Racing is an aspect of cycling that needs to be experienced and with road, "Crit" racing is short, intense and fairly common.
Most people never get to participate and I believe really miss out on something
truly special. With crit racing you are faced with every sort of physical and
emotional challenge. Normally when you get on a bike, you are confronted with
personal limitations of your body, or you educate yourself to understand the
technologies present, or push your speed to see how far to the edge your bike
handling skills are. But, nothing comes close to combining all these elements
of our sport.
When you begin the start of a race, you are instantly faced
with strategy, the limits of your physical fitness, patience, speed, crashes,
love, hate, and fear all within a relatively short period of time. It tells you
about yourself and you get to face your inner demons head on. No wonder you see tempers fly, cries of joy and awkward laughter.
Bicycle races are popular all over the world, especially in
Europe. There are variations, and the terrain can be different depending on the race site, but the essence is pretty much the same. The countries most devoted to bicycle crit racing include Belgium, Denmark,
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, but places like
Australia, the UK and the United States are growing in popularity. This makes finding one near you fairly easy. In fact, racing has
gotten so popular in Southern California that you can find Crit races after work during the week in the summer. Unfortunately,
even as a beginner you need a descent level of fitness and bike handling to
give it a shot. Even with this, drafting, and
learning how to be comfortable and conserving your energy for the appropriate
time will take a bit of learning. So expect to be dropped your first few races,
but hang in there. The rewards are great and the lessons learned will carry
with you for the rest of your life. By the way, I'm the rider in the yellow Mavic shoes racing Masters in our local Great Park Series.
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