Criterium Races in Competitive Cycling

Video Transcript

"Now I am going to talk about what is called criterium racing or crits. Most people will say I am going to go race a crit and they will say, what is a crit? Well a criterium race is typically a one mile loop. Typically it is going to have 4 corners but some of them every once in a while you will find one that has 6 different movements. Every once in a while you will find one that actually has a hard incline but for the most part criterium races are flat and fast. You really need to work on your cornering skills if you are going to go out and race criterium races because you will be going through corners with a lot of people, at least 20 in most races as a female. The men's race could be 75 or more. So you want to work on your cornering. You are going to be going through corners very fast and criterium races are time. So in the beginning levels, you are going to race 30 to 40 minutes. As you move up, you will race closer to 60 minutes and basically what you are doing is you are pulling up to the start and you are riding this 1 mile loop that can be a little bit less, a little bit more but typically criterium is a mile and you are going to ride that for the time indicated and typically the last lap is when it starts to get really fast. You try to get in a good position and sprint to the finish. "