Tonight’s criterium was fairly uneventful, with the exception of a crash in turn 1 with 2 laps to go. I thought I’d start out like I usually do, hammering from the gun. I like this strategy because it keeps you out of trouble the first few laps when everyone else is figuring out the corners. Due to bad timing, I wasn’t at the front of the start line for the start. So I had to come around a couple of people to get to the front, which was pretty hard since a few other people had the same idea. I finally did get to the front after turn 1 and pushed pretty hard the whole first lap.
By the time I hit the home stretch, my legs were TOAST! I realized that I was more fried than I thought and that there was no possibility of me doing anything during this crit. So I drifted to the back of the pack, where, if you ride smart, you can keep it so easy you’re hardly working. The only risk you take is if the pace picks up so much that the pack gets split in two, then you’d be in the second group and could lose precious time. But with a wide, flat course like this, it typically does stay together, so I figured it wasn’t much of a risk.
The trick to riding at the back is to leave big gaps BEFORE the corners. This is a mistake most people at the back make. Yes riding at the back can be more work if you’re always trying to be RIGHT on the wheel in front of you. That’s because the pack has an accordion effect through the corners. The first rider hardly has to slow down through a corner. The rider behind him may have to ease off a bit following rider one. Then the third rider may have to feather his brakes to not run into rider two. And so an, and so on. By the time you get to the back of the pack, everyone is slamming on the brakes, right before the corner.
But, if you’re at the back, and you let a gap develop BEFORE the corner, then you can take the corner without braking at all, and by the time you get through the corner, you’re right on the wheel of the second to the last rider, who has already started accelerating to stay on the rider in front of him. So you just stay low and stay in his draft and you get pulled to the next corner. If it’s a long stretch, you may have to push a little bit harder. But it’s OK if a gap develops, because there’s always another corner, and you just repeat the process.
I should wear my heart rate monitor the next time I ride a crit like this. I swear for most of the latter half of the race my HR never got above 140. Only once, with about 30 minutes to go, did things get totally strung out and single file that I had fears of that split occurring. But after a couple of laps like that, the pace died down and it was back to the usual routine.
The other benefit this has is if you’re at the very back (and preferably on the inside), you have plenty of time (and space) to react to crashes. When people crash in a corner, they slide towards the outside. So if you have a choice, you want to be on the inside. Witness the crash that occurred with 2 laps to go, I saw the whole crash unfold, watched riders take evasive maneuvers that caused secondary crashes, yet I was able to take the inside line, avoiding all the carnage. I don’t think I even touched my brakes! Since I was carrying all my speed, by the time I made it through, I was mid-pack and was going faster than all those who had to slam on their brakes to avoid it.
Anyway, I stayed about there and finished the crit mid-pack. Since the crash happened with 5 laps to go, everyone got the same time anyway.