Please help - what exactly are Granfondo and Criterium races?

[Vincent Kluwe]

Could somebody please explain a daft mongolian as me, what exactly is 1. a Century race and 2. a Granfondo?

I've rummaged all online and offline dictionaries I could find without any result. Could someone help?

If you are willing to help, please do so with friendly, calm and patient words, not to frighten me as a harmless foreigner off, will you?

Talking about the makers of "professionally" made and expensively sold dictionaries: I am living in Berlin, which is only near the outer mongolian border. But how daft must these at least inner, if not center mongolians be not to give translations for common terms as granfondo or century? I mean, these terms are used worldwide a million of times and in Italy even exists a major magazine with that TITLE!

Ok, trying to explain that idiocy myself. As a professional author and little wood-and-meadows-PHD it downed to me over the years, that the trade, which is meant to be THE pool of international intelligentsia, publishing books that is, is in reality a pool of all the greatest dimwits of the world. But still, we are talking about common terms ...

 

[daveryanwyoming]

A century in the US at least is a ride 100 miles long and typically not a sanctioned race but an organized tour where folks stop at feed stops and start at various times. There aren't official times, categories or winners but they often turn into personal mini races as folks go for best times or try to put the hurt to one another. We also have metric centuries(100 km or ~62 miles), double centuries, half centuries, etc.

Here's a good link to Granfondo's: http://www.biciveneto.it/granfondo.html
They sound like fun and look pretty dangerous from the pictures of the huge peloton of varying skill levels.

Criteriums(crits) are races, typically flat and fast. I understand there are some long crits in europe but here in the states they're typically run around a city block or two on streets closed to traffic. They're fast and relatively short, sometimes on technical courses with short hills and "S" curves or hairpin turns but often on a four corner course around a downtown center. They appeal to spectators as they're very fast, have midway sprints along the way (primes) and spectators can walk around and watch various sections of the course. They often end up in a big bunch sprint but sometimes small groups or individual riders get away and solo to victory. A typical US crit is half an hour to an hour and a half long depending on the categories racing.

Hope that helps...

 

[Vincent Kluwe]

... Hope that helps...

Thanks, Daveryanwyoming! Yes, it does. So Century and Granfondo are what we call RTF = kind of "race" for everybody. Just a I suspected. Very dangerous kinds of mass events - never use a worthy bike. Plenty of crashes caused by inexperienced bikers and if you make it for the goal without major dammage, your bike will be stolen in the end. That's what it is like here in Europe. That's the bad in it. Of course I see the good in it as well. Yes, I think, you have answered my question well. Wish you a merry Christmas, Dave!

P.S. You are absolutely right about Criterium races. I remember well what crits are, have done (and won) quite a few myself and I still have a special crit race bike as posted elsewhere in the Forum. Crit and CX have been my obsession for 50 years and I'm still busy with both.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

... Very dangerous kinds of mass events - never use a worthy bike. ....

Those photos from the Granfondos look pretty scary, but centuries at least on this side of the pond aren't very dangerous. Folks start when they want and not in one huge peloton and they tend to spread out pretty fast. It's typical to ride in a group of twenty to thirty riders and bridge up to faster groups if the pace is too slow or fall back to slower groups if it's too fast. I've ridden a lot of them and they're generally not very dangerous with folks more spread out than in actual races.

-Dave

 

[Vincent Kluwe]

Ok, Dave - sounds inviting. I'll come over and we do the next century together. If there's a cool (German!!!) beer at every feed stop, all fine & well!

P.S. No chance to win a regular race anyway. I'm 59 now and I mutated into a steel-only freak after having spent many years on al and cf. Exchanged efficiency for beauty that is. It doesn't win me a flowerpot anymore, but it makes me smile every single day out.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

... No chance to win a regular race anyway. I'm 59 now and I mutated into a steel-only freak after having spent many years on al and cf. Exchanged efficiency for beauty that is. It doesn't win me a flowerpot anymore, but it makes me smile every single day out.

That's no excuse I just finished a season racing on a 20 year old all steel frame. 9.5 kilos of Columbus tubing and my favorite ride for the last 20 years. I'm only 46 but managed one win and several top 3 podium spots in single day and stage races on that bike. It might have cost me a bit of energy on some longer climbs but I generally came to the finish with the peloton so the extra couple of kilos wasn't holding me back. I built up a CF frame this fall and haven't raced it yet but got a few rides in before the snow flew out here. It's fun and very pretty but I haven't been setting any records on my local training routes or hills with it. I sure like the new bike but I'm not expecting any miracle breakaways next season just for a couple of kilos......

Take it easy, can't promise you the cold beer at rest stops (we're funny that way in the states) but centuries are pretty fun with food, water and a place to stretch the legs every 30 to 40 km. Here's one I did with a friend last summer: http://www.deathride.com/
it was great training and really fun to ride mostly on closed roads yet not have the stress of all out racing. That's for sure the most climbing I've ever done in a single day but not so bad at a comfortable pace. Anyway there was plenty of German beer to be had after we finished

-Dave

 

[Vincent Kluwe]

Opening deathride page: Is that you on your red steelie, Dave? (?!?) What make and what size is your steelie? 9.5 kg sounds extremely reasonable for a 20 years old steel roadster! My brandnew De Rosa Neoprimato, equipped with Dura Ace all through just falls under 9 kg!

You are absolutely right with your saying about excuses. It's just that I'm too lazy for all that hazzle about race preparation, even if I would love to do some - despite my age I'm still in quite a good shape.

By the way beer AFTER finish is fine with me. I'm German, not French - I never drink on races!! (You know that well known story of the TDF racer, who had so much wine mid-stage, that he went the wrong direction after his break. But he wasn't French either by the way - he was the one-and-only Maroc racer of all times!)

P.S. Oh sh** - just noted, why you answered the wrong question in one part, Dave. Made a mistake within my headline. Of course I meant to ask for Centuries, not Criterium races - I have enough crit miles in my legs to know what it is, including all kinds of bent bones & tubes!

 

[kdelong]

Thanks for the info on the Granfondo! It actually looks like it would be pretty tame after the different levels of riders sorted themselves out. I'll bet that the beginning is a bit hairy though.

 

[Vincent Kluwe]

Look for Dave's photo link on Granfondo, Kdelong. If nothing could stop you before to try one, this will!!

 

[Sikhandar]

Here in Italy we have 2 kind of races: 1) granfondo (usually there are 2 or three paths, for instance 80 km, 130 km and 180 km; usually pros and ex-pros do the 180 km path in this case) and 2) circuit races. We do not use the "criterium" formula except in very rare cases, such as nocturne summer races etc. Circuits can be a long ring (70->100 kms) or more laps of the same circuit (same lenght) or other formulae (for instance, a long lap + final circuit etc etc). In Tuscany we have many hills...one of the most appreciated system for a race is the "hard circuit" with a climb to be repeated several times; in Lombardia, Piemonte e Veneto they instead race in flat lands...much less interesting races

 

[Vincent Kluwe]

Thank you, Sikhandar! That was helpful!