I looked up the requirements and understood all of them except for the one regarding " excessively large gear ratios". anybody know what is considered too large?

Probably over 90". A few people that raced on Sat that I know were using 48/49x15. There were a couple of members here that have raced before, if they are still around maybe they can chime in.

I volunteered on Saturday, I didn't observe any ridiculous ratios, at least not visible to my eye. Like Jared said, Looked like 48x15.

ugh, I missed it this year, any video recaps out there yet?

How did they do? I'd be surprised if the guys who did well went with a gear that low, considering the average speed was supposedly around 28mph.

That's what I was thinking, hell I run 48x17 just bumming around town, 48x15 doesn't seem fast enough.

48x15 is a pretty common track gearing. It's small enough that lets you accelerate it easily but still has a decent top end.

RHC has a couple of hairpin turns so running a big gear would lose you a lot of time on slowdown/start up

Actually, I'd say 48 x 15 is a bit low for mass start races on the track, more like 47 x 14 or 48 x 14, but then you can go full speed w/o slowing down on the track. Average speed in races often exceed 30 mph on the track. I've never raced a crit on a track bike, so I have no idea what gearing would be best, but it seems like jumping out of hairpin turns in a 48 x 15 would be brutal.

That's the limiting factor I would assume. There was one 180 degree really tight hairpin. I couldn't even imagine slowing down then jumping out of that turn 20 times. The other turns you could at least hold some speed through.

I just lurked some strava files and 49/15 checks out. The more you know.