First Crit Report

I did my first crit today, and I finished!! It was a 60 minute crit with about 60 riders in the Cat 4/5 category. I really thought I was going to have a tough time hanging on, but I tried to stay in the middle of the pack and I did just fine. I didn't contest any of the primes, but I gave it a go at the finish. I positioned myself in the front with 1 1/2 laps to go. Coming through the last turn on the final lap I was rubbing elbows with another rider (scary!) and I followed a random rider as he started to sprint. He led me out and I was pushing it to the max for the finish line. I was probably in fifth place at one point, but I sprinted to early and people blew past me at the end. I think I finished 15th for Cat 4/5. Not bad for my first time out. It was awesome!!!

Thanks to everyone on this forum. I asked quite a few questions and you guys were nice enough to answer them and give me extra tips for the race. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

 

Well Done!!! Keep at it.

 

15th out of 60 in your first race, and a crit no less.

Congratulations! And you should be giving yourself a pat on the back... no one here was doing the pedaling out there!

 

Nicely done, congratulations!

 

Not getting dropped in your first crit is a feat by itself. And 60 minutes is a long crit for Cat 4/5. Congrats. 9 more to Cat 4!

 

thanks dude. its a weekly race, so theoretically i could cat up in 9 weeks, but we'll see about that, haha. I think I want to get some good racing experience before I move up. I definitely need to work on cornering. I'm not bad at cornering, but I'm not fully comfortable with being in the middle of the pack through a turn.

But the next goal is to place top 3 in a prime. Either that, or I think a good strategy would be to attack right after a prime, as the field tends to slow back down because everyone is tired. That's going to require some more training on my part though.

 

Want to improve your mid-pack cornering? Just continue to race and will it improve... practice makes perfect.

 

Good job! I plan to do my first race in the near future.

 

A 60min Cat 5 crit? Holy moly! The 3's do 45min tops around here!

Good job though... if you like the technical stuff, you can excel. Lots of folks are scared to go around corners.