Creakyknees

Every serious racer must do the legendary and historic Plano Texas Tuesday Night Criterium, else s/he will forever be considered to have an incomplete palmares.

www.dallascrit.com

WCroadie

Iron Hill Twilight Criterium, very similar to Athens.

saratoga

Lake County Stage Race in Clermont, FL
Sat includes a 100mi single lap RR for the P123's.

jwible

I did Roswell last year. Crashed and then got pulled. I expect much better results this year. Great venue.

I think the qualifier for Athens is a 20 minute balls out crit. Leave it all on the course in order to start at night. That's the plan.

Spring Water

Wednesday night practice crits at the Pella Window Factory off of rt. 38 in West Chicago?

rkwaki

All depends what cat you're racing as not all need to qualify for the evening race. Leave it all out there then eat and recover and you'll be good.

jwible

I'm a lowly 4. I'll have a friend who should cat up to a 2 by then, he loves that race.

rkwaki

Cool - I believe he will also have to qualify for the big race as they allow a certain number of 2's in the race based on qualifying times

As the race gets closer I'll have to send you some details and we'll have a beverage

jwible

Sounds like a plan.

cmsuter

Well, the family motto is, Go hard or go home. So pretty far. I might have convinced them to incorporate some racing into the family vacation this summer.

carpediemracing 

Come on, Bethel Spring Series. For real.

Seriously though any race with crowd control barriers running much of the course, an MC + sound system, and a start finish banner on scaffolding type stuff qualifies.

For the races I did in 2010, only Somerville and Harlem Crit qualify.

If you have cameras on the corners and one or two big screen TVs that is the absolute schnizzle. Then the only races I've done are the defunct Vegas crit at Interbike and the 2009 Harlem Crit.

If your name is on your number then that's even better. I've never done a race like that.

That's how I would rate it. It's how detailed the promoter goes - the more detail the better.

I'd skip the industrial park crits personally

cdr

Matt2.8NJ

Funny.... thats what my wife said to me as she drove me home from the Somerville Hospital earlier this year after a crash...

The first bike race she ever went to was the Tour of Somerville and she witnessed the crash carnage along the finishing straight as more than a dozen guys went down...

gsteinb

and girls. in every. ****ing. race.

Racer Ex 

Tulsa Tough. Tour De Nez. Boise Twilight. Mt Hood Stage race.

Matt2.8NJ

What do you attribute it to? Nerves? Excitement about a "big" race? Course? Gross stupidity?

gsteinb

the streets are in rough shape. the last turn is a tight funnel and then the road gets bumpy and wide. Some guys are going every which way, and the rest are trying to hide from the wind. toss in a little prestige, full fields, and some cash and you have carnage.

carpediemracing 

In the Cat 3 race it was pure stupidity, the crash on the final straight. There's a Miya Shoji rider who was sitting about 6th on the right side of the little arrowhead group at the front. When the left side started to move he went really hard to the left - right through the guy in 7th spot (give or take). That guy in 7th went down immediately - he ended up in the hospital, as did three other guys I know. In the helmet cam the Miya Shoji guy is moving up on the backstretch then I go by him.

I used everything I had to stay up front because although I'd only raced Somerville once before (and got shelled bad), someone told me just before the race to just save myself - race at the front. I eased, dropped back, and had to ride through a bunch of guys that hit the deck. So I moved up again.

I don't mind when riders make aggressive lateral moves, even in sprints and such - as long as they're not taking out guys while they're doing it.

Juan (gsteinb's teammate) does an insane sprint from about 25th to get second in Somerville's 3 race. He jumps around me hard (at that point I was dead in the water) and swerves hard to clear the field. He's going that much faster than everyone else that he has to swerve. He does the same thing in the 2006 Prospect Park cam - and he wins that race - he jumps when I thought there was no room to jump, and he annihilates the field.

But when someone moves over aggressively with absolutely no regard for anyone to the side or slightly behind them, and I mean absolutely no regard... well, that breaks pelvic bones (mine anyway), shoulders, collarbones, a lotta ribs, and tons of bike parts.

The guy that took me out in 2009 (broken pelvis crash) is in that Somerville race and in fact I let him in line in front of me. I think he places in the sprint, but he rode a clean race that day.

The Miya Shoji guy also places. I only know of his sprint transgression in that race, and in the past I haven't seen him do stupid things. In fact he's in the 2006 Prospect cam clip in the sprint, and he sprints fine in that one.

But they'll eventually get what's coming. The guy that took me out in my broken-pelvis crash went down hard in Harlem, convulsions, etc. He was out for the rest of the season. Ironically the dirtiest racer I know of was the guy that started the crash - and he wasn't even riding dirty. Kinda funny they went down pretty hard. It's unfortunate that they had to take a lot of other riders down too, guys who weren't looking for trouble.

cdr

mattm

Ballard Twilight Crit, Tour of Walla Walla, if you're in the neighborhood.

brianappleby

how can anybody consider a crit a "must do" race? They are all squares, ovals, chairs, figure 8's etc. By necessity they can't have any major hills, and you see the start line 50 times by the time the race is over.

I understand the excitement associated with racing them, but how is one significantly different than any other?

chicagogal

I don't have crits on my list of must-do races, but that being said, there are some interesting ones out there, that aren't just same old, same old:
Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa
Fox River Grove

gsteinb

Ok

brianappleby

My favorites:
Stage Races:
Tour of the Gila: 5 (or 4) days of amazing riding in Silver City, New Mexico: RR, RR, TT, Crit, RR

Cascade Classic: I haven't done it but I'm going this year and I've heard that it's beautiful, and a good race. It's in Bend, OR

Dead Dog: 3 races in 2 days in Wyoming. Very pretty scenery at the top of the hill(s) in the RR and a 60mph straight descent in a tailwind.

Superior Omnium: It's the Morgul Bismarck course from American Flyers. You get to climb "the wall" just like kevin costner! Near Boulder, CO.

1 Day Races:
Patterson Pass in Northern Cali. Boring scenery but a super fun course and an extended 50mph descent through a valley with a rushing tailwind.

Pescadero: mostly rolling with a beautiful climb and some rad descents on 1 lane roads near the Santa Cruz Coast.

The Air Force Road Race in Colorado Springs is on the same course as the 1984 (or something) world championship race.

ericm979

Orosi (near Fresno) is my favorite one day race. It's not a large race but the course is fantastic- one long climb, lots of rollers, technical descents, some gravel and 4 flat miles each 22 mile lap. Last year you could look up from the wheel you were trying to stay on and see the snow-covered Sierras, and the wildflowers were blooming.

velozebra

Tour of Tucker County in West Virginia is a good race. According to VeloNews it is the tenth hardest in the country. We've done it two years in a row. Tour of the Catskills is well run. It is one of the few stage races on the east coast.

wfrogge

Tulsa Tough, Rouge Roubaix, Mississippi Gran Prix (dont laugh, they keep bringing in some of the bigger teams from the south east and TX), Superweek (pick a few events)