Who Loves Em? Who Hates Em? Who Thinks Roadies are GAY?
I am obsessed with them right now. I just started this year, and was trying to get my 10 starts to cat-up to the 4’s when a crash in my 4th crit destroyed my bike and broke my Clavicle. Three weeks later and I have a Crit Bike (not carbon and cheap) built up and I am signed up for 3 races this week. If all goes well I will be in the cat-4’s by July. I am interested to see how my Fear Factor is after basically getting sucked into someone else’s stupid crash. That crap came from nowhere!
So lets hear it! advice! Hate! Tactics! Race Reports!!!
I am planning to check out the AT&T Crits here in Austin this coming weekend. I don’t have a road bike but it does sound fun so I am going to watch… who knows maybe I’ll try one sometime…
I watched one once. Kinda cool. It’s like track racing with no banks and gears. But yeah, I could see the 'tude some of the racers had. I want to try it some day.
[quote=“EivlEvo”] I don’t have, nor do I want a crit bike.[/quote] Me having a Crit Bike is not as glamorous as it might sound… I wanted a nice road bike on a budget. I got a lightly used Carbon Felt off Ebay for $600, new it would be $2500. I put a mix of used Ultegra I bought and had, and a wheelset I had. When I crashed the bike in a crit I decided to replace the frame with a Scatante for $175. I just couldnt see loosing another high end bike in a race, my fault or not… Eventually I will get another nice road bike and continue to race the Scatante.
i’m planning on going as well. you guys wanna meet up? i’ll be down there around 6 or so, looking for a good place to post up. i used to have a friend who lived on the first residential floor at the amli on 2nd, but she moved out a couple months ago; i was really hoping i could watch the race from there.
I like crits. For some reason I always end up hanging on for my life on the back for the first half, then moving up and moving up in the second half. It was a big moment when I realized I might as well go all out if I’m on the back, because either I hang on or get pulled. There’s no point in going 95%.
I ended up doing one of the tuesday night races in Eldorado park tonight. I had a mechanical in the first 20 minutes, so I lost a lap. There is no free lap on these crits, so I got back on and finished the race, but there was no point in contesting the primes or final sprint. I stayed near the front just for training, Got yelled at for cornering like a douche bag, got a great workout, and had a blast…
This was a 60 minute crit and all the other cat 5 crits around here are 30 minutes, so it was good training.
I’ve done 2 - I should really do more, but I am poor and don’t like to drive. Also, you don’t have to do 10 races to upgrade. I did three races and now I’m a cat 4! Hehe… just ask for an upgrade, you will get it if you placed decent at all. I had a 7th out of 50 or so and an 11th place out of 60 or so finishes in the 2 crits I did. I love them btw - they aren’t too physically demanding if you are smart, yet exciting.
tjayk, it all depends on your local organization. Some groups have done away with the category 5 altogether, some require ten races, some people require you to take a class, etc. Generally though, ten races is the standard.
