Written By Katie Compton, CTS Pro Coach
Jul 17, 2006 - 11:09:01 AM

You don’t have to be the strongest rider in the pack to race well in a criterium and come away with a positive experience instead of a frustrating one; you just have to be smart about where and how you expend your energy. One classic way of thinking about it is to imagine that each rider starts the race with a handful of matches. During the race, you’ll burn through your matches, and when they’re all gone, your day is done. To improve your results and increase your chances of winning, you want to be careful about your efforts so you don’t burn all your matches and get dropped before the final lap. Many inexperienced racers believe it’s easiest to ride in the back and sit in the draft and out of the way, but this is actually the hardest way to ride a crit. This is where the greatest suffering occurs, as riders onstantly brake and accelerate at each corner. Criteriums are hard for everyone, but there are ways to make them easier so you can get to the finish line with more energy and the power to have a strong finishing kick. Here are some tips for successfully racing crits.

Warm up well:  Make sure you get to the race early enough to find parking, get registered and do a proper warm-up with enough time for bathroom breaks, stretching and pinning on you number. Having plenty of time often helps alleviate normal pre-race jitters and anxiety as well. You’ll want to execute the warm-up properly so you get to the line with your blood flow primed and your body ready to go hard from the start. Criteriums get to full speed in the first lap so you need to be ready to sprint off the line and get into a good position early. A typical warm-up consists of 30-60 minutes of riding, preferably on a trainer to keep you close to the car and the start, which includes efforts of gradually increasing intensity. Start by riding at endurance pace, then pick it up to time trial pace, do a few 3-5 minute intervals above your time trial or max sustainable pace, and throw in a few street sprints. Your goal is to prime each of your energy systems, get your heart rate up and initiate the body’s ability to buffer and process lactic acid.

Start right:  Once you have the warm-up down and get to the start line, the fun is just beginning. The next and probably the most important thing to think about is proper positioning within the pack, and a good start is the first step to riding in a good position. Crits always start off fast so start in the big chain ring and be able to clip into your pedals quickly. This is such an important skill that it’s worth practicing all by itself so you can get a good position straightaway and don’t lose ground before you get to the first corner.

Stake out your place: The best place to race a crit is in the top third of the pack or even closer to the front if you can. If the race is a big group and you can’t tell how far back you are, try to count the number of riders in front of you. If you can’t do it quickly or you can’t count that high, then you’re too far back. Once you get to front part of the group you have to work to stay there. Riders are always moving around through the pack so if you get complacent you could find yourself at the back in a hurry and have to fight your way back up again. To keep that from happening, you always need to be moving up and filling any holes in front of you so you can maintain your position and stay out of the wind.

Keep your momentum:  The primary reason you want to stay in the front of the pack is simply because it’s easier. While the riders in the front are accelerating out of a corner, the riders in the back are still braking into it, so the ones at the back have to work twice as hard to accelerate and chase the leaders out of each corner. Riders in the front don’t have to brake through the corners as much, which means they maintain a lot of their momentum and don’t have to accelerate as hard to get back to top speed. Over the course of a race, this saves a huge amount of energy. If you have to brake and sprint to get through every corner, you’ll fatigue very quickly and either get dropped or have nothing left for the sprint.

Finish fast:  Now that you’ve successfully made it to the final 10 laps of the race, it’s important to start thinking about the last lap and final sprint. In most bike races there are actually two sprints: one for positioning and one for the finish line. You need to be ready to sprint twice if you want to win. Also take note as to how close the finish line is to the final corner, as the real race might be to the final corner if the space from the final corner to the finish line leaves no room for a real sprint. In these races, odds are that whoever gets to the final corner first will win. Most riders need 200 meters or so to pass someone in an all-out sprint so don’t wait too long to make your move. Sit on someone’s wheel as long as you can and take note as to which way the wind is coming from and pass on the leeward (away from the wind) side so you can take advantage of the draft as long as possible. When you decide to go, make it a 100% effort and go like hell to the end.

Oh, just one more thing.  After you use these tips to put yourself in the perfect position to win your next criterium, even if you are 100% sure you’re going to win, don’t sit up and celebrate until you actually reach the finish line. There’s no worse way to lose a race than through premature celebration.


Katie Compton is a Pro Coach for Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. and a champion cyclist in just about every event. She won the 2004 and 2005 US Elite National Cyclocross Championships, she’s won several medals and set world records driving a tandem in Paralympic competitions, and she has been winning criteriums, road races, and mountain bike races for nearly 15 years.

I did a recovery ride today. Though I did catch myself racing some invisible rival a few times, I think I did a better job than most times of using this ride for recovery. I rode up 49 toward Grass Valley, turned onto Dry Creek Road and on through the regional park where I made a few laps around the little pond/mini lake they have there. Then it was back up 49 off through a residential area for just a quick loop and a nice little climb, and then home after a nice cool down around our neighborhood. I was quite tempted to grunt out the steep 20+% grade climb up the street my house sits at the base of, but disciplined myself out of that, remembering it was a recovery ride.

After the ride I realized I still had quite a bit of fluid left in my bottles and made a mental note to remember how important it is to hydrate and fuel on a set schedule. About 4 miles into the ride I inadvertently stopped my Garmin so I can't post a link to an accurate route map.

I had a great ride today. I prefaced the ride by taking my rear wheel to get trued at Bicycle Emporium here in Auburn. I was told they wouldn't be able to get it back to me until Monday, but when I said I would just bring it in another time when they weren't backed up they went ahead and did a quick true on it to get me by. When he finished, Bubba told me it was no charge and that since they had so many miles on them, I should consider replacing the wheels because they were true now, but may need to be trued a lot more frequently in the near future because they've got so much time on them. I wish I could afford a new wheelset, but that just is not my reality right now. I need new shifter/brake levers as well and those would come before wheels anyway. Not that either of those are anywhere in the near future.

I was pretty well hydrated and fueled before the ride. I did, however mix and consume one packet of Hornet Juice before going out. I took one bottle of plain water and one with a lime Motor Tabs tablet in it. I chose to ride from home up Hwy 49/Grass Valley Hwy to Old Town Auburn and ride the loop I'll be doing on my criterium in May. It's a nice route, just under a mile and it starts with a 100 foot climb then a turn of almost 180 degrees for another slight graded climb of much less and a sweet killer descent back to the starting point. The course has mostly right turns with one left. All the turns are sharp, and none of them are on flats. I did 6 or 7 passes on the course to get a feel for the terrain and road textures. By the time I get to the top of the climb it always feels as though I have given all I've got, but somehow by the time I get back around to the start of it, I am able to dig and start again.

After that I headed home, deciding to try a few surface streets and see a bit of the residential part of Old Town Auburn. To my surprise I found myself spinning my way up a >21% grade for what seemed like a mile but was really only a couple hundred yards. Then I worked my way home not doing too much else except for a couple more good hidden climbs through back lots, etc. that keep me out of the heavy traffic.

It was the first day in a long while that I've been able to go out in just a short sleeve full kit with no leg or arm warmers.

I am riding for Skullcandy Racing this year, but my races provide me a platform to do fund-raising for Athletes for a Cure as well since there is no conflict of interest.

It is still storming and extremely cold outside here in NorCal, which prevented a worthwhile outside training ride tonight. So, I filled my two 24 oz. Motor Tabs bottles with water, dropped 1.5 Motor Tabs in each one and hit the Minoura rollers for 1 hour 0 minutes and 15 seconds, spinning out 22.56 "miles" with an average speed of about 22.5 mph at 71.7 rpm average cadence. My heart rate averaged 185 bpm/87% of my max of 212bpm8. I burned a calculated 1,500kcal.

It was a much better ride than last night because I had better music this time, listening to the Cadence Revolution podcast. That is my favorite cycling music podcast, you should check it out. There is usually just about an hour of music with the beats per minute of the song selections changing so you get a warm up, ride, and cool down phase if you choose to follow the beat with your cadence.

Also, I just completed my paperwork and got it in the mail to race for SkullCandy Racing this year. Yeah! I've been using their headphones practically since they came out, so that is awesome. I never thought I would be representing them, though. I need to find a cool head badge for my bike with a skull on it now....

Keep the shiny side up!