Crit Racing 101

Sunday at Bryan Park was in fact a good venue but I broke my own rules and it got me. My cycling mentor in Birmingham has told me a million times that he wants me in the 3rd-5th position in every crit all the time. By doing this you can attempt to cover any breaks and avoid most crashes. Unless we have a new cyclist in Cat 5 that is secretly related to the King’s, there usually is no successful break. Crashes, however, do occur, and it caught me off guard in such a straight forward course.

Being a circuit course it wasn’t very technical so I wasn’t that worried about a crash. On that same token, there wasn’t a constant yo-yo effect so position wasn’t as critical. After about 4 or 5 laps I wasn’t feeling well at all, my typical stomach issues (cramps) started up so I moved my way to the back to sit in for a lap or two. On the straight-away heading back up to the start finish, someone about 6 spots ahead of me went down I’m assuming on a few bumps in the middle of the road (that we had ridden past several times). The chain reaction stared and he took four other down with him. Fortunately, I was able to avoid going down but had to come to almost a complete stop to do so. As soon as the Fat Frogs guys on the front heard the crash they lit it up (something they admitted to later) and I was stuck in no-man’s land. As hard as I tried I couldn’t bridge up. I found out later that two of the guys that crashed AND a few that didn’t but got caught behind it were afforded a free lap and re-entered on the next go-around. I missed out on that also.

SO, crit racing 101, get to the front third or fourth of the pack and stay there.

I’m still learning.

Alan