Road Bike Racing - First TT/Crit: Discouraged

This was the Lobo Classic weekend, a TT/Crit event put on by the Univ. of NM.

Saturday Time Trial stats:

Course: 15K out and back on open public road. Turn around point is at the scenic overlook to the Jemez dam and mountains.
Temp: 60 degrees at 10am (WOW). Blue skies, moderate tail wind heading out - where most of the climbs are. Absolutely perfect conditions.
Result: Rolled up to get starting place and found front tire squishy. Hmm, didn't think it was that bad last night. Found I had enough time to head back and top 'er up. Ride back. Starting to get in line. Front tire is squishy again. D^%%! Find someone with a pump, 20 feet away. Pump it up to 120 and get back in line. Few minutes later and I'm off. Getting into a decent pace, but all I can think about is how that front tire is probably going to go flat. Sure enough, on the final climb to turn-around, The rim starts spreading the tire around. Roll up to turn-around checker and he has a pump. GREAT! Start to pump it back up and two (yep two) small cuts in tire open up. He just happens to have a patch kit. At this point I am too far behind to matter. I just want to be able to ride back. So I patch the tube. Pump it up. Remove pump. Valve core shoots out. F^$&! I then am glad it's an open road. Get ride back to car with my tail between my legs.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sunday, Crit at the Albuquerque balloon park
Course: .9 mile square. smooth corners, one slightly off camber.
Temp: 50 degrees and moderate winds at 9am start. 45 degrees and 30-40mph winds when my group starts (1:30p). Wind chill was definitely sub zero. Friggin' cold.
Result: Lapped 18 minutes into the 45 minute crit.

This sucked. At least my new carbon fiber bike held up and performed like a dream. I raced the 3/4/5 group. I knew it was a "lapped and you're pulled" event. What I didn't know was that the majority of the field where cat 3's. All I saw were teams. The few non teamers looked as nervous as me.

I'm staged one row back, in a group of 30-40. Official gives the start and I manage to push off and clip in smoothly. Guy in front doesn't though and we're slowed down maybe 2 seconds. Just enough for the lead pack to be gone. I hammer away and am not quite last, but almost. I gave it my all - the legs felt good, I was in a good rythm and I was pulling roughly 2:20 laps - 24mph. I was by myself, but managed not to lose too much speed when the 30mph headwind hit. Got in a deep tuck and hammered. Problem was, the lead cat 3's were pulling 2:00 laps. I'll save you the math : I almost got 8 laps in, when the motocycle passed me and I got the resulting "slash across the neck" gesture. I was so close to the finish that I tucked in the draft of the lead group and road the last 200 feet across the line.

What a boondoggle. What's a Cat 5 newbie to do? The only option I had was to race with monster 3's and get crushed like an ant. A 90 minute drive each way just to get less than 20 minutes of pedaling in. Thank God I got the 15 minute warm up around the track between categories.

All in all, I'm seriously discouraged with Crits. I think I'll enjoy road racing better. When I don't get dropped and maybe they'll have some Hammer drinks at the finish line. At least that's how it is with mountain bike racing.

What a weekend...

It will go much better with your own category. If a guy doesn't get clipped in, either push him ahead of you or ride around him ;)

Crits are a different animal. I love them though.

It will go much better with your own category. If a guy doesn't get clipped in, either push him ahead of you or ride around him ;)

Crits are a different animal. I love them though.

And if that happens again don't bother with the steady pace, ride flat out as hard as you can and get past all the field fodder to back of the pack. May as well blow up cuz yer gonna get pulled if you dont make it anyways.

It will go much better with your own category. If a guy doesn't get clipped in, either push him ahead of you or ride around him ;)

Crits are a different animal. I love them though.

But.... your first crit: was it a combine Cat or did you just race 5s? I've got to look around for other events that have "5s only" so I can have a chance.

My first was a 4/5 crit, and I'm a sprinter, so I got 2nd.

But yeah, you should be racing in Cat V crits. You will have much more fun with other people learning their way around this sport. You should go ride with a club and get to know some peeps too, if you haven't already.

Don't get too discouraged palesaint a 3/4/5 field is going to be really tough. It is downright mean to group all those cats together. Mean to both the 3's and the 5's.

What's a Cat 5 newbie to do?..

Stick with it. It will get better.

As for the TT, it sounds like you didn't warm up (otherwise you would have discovered the tire issue in the warm up). You need to get to the event with plenty of time to make sure all your gear is in order and you're warmed up. For TT's (and for crits) you need to do a hard warm up.

As for the crit, most crits are going to start off fast, with an initial acceleration that sorts things out. Get a good position on the line, and be prepared to go very hard in the first lap to get up front. If you can hang for the initial acceleration it often settles down after a couple of laps.

A cat 3 race as your first race; success is not causing a crash.

Stick with it.

As for the TT, it sounds like you didn't warm up (otherwise you would have discovered the tire issue in the warm up). You need to get to the event with plenty of time to make sure all your gear is in order and you're warmed up. For TT's (and for crits) you need to do a hard warm up.

I got there with plenty of time to spare. Got half an hour on the trainer and was warmed up real well. I chalk this lesson up to making sure your equipment meets the event. I was running maybe 1000 mile panaracer stradius tires. I did similiar route "test" TT just a few days before this one. The tires were a little worn, but fine. However, after warming up, I did a few miles on the road. Front tire started going flat and when I got home to check rear tire (this was my spoked tire, I swapped out to solid rear tubular before race) it was flat with a couple small cuts. The course was just garbage. Next year I'll put fresh tires on - and something that can handle crappy road conditions better than the stradius.


As for the crit, most crits are going to start off fast, with an initial acceleration that sorts things out. Get a good position on the line, and be prepared to go very hard in the first lap to get up front. If you can hang for the initial acceleration it often settles down after a couple of laps.

Amen to that. I was just out of my league though. When I was lapped and I tucked into the lead group for maybe 30 seconds, I was spinning as fast as I could and almost blew up in those 30 seconds. This was 8 laps in. It was just a freakin' fast field... for me anyway.

That crit sucked. 4 corner rectangle, big grates everywhere, strong wind out of the west. Every group except the women's A's got split up with the crosswind (because women's A's softpedal half the time for some reason). I was racing the collegiate mens A's and made the front group, promptly flatted, chased back on, Kiel attacked as soon as I got back and I was fried. Ended up in no-man's land with a teammate for a while, wasting tons of energy until the second group caught us. Eventually, the entire pack behind us was pulled, there were only about 12 of us left in the race. Three of us in the back (a CC guy, and some dude in red) were rolling turns but I was very much disliking the wind and the fact that my flat replacement had about 60psi. Ended up just sitting up because we weren't catching the group in front, and there was nobody left behind us.
I was the CSU guy in the last remaining group, in case you were watching.

That TT course was awesome though, except for the goatheads. I flatted my front wheel at the turnaround, but had some sealant in my tubs so it sealed up with about 30psi. Decided to just keep going, wheelying over all the cow grates. Ended up 23rd out of 30something, not too bad considering I had a flat half the freakin' race. I got stuck in our second TTT team with one other strong guy and a not so strong guy. We had to wait on all the climbs. I think our TTT time ended up slower than my ITT time with a flat (23:30ish for the TTT, 22:50ish for ITT).


Moral of the story: don't worry about getting dropped/lapped in that crit. Some of the strongest guys in our conference were lapped because they missed the first break. It was damn near impossible to go solo and bridge due to the wind.

Go check out the "your first race" thread.

Lots of people have terrible first races and then go on to enjoy it and do well eventually. There's a lot more to it than being strong.

That crit sucked. 4 corner rectangle, big grates everywhere, strong wind out of the west. Every group except the women's A's got split up with the crosswind (because women's A's softpedal half the time for some reason). I was racing the collegiate mens A's and made the front group,

-snip-

Moral of the story: don't worry about getting dropped/lapped in that crit. Some of the strongest guys in our conference were lapped because they missed the first break. It was damn near impossible to go solo and bridge due to the wind.

Thanks for the feedback, ZeCanon! I actually watched most of the A group. I didn't catch the start; by the time I got there it was down to three groups or so. The front group (5 bikes?) was hauling butt and seemed to be pulled most of the time by a guy in green, who ended up winning with hardly even a sprint. What was his story? Anyway, the other two groups looked pretty strung out, and I felt sorry for the few riders who were trying to bridge. I would have been shelled in 5 seconds flat.

I appreciate the moral of the story. I got the feeling I didn't stand a chance, due to 1.) first race 2.) weather 3.) the field. I'm glad to hear that this was a particularly nasty day, not indicative of an average crit.

The guy in green was my team mate Dan, he actually got 2nd to Kiel. He's just an all around strong guy, and has been racing for a long time so races really smart too. I had another teammate in the 2nd group (which I was in for a while) and I was in the 3rd, in all green as well.

Yeah it was a weird crit. It wasn't actually that fast, but the wind made it hard to get a good draft on the 3rd straight. Coming out of corner 2, and the whole way along the 3rd straightaway (next to the fence) with the wind from coming from the right, so it was easy for the leaders to gutter everyone else by riding on the far left - meaning everyone would either be forced to ride in the gravel, or not get a draft at all. That's why it split so fast in our race - on the 3rd lap a CU guy and I hit that straight and hammered on the far left and split the back end off the field. We weren't expecting it to be that decisive that early, but it worked out alright for us anyway.

Yeah it was a weird crit. It wasn't actually that fast, but the wind made it hard to get a good draft on the 3rd straight.

Dude, you guys were pulling 1:40-1:45 laps. At least that's what I measured a few times. Unless my math is off, that's over 30mph average. It might not have felt fast, but you were really moving.

I was forced to race B's. So had some fun with it.

Most pleasant TT I've ever raced. Damn slow TTT.

That crit was seriously fun. Went in the B's field pretty similarly to what Zecanon describes in the A's. Just that our 5 man break didn't lap nearly as many people. Of the 4 B racers on our team who started the crit all of them finished in the top 10. Two in the break and then went 1-2 in the 'field sprint' out of the second group of 10 or so.

That crit was seriously fun. Went in the B's field pretty similarly to what Zecanon describes in the A's. Just that our 5 man break didn't lap nearly as many people. Of the 4 B racers on our team who started the crit all of them finished in the top 10. Two in the break and then went 1-2 in the 'field sprint' out of the second group of 10 or so.

Seriously fun? I assume you're mostly talking about the results you got. Because the course didn't seem that hot, the weather sucked big time and there wasn't an incredible amount of support. I think I'd call it seriously fun also, if I placed top ten. Good job with your team!

Seriously fun? I assume you're mostly talking about the results you got. Because the course didn't seem that hot

Course was just fine, at least for a small field.


the weather sucked big time

Wind and cold are just about the only conditions I can win races in. Rain's a plus too.


and there wasn't an incredible amount of support

What did you feel was lacking?

Vos, you guys had a really strong team this weekend, I was impressed. I don't know who it was from your team I was riding with, but I felt kind of bad that I couldn't put in the work he was. Strong guy, for sure. Would have felt like a prick sticking behind him and pimping him at the line.

The B race was kind of stupid. The new regs for collegiate upgrades are equally stupid. I was lucky that the 2 on my license means an automatic A upgrade, but I had some teammates who got stuck way down like you did because they just don't race much out of the collegiate season, or focus on mtb racing but are super strong. Did you see the C race? We had 5 out of the top 6 because matheeny wouldn't let our guys upgrade. Sucked for our lone B racer too. He missed your break and had no chance at bridging (although he should have gone with the big FLC guy). Hard to work that out with no teammate though.

and the course was boring as all hell. No bueno for us wee climby/jumpy types! Throw me a freakin bone and put some techy corners in!

ZeCanon, that was JJ. He's a great guy. Total goofball and a bit of an obnoxious frat boy but I love him. Don't worry about not sharing the work with him, he said he knew the whole time that you guys weren't catching anyone else and he was the last of your group to get pulled, so it all worked out.

As someone who's jump gets him lower than he started, I kinda liked the course, as long as that wind was whipping. Encouraged breaks/shellage but didn't let you damn attacky types get away from us diesel engines too easily.

And most importantly, our two teams have by far the best kits this year.

And most importantly, our two teams have by far the best kits this year.


Ha yeah you guy's got sick kit this year! I was jealous.