td.tony

seems that most cyclists I talk to prefer criterium races over road races. Why is that?


Which type of racing do you prefer and why?

There are usually twice as many criteriums than road races in my area. But I guess that could be because it is easier to block off one street as opposed to a whole road course, maybe?

I've tried a few crits but I still haven't tried a road race and I'm curious why it doesn't seem to be as popular as crits.

Crash716

Road racing is hard ya'll.

Caad 8

So in crits you do laps in a circle, and in road races you ride from point a to point b?

gsteinb

OP answered his own question; road closures, marshalls etc.

/thread

mollusk

I prefer road races. I like riding in the countryside more than riding in the city.

carpediemracing 

As a promoter, it's easier to hold crits. OP had some of the reasons, main one is that it's easier to maintain some semblance of control on a <1 mile course vs a >1 mile course. Less cars, less angry folks, more obvious course, etc. I helped with a reasonably big stage race, sat in the lead car and navigated, and I simply could not believe how much effort went into organizing the point to point road races. Just unbelievable. Give me crits any day of the week.

So, yeah, it's easier to hold crits.

But, as a racer, I think road racing is much, much harder, at least if you're trying to win. (I don't count those that just want to finish, even though I fall in that category.)

When you hit hard climbs it's all about w/kg, not much else. You can be the most savvy racer ever, but if you have too few watts or too many kgs, you're otb. It's like running - if you can run a 5:50 mile pace for 6 miles (like my sister in law's friend, a total amateur mom-of-3 who runs pretty well), it doesn't matter what you do wrong. Just run a 5:50 pace and you'll be ahead of someone that can only run a 6:30 mile, no matter what. Same with w/kg. If you're at 6 w/kg on a big climb, you out ride those at 4 w/kg, period.

In crit racing it's easier on the racer, if you race smart. W/kg isn't as important, although it's arguably important to have max watts in the same way you need w/kg in a road race. However, it's really, really important to race smart, so much so that many riders have no idea exactly how significant racing smart really is to racing. Crit racing isn't about just strength, it's about knowing how to sit in, how to respond to attacks, which attacks to respond to, how to ride a corner in a field, etc etc. It's about skills as much as fitness.

The thing is a strong racer can ride without any finesse and still do well. For example, get a really strong triathlete that's never ridden in a group and let him loose in a time trial. I bet said "tri-geek" will crank out a 28-29 mph average speed, but I've seen them do 32-33 mph on shorter courses (7 mi). Same guy refused to sit in on a group ride because he never learned how to ride in a group. Good guy, laughed at his lack of pack skills, but totally killed it in TTs.

This is why time trials don't count towards upgrading, because TTs are all about fitness (and some technical stuff, but all solo riding related). Racing is more than just fitness, it's about knowing the skills (and etiquette) of racing. Of course, you can win races without knowing how to race as well as your peers.

You can even get to a pro level without gaining the field skills your peers have. Garmin/JV has talked about getting Tom Danielson in some of the tighter, tougher races to teach him how to ride in a more aggressive field (they didn't though). Rebecca Twigg was well known for racing off to the side of the field, or behind it, until she decided to attack. Then she'd ride away from the field. If she couldn't she'd ride at the front at the end, a bit uncomfortable sitting on wheels. I'm convinced that she could have won so much more if she'd learned how to ride in a field.

Recently I saw an article about Taylor Phinney. Apparently he, too, is so strong he hasn't learned some of the field riding skills. He can win big, but it would be good for him to learn how to ride amongst the others.

Ultimately the hardest races are road races, because, frankly, they are the hardest races. But to get there it's really beneficial to learn the skills necessary to ride in a crit. Riding a crit (without leaning on a fitness crutch) teaches you galaxies worth of stuff on racing.

cdr

Grumpy McTrumpy

I am the opposite of CDR. My one advantage is in w/kg over longer periods of time. Give me a road race with big climbs in it.

Snap

I don't really care, I'll race either race.

After promoting a few parking lot crits and volunteering at several road races, all the promoters who go through the pain and effort get my respect. It must turn into another full time job as the event date approaches.

ericm979

There's a lot of road races in NorCal. Just look at the NCNCA calendar. Try everything- flat and hilly crits and road races. See what you like.

I prefer road races to crits- my strengths are endurance and climbing. The harder the race course, the better for me. A big field sprint is just scary. But a sprint with a few guys when you're all dead tired from thousands of feet of climbing, that's fun. For me.

Even if you don't like them, crits are really good for learning pack skills.

If you are a 5 I recommend the early bird series in Fremont next month.

Nate552

Same here. I hate crits.

andre nickatina

I started on the track before road, so crits are more my thing than a regular RR. The RR's I've done were either really boring - me daydreaming in the pack on a flat/windy course and waiting for the finish so I could sprint up a hill, or really hard - more climbing than I could handle, with much skinnier/stronger climbers than me in the main pack.. I'm not a hill climber though so that's a big factor - if I could power away from the group like Contador, I'd probably like RR's a lot more.

Actually, my favorite series is a hill circuit race where you don't feel the full burn until the top and then the descent starts. It's fast, fun and safe because people are a lot more cautious in that vs. your average 4 corner crit, and I can gain time in the descent that I lost in the climb on every lap.

ridethecliche

Yeah, road races bore me. Too long.

caloso

For me it's training load. With a 40+ hour job, spouse, house, and two little kids, I just don't have the time to get in those 4-6 hour hill rides that you need to be competitive in the hilly road races around here. But I can manage to be fit enough to race a 50 minute crit. Plus, I just like the thrill of going 5 wide into a 90 degree turn at 30 mph.

botto 

road races.

any other silly questions?

umd

Most road races, at least at the amateur level here in California, are loops with laps of varrying length. If the loops are too short then it's a circuit race instead of a road race. 10-20 miles seems to be a fairly common road race loop size, which also allows the organizers to have different length races for different categories by changing the number of laps.

I did one point-to-point race from Baker to Death Valley (twice) that was interesting, logistically, because you ended 80 miles from where you started and all categories did the same distance. They have since changed it to an out-and-back and I have not done that version. There is another point-to-point road race called Pine Flat, near Fresno. That's another race where all cats run the same distance, around 70 miles IIRC. It is point-to-point because the finish is not at the start, but it is very nearby. Maybe about 10 miles, so it's a nice cooldown to ride back to the car. In my case I stayed in a hotel about a mile before the start. That is a Velo Promo race, they do a lot of road races in NorCal. Races like Orosi, Copperopolis, Cantua Creek, San Ardo, University, Patterson Pass, Dunnigan Hills, Snelling, etc...

In SoCal there are a few road races but it is mostly critland. In 2009, there was Poor College Kids, Boulevard, Devil's Punchbowl, San Luis Rey, Bakersfield, Sisquoc, and San Luis Obispo. Also as part of stage races like San Dimas and Ventura. There are probably others but those are what I remember.

Velo Promo has the whole road race thing pretty well figured out. Mostly on roads without much traffic or many opportunities to make a wrong turn. Not too many marshalls required.

Edit: looking at my tentative 2010 racing schedule, I have 5 crits, 9 road races, and 5 stage races. The stage races have between them 4 crits, 4 TTs, and 8 road race stages. In total, that makes for 9 crits, 17 road races, and 4 TTs.

Racer Ex 

I like racing.

saratoga

I like them both, but prefer road races- especially in the hottest part of the season. Most people can run 45 min to an hour without paying extra attention to hydration and nutrition; most can finish a crit on one bottle. You still end up dehydrated, but can hang in until the end. Not keeping up with the hydration or calories in a long, hot RR usually leads to cramps and getting dropped.

We had a kick-ass RR last season that hopefully makes it on the calendar again in 2010. I'm sure it was a logistical nightmare since it was a 70 mi single lap race that went through three counties with a rolling blockade, team cars, neutral support etc etc. It was also hot as hell that weekend which made things interesting. I don't remember the actual number that finished, but it wasn't half of the 130ish field that started.

umd

We had a ~70 mile road race during a heat wave, on what was probably the hottest day of the year. Reported to be up to 120 on parts of the course. Nearly 50 cat 3s started, about 12 finished... It was an 11ish mile lap and I took a bottle of icewater each lap, prehydrated with several bottles, had several bottles after, and a smoothie on the way home, and still lost almost 10 pounds. Took me about a month to recover. Stupid. We ran the full distance, but all the races after ours they cut a lap. Cat 5s barely raced 20 miles.

roy5000x2

Collegiate road races. Kinda fun to meet people and make friends during the middle of the race. Takes the edge off the suffering.

Psimet2001 

While I enjoy road races mainly from the "hey this is something we never do" factor I must admit I love crits. But it's kind of like a sailor saying that they "love being at sea".

Road races really focus on my weaknesses. I ride them for fun. Fast paced and bitter pain drenched fun that is.

waterrockets 

Crits. Waiting around for what I'm going to do at the end hasn't proven to be so much fun.

I am getting better at attacking and riding aggressively in road races, so this may be turning for me -- plus I'll have many strong teammates in my category this season, which will be much better than the solo road racing I've been doing.

slim_77

Crits--I'm simply better at them. Easier to remember where to jump when you pass the damn spot 15-20 times before time comes. Now, doing it right is a whole other story.

I'm learning to like road races. I'm going to make a greater effort to race RR's more aggressive.

UmneyDurak

Hell Yeah.

As for OP question. Depends on a crit and RR. If it's just flat RR not really, too boring. If it has hills then yeah I like RR, even thought I suck at hills. For crits similar thing, it depends on a course.

rydaddy

Road races are my favorite. But I usually go for whatever is nearby. So it's 50/50... and fun either way.

TMonk

This has been my experience as well and where my best results have been after two years of racing, but my excitment and results in crits started drastically improving late this summer after I discovered that I have a sprint.