Coach's Tips For... Crystal City Classic

[ed: This is the next article by coach BJ Basham, and part of a continuing series called "Coach's Tips for... ", in which BJ will give all the racers lucky enough to have found GamJams.net the inside track on how to race a specific event. BJ knows all these races, and he probably also knows most of the racers hellbent on beating you at them. If you like BJ's contributions, let him know in the Comments section below. You can even ask him questions in the comments, which he'll answer there as well.]

Coach's Tips for... Crystal City Classic
by BJ Basham
USA Cycling Level II Certified Coach

Downtown is where criteriums, by definition, should be held. Not that I don't understand the need to use business parks, etc. due to the high cost and hassle of getting an actual city center course with closed road. But racing on city streets with the course lined with spectators is what it is all about. There is very little in the world of racing that can get you pumped up to give it your all as much as a crowd of friends, family and strangers yelling at you to GOGOGO!!!

The course for the Crystal City Classic is not really the classic "Criterium" course, but it does demand those crit riding skills and strengths that some riders seem to have tons of, and some, no matter how strong on the road, just seem to lack. This course has seven sharp turns including one 180 degree hairpin. Most of the straightaways are short save for the stretch past the start finish area. What that means is that in each race, each person will have to jump out of 7 corners and accelerate before setting up for the next corner and jump. If it takes 3 minutes to get around the course (I am guessing since I do not know how long a lap is) in 45 minutes you will be doing 15 laps times seven corners which gives you 105 intervals. OUCH!!!.

Most people do not train with that many repeats in a workout, so how can you survive this kind of race? The best way is to reduce the number and intensity of each jump and acceleration. One way this can be done would be by getting everyone to agree to ride a super slow race so that you do not do as many laps, but that is pretty unlikely.  The best way to reduce the intensity of the race is to stay toward the front of the field. The riders up front will be able to carry their speed through the corners reducing the need to accelerate. As you go back through the field, the accordion effect will be greater and greater until the last riders (at least initially) will be crawling through each corner and working like mad to stay with the field.

Something that I have noticed over the years is that each race course will allow a certain number of riders to stay together depending on the speed and the level of the field racing. The pros are all pretty much at the top of the game and even the weaker riders can handle the work it takes to stay on the back of a large field on a tight course. As the depth of fitness in the field goes down, the few riders will be able to survive the slowdowns and accelerations that get exponentially more intense as you move back through the field until you hit a point where if the rider sitting last was strong enough to survive the roller coaster, they would be up front.

One other note that some riders seem to forget on race day: once you get up front, stay there. Staying in the race mentally from start to finish is the best way to avoid wasting energy and it can just be safer. Too many riders are totally on the ball in a race until they get toward the finish when, for some reason, complacency kicks in and they drift a few places back. Then when the speed starts to crank up in the end, they have to struggle to get back to where they were in the first place, wasting energy right before they need it the most.  Racing at the front can be very mentally challenging, but the savings in workload is well worth working on your ability to stay in the game and at the sharp end of the race all day.

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BJ Basham is a USA Cycling Level II Certified Coach with Peaks Coaching Group. He lives in Fairfax, VA and competes in most of the same races you do. To learn more about his coaching practice and philosophy, just email him.

Comments

[PokeTheBear]

Just did a veloroute.org of the Crystal City course--looks like the 180-degree hairpin is at the top of a 200 ft. long, 8 percent grade hill. Should slow it down a bit going into the turn.

[Mike May]

Cool. Do you have a link to the veloroute I can post here?