specifically have to do. Continued focus on Ft would be wise. Higher FT will get you a lot in most bike races. And obviously shorter, specific intervals.

Now I'm going to give you the "get to the front" lecture. Yeah, I know. It's not that easy. There's a full field of REALLY GOOD riders who probably would shove you into the barriers before letting you take their wheel. That said:

-you need to get a better sprint off the line. Perhaps some standing starts combined with practice clipping into your pedals?

-How bunched up is it in the corners? Can you swing outside? That way, you conserve speed and have plenty of space to come back in the group after gaps open coming out of the corner.

-Again, fitness. The brute force way of surviving is just being strong enough to hang on that initial fast part so you can move up once it slows a bit. YOu sound like you ride a lot like I do, and it's frustrating to see less-fit riders still in races or at the front because they have better bike handling skills. But if you can't get the bike handling part down, at least it's simple (but no easy!) to keep bringing a bigger motor to races. Training program? Ride a lot, do ft intervals 2x a week, do v02max intervals fairly often, race a lot of crits.
 
BullGod said:
I have a crappy sprint (never been able to get above 60km/h) QUOTE]

if thats on your own without assistance or anything its not so bad
 
also if ur a cat 1 ur probably know more about what your doing than the majority on here.
 
One word - Track.

My crit skills and results have jumped leaps and bounds this season - all which I attribute to suffering at the local velodrome. :)
 
I think the important performance variable is your anaerobic capacity. The problem is that anaerobic work capacity is reduced with each anaerobic effort. As the race goes on, you're drawing from a continually reduced capacity. Any of the myriad of high-intensity efforts designed to increase your AWC should work. The good news is that AWC is highly trainable.
 
ewan52 said:
also if ur a cat 1 ur probably know more about what your doing than the majority on here.

I think the categories go the other direction over in Europe... here in America we start @ 5 and go to 1, over there I believe they start @ 1 and go up... correct me if I am wrong.
 
BullGod said:
I need to stop hating crits and learn to finish and enjoy them.
Thats Number one. I was exactly you!! ONce I moved from cat 4 to cat.3, the Crits got WAY harder, yet finshing top 3 in road races (cat1-3) and time trials were never a problem.

I think by making a big assumption whats holding you back is purely bike handling skills and too timid to bang elbows up front. I know for a fact that I was as fit as the guys who were good at Crits because we all trained together.

I say this because you said you always have to sprint to catch-up, sprint to catch-up, sprint till you get dropped.

I too cannot sprint and I was never good at staying at the front of crits. I would finish 80% of them, but in the pack.

Work on the mental part-I bet your fitness is okay.

Ray
 
Geoff2010 said:
I think the categories go the other direction over in Europe... here in America we start @ 5 and go to 1, over there I believe they start @ 1 and go up... correct me if I am wrong.
ah right my mistake i cant say i knew that
 
to work on maintaining speed out of a corner we do midnight parking lot drills here. find a large empty parking lot at night (less cars) and race a full on crit against yourself or one or two buddys. really allows you to work on keeping speed out of corners without worrying about a pack of people around you. practicing by yourself will build the muscle memory so that in a pack you can think more about that rear wheel coming across your front, and less about maintaining speed through your corner
 
Geoff2010 said:
I think the categories go the other direction over in Europe... here in America we start @ 5 and go to 1, over there I believe they start @ 1 and go up... correct me if I am wrong.
I don't think so. In some of BullGods other posts, I think he mentioend racing against Rabobanks devo team and other elite euro teams.
 
snaps10 said:
to work on maintaining speed out of a corner we do midnight parking lot drills here. find a large empty parking lot at night (less cars) and race a full on crit against yourself or one or two buddys. really allows you to work on keeping speed out of corners without worrying about a pack of people around you.
Problem isn't usually your own cornering ability-it's that everyone in the pack in front of you jams on the breaks before the corner, so your forced to break.
 
nope. It goes Elite, 1,2,3 (actually in Holland (E,A,B,C) but it means the same.

Anyway - last night I got 10th place in an E-1-2-3 70km crit so I'm happy. This was a large circuit with no sharp bends so the speed was fairly constant. I had an active start getting in a few breakaways and then with 1 lap to go I jumped on a pros wheel as he went after a group of 7 who had gotten away. Another guy joined us; we couldn't catch the leaders but we did stay away from the main field. averaged 45km/h for the race so it was pretty quick.

I won a euro for coming 10th ;-)
 
BullGod said:
nope. It goes Elite, 1,2,3 (actually in Holland (E,A,B,C) but it means the same.

Anyway - last night I got 10th place in an E-1-2-3 70km crit so I'm happy. This was a large circuit with no sharp bends so the speed was fairly constant. I had an active start getting in a few breakaways and then with 1 lap to go I jumped on a pros wheel as he went after a group of 7 who had gotten away. Another guy joined us; we couldn't catch the leaders but we did stay away from the main field. averaged 45km/h for the race so it was pretty quick.

I won a euro for coming 10th ;-)
Hi, BullGod i am glad to see your crit's doing well ,i hoppe you'll be able to keep your cat 1 lic. I am not a crit spe. ,i race mostly Moutain stage races .I do better on long mountains stages,i don't like crits , i race masters A (cat 2-3) & some cat 1 .Some w/o for crit i do :5 to 8x30''=R3' + 8/10x 15''/20'' =R 40'' 2/3 set =R4' (Reco. bet. sets) 2 weekly and 5/8 x2'/3'=R5' 1 weekly. I like to do more of the 15''/20'' sprints because, training for sprints up to 20'' ( seconds) in duration, which do not involve significant Lactic Acid buildup . WarrenG is a crit specialist you may want to ask him the question directly?:confused: or go to WarrenG #6 & # 10 at www.cyclingforums.com/t338873.html also Training for crits at www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=critspalese .I hoppe that can help you ,if i come across some crit info ,i will send them your way . I would be very carefull about choosing a W/O from some one ,some lak knowledeg and experience?:rolleyes: WarrenG would be a best choice.:) All the best .Musher:p