What's the best way to train for criteriums?

Question

I've formerly been a competitive runner and triathlete but will now just focus on cycling. How should I train for these in order to be competitive. I would like to climb the ranks beginning from Cat 5 and move up as quick as I can. I'm beginning in January with a 10 race series (roughly one a month)

Answer 1

I agree with the other comments with a few added things to put into your training.

Intervals- as going around corners you will be surging just like you would in traffic you have to be able to keep up with the pack and not get dropped off the back. Once your off...your most likely off.

Sprints- If you can't sprint- your dead in the water. Set "finish lines" on some of your rides and then sprint towards them as you come up to them (kind of like a time bonus in the Tour de France). This will also keep you thinking competiveley out on your rides.

Team riding- or at least group riding. This is crucial because crits tend to be some of the most dangerous riding (cat 5 for sure) as you will have many people all around you jockeying for position and so you must have awareness to being around other riders.

Get on a team- While many think that road biking is often seen as an individual sport it helps to have teamates to help draft and manuevour with in order to get good field position.

As for moving up the ranks an important thing is to become known with your USCF officials at the race. They are the ones who can upgrade you and offer advice on moving up the ranks. I'm guessing you have already registered at usacycling.com, but if not make sure you get your liscense (there are a lot of great perks- I love the coupons for flying)

Just remember you can be in the best shape...but you need the experiance of racing and team riding to get really good.

Answer 2

With your background you should already have good aerobic capacity and endurance.

For crits, you're probably lacking:
- jumps - ability to accelerate from a slow corner to top speed and repeat for an hour. To train, find an empty office park or large parking lot with high quality pavement and square corners, and ride it fast, coasting thru the corners and sprinting back up to slightly above your timetrial speed on the straights. If you guage your effort correctly, you can maintain this for quite a while. Just make sure you're not "time trialing" but are instead "coasting and jumping" with short efforts like 10-15 seconds, then settle into "fast TT" till the next corner when you coast and repeat.

-sprinting / top-end speed for the finish and "crunch times"
Same course, different workout day. Ride two laps starting from a medium cruise speed, gradually/steadily ramping up to "super fast" just before the last corner, then full sprint to your finish line a few hundred meters after the corner. By the finish line your eyeballs should be bleeding and you won't be able to recover your breath for several minutes. Do a full 5-10 min of super easy spinning recovery (like, 6 mph) until your breathing is calm and legs feel sparky again, and repeat.

- bike handling skills and confidence - you need cornering practice at speed, which you can do while you're training for jumps. You'll also need to be relaxed and comfortable in a fast pack, which you can only learn by riding with a fast pack. Hook up with a local club for their weekly Sat/Sun rides, let 'em know you're a noob and listen for advice.

Oh one more thing - many runners/triathletes pedal too slowly for crit racing. If you're a big gear masher, stop and learn to spin at 90+ cadence. You'll be more efficient at this kind of racing.

Good luck,
Scott