Last minute advice for first crit
- Thread starter pjhiggins
- Start date
Just get there in plenty of time to warm up. Stay relaxed. Once the race starts, just try to stay with the main pack. Hold your line, keep alert, and work hard! You get better through experience, and if you get killed, don't worry about it. My first couple races were ugly, but now I am always right up in the front.
GOOD LUCK!
But above all,
HAVE FUN!!!!!
GOOD LUCK!
But above all,
HAVE FUN!!!!!
"Your main objective should be to not crash. Avoid overlapping your front wheel and usually the inside line is safer because when guys go down they slide out, taking down others."
"Except when the guy just outside of you swoops across the corner and runs you into the curb. I've seen that one a couple times."
I think what RapDaddyo was talking about is a stable formation of the pack. If you're all elbow to elbow tightly packed, it's usually safer on the inside edge as long as the corners aren't so tight that you have to slow down. The outside edge of the pack would be 2nd choice, but it carves a longer distance around the corners and you end up having to work harder to cover that distance to stay even with the pack. Not to mention that you're in open air more on the outside. There's also the chance that the guys just ahead of you and on the inside of the pack will go out too wide and smash you up against the kerb. Third choice of being in the middle of the pack is the worse place to be because you're trapped...
The situation frenchyge talked about where a guy swoops in and cuts you off is usually near the front where you've got more room to manuveur. It's usually strung out on 1-2 across at the front and maybe only single-file if there's a strong puller in front; I've seen packs that have been strung out over 1km long because everyone's hanging on for dear life. Anyway, back to the getting cut off part, with more room to move around near the front, a lot of guys will try to maximize their speed through the corner by carving symmetric apexes and using the whole width of the road. If that's what it takes to not slow down, then you should also be following that guy.
If however, it's not necessary to use the whole road to preserve your speed, you want to carve as tight of a corner as possible at that speed so as to go the shortest distance around a corner. That usually means the inside. And if you're going just as fast and are even with the guy on your outside, he'll see you and can't swoop in; make sure you don't fall back or open up too much of a gap ahead of you.
On the other hand, if the course is laid out such that the inside of certain corners come to a literal standstill, then you'd be better off in another place of the pack that's maintaining its speed better. Most crits are rectangular with four corners, so it's pretty easy. Just stay near the front and you can go around the corners at full-speed on the inside without slowing down. However, some courses, like the figure-8 crit at Fisherman's Wharf in S.F. have two lefts and 6 rights (or 2-rights and 6-lefts) so you should pick the side of the pack that lets you maintain the highest speeds through the majority of the corners.
One of my favorite ways of maintaining position and moving up in the pack uses the inside line. I'll be sure I'm on the inside and right up to the guy ahead and even with the guys on the middle & outside of the pack (that way they see me and won't swoop in). As we go into the corner, I may start coasting a couple of feet earlier than them and open up an extra 1-foot gap. This allows me to go around the corner at full speed without slowing down like the guys ahead and in the middle of the pack. I'll go around the corner at full speed and close up this gap and just as I'm about to ram the guy in front, the pack exits the corner and sweeps to the outside. This open up the inside and I'll carve a slightly tighter corner than the guy ahead of me. My higher speed and tighter curve will then move me up next to the guy in front without any work at all. I also start pedaling sooner than them, which will take me past the guy that was just in front of me. Then as the pack accelerates coming out of the corner, I have an easier time accelerating because I'm already going faster than them and carving a shorter path on the inside. It gets strung out a bit and I find a hole and get back into the draft, but 1 or 2 positions ahead of where I was going into the corner. Repeat corner after corner and you'll be able to stay in the top 5-10 all the time easily without expending too much effort.
It's kinda like racing a light weak car like a Lotus or MG, you gotta preserve as much of your speed around the corner as possible and you can take advantage of all the bigger guys who are wasting their power constantly breaking into and accelerating out of the corners....
Good luck on your race!!!
"Except when the guy just outside of you swoops across the corner and runs you into the curb. I've seen that one a couple times."
I think what RapDaddyo was talking about is a stable formation of the pack. If you're all elbow to elbow tightly packed, it's usually safer on the inside edge as long as the corners aren't so tight that you have to slow down. The outside edge of the pack would be 2nd choice, but it carves a longer distance around the corners and you end up having to work harder to cover that distance to stay even with the pack. Not to mention that you're in open air more on the outside. There's also the chance that the guys just ahead of you and on the inside of the pack will go out too wide and smash you up against the kerb. Third choice of being in the middle of the pack is the worse place to be because you're trapped...
The situation frenchyge talked about where a guy swoops in and cuts you off is usually near the front where you've got more room to manuveur. It's usually strung out on 1-2 across at the front and maybe only single-file if there's a strong puller in front; I've seen packs that have been strung out over 1km long because everyone's hanging on for dear life. Anyway, back to the getting cut off part, with more room to move around near the front, a lot of guys will try to maximize their speed through the corner by carving symmetric apexes and using the whole width of the road. If that's what it takes to not slow down, then you should also be following that guy.
If however, it's not necessary to use the whole road to preserve your speed, you want to carve as tight of a corner as possible at that speed so as to go the shortest distance around a corner. That usually means the inside. And if you're going just as fast and are even with the guy on your outside, he'll see you and can't swoop in; make sure you don't fall back or open up too much of a gap ahead of you.
On the other hand, if the course is laid out such that the inside of certain corners come to a literal standstill, then you'd be better off in another place of the pack that's maintaining its speed better. Most crits are rectangular with four corners, so it's pretty easy. Just stay near the front and you can go around the corners at full-speed on the inside without slowing down. However, some courses, like the figure-8 crit at Fisherman's Wharf in S.F. have two lefts and 6 rights (or 2-rights and 6-lefts) so you should pick the side of the pack that lets you maintain the highest speeds through the majority of the corners.
One of my favorite ways of maintaining position and moving up in the pack uses the inside line. I'll be sure I'm on the inside and right up to the guy ahead and even with the guys on the middle & outside of the pack (that way they see me and won't swoop in). As we go into the corner, I may start coasting a couple of feet earlier than them and open up an extra 1-foot gap. This allows me to go around the corner at full speed without slowing down like the guys ahead and in the middle of the pack. I'll go around the corner at full speed and close up this gap and just as I'm about to ram the guy in front, the pack exits the corner and sweeps to the outside. This open up the inside and I'll carve a slightly tighter corner than the guy ahead of me. My higher speed and tighter curve will then move me up next to the guy in front without any work at all. I also start pedaling sooner than them, which will take me past the guy that was just in front of me. Then as the pack accelerates coming out of the corner, I have an easier time accelerating because I'm already going faster than them and carving a shorter path on the inside. It gets strung out a bit and I find a hole and get back into the draft, but 1 or 2 positions ahead of where I was going into the corner. Repeat corner after corner and you'll be able to stay in the top 5-10 all the time easily without expending too much effort.
It's kinda like racing a light weak car like a Lotus or MG, you gotta preserve as much of your speed around the corner as possible and you can take advantage of all the bigger guys who are wasting their power constantly breaking into and accelerating out of the corners....
Good luck on your race!!!
. Good luck.Similar threads
