NomadVW 

Alrighty, so two weekends ago was the team triathlon, I had fastest time on the bike.
Yesterday was a 140km road race, came in 1st.

This coming weekend is something altogether different. 2 hour enduro race on this course:



I've never raced criterium style, let alone on a course quite this many turns. Pertinent info about the course:

3.7 km Long
12-15 meters wide (is that wide? Seems awfully narrow to me to be moving along at high speed in those corners)
Highest corner: Hobbes Corner 265m
Lowest point: Attwood Curve 243m

Attwood Curve to Hairpin Corner: 1% grade incline
Last Corner to First Corner: 1% grade decline

Back straight: 600m
Main Straight: 700m

Last year's first place average speed was just over 40kph for the 2 hour stretch. There were 8 people in that pack based on the results times. 5 seconds from 1st to 8th, then 40 seconds to 9th and beyond.

Any recommendations for the course? Things to think about?

Snicklefritz

oooo that looks gnarly. Things to think about? don't crash!!!!

I've never ridden a course like this although I did some racing at Infineon Raceway but it didn't have as many turns. They did however have some ugly "walls" to climb.

anyway I have watched some races were there were some hairpin and other serious turns. It seemed like the accordion effect really got amplified on tricky turns compared with the general industrial park 4-corner crits. So I'd say, definitely try to stay towards the front, but not at the front. You will be safer and also have to work less to catch on if you get stuck behing a bunch of slow farts

urbanknight

Is that an auto raceway? If so, the "hairpin" won't be very sharp for the bicycles. You still want to stay toward the front in any criterium, though, because as mentioned above the accordion effect means people in the back have to sprint to catch back up after EVERY turn.

NomadVW 

Yep, it's a formula one track.

jrennie

The tight turns were designed for f1 cars going well over 100+ mph in and out of them, on a bike your wont have any problem. our local race series had a couple rounds at a road race track and it was a blast. Butter smooth surface and no traffic will make for a great race day.

bitingduck

I've raced on the F1 course in Montreal (on a bicycle) and it's pretty fun. The hairpins probably *aren't* made for the F1 cars to do at 100 mph-- they might be down to 35 or so, and accelerate in and out really hard.

The width of the course will be fine-- 12-15 m is huge. Standard bicycle tracks are 7 m wide. The hairpins could actually be like hairpins, but not as bad as the typical ones that get put in crits at the ends of divided boulevards. I managed to slide out in montreal hitting the hairpin too fast because it was a) raining and b) I had flatted in the last lap and had to chase back up on a borrowed wheel.

Just like any race, stay near the front but not in the wind and it will be much easier.