Friday night Crits

[Frosty]

edit: link to the event registration is open - click here.

 

Some club mates have been talking about starting a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly Crit race on a short circuit course on a Friday night.

• The venue will be on a new section of tar SE of Rand Airport;
• 1.72Km long and can be race both clockwise and counterclockwise;
• 18m of elevation gain per lap - it's flat, but there will be "out the saddle" efforts twice per lap as you negotiate the two 180-degree turns (1 hair-pin and 1 mdeium sized traffic circle;
• Daurtion will be 30 mins + 1 lap - maximum of 4 groups per night;
• Estimated lap time of 2:00 - 2:30, depending on the group, giving 12-15 laps before the bell lap.

Initial talks have been around a Friday evening as the full route is lit, but not sure what the interest will be vs a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. We'll start on a Friday evening, as planned, and then see how it gains traction.

 

Seeding? What's that... if you get dropped, suck it up and try harder... or... drop a group the next time. Rules can be added as we go, eg. repeat winners can be pushed up a group, and vice versa for last few places.

 

An entry fee may need to be charged to cover a medical team and toilet hire (the closest shops are about 2-3Km away, We'd prefer to award points for position and then perhaps have one end of season prize giving. As we grow, this can become more formal.

 

No officials needed, and this won't be sanctioned. The costs to set this up is unnecessary, and is more about giving those interested in participating a chance to hone their bike handling skills, do some HIIT workouts under race conditions and FUN - the rules are simple:

• Safety first - it's the riders' responsibility to police the guys drifting/changing lanes;
• First one over the line wins - he/she gets to brag about it until the next race;
• The race starts on time, and only stopped if weather conditions make it unsafe - we'll use our experience from running our mass participation event.

 

I'll post a link to the video soon - driving it by car doesn't do justice to the effort required to complete a lap or two or 12-15.

 

What else?

Let me know in the comments below

Edited November 10, 2020 by Frosty

[The Ouzo]

Will keep an eye on this.

Dont know if Crits is something I'll enjoy, but may just give it a go and take it from there.

[Spinnekop]

Are we allowed to bring along a prodder or kettie?

Edited October 23, 2020 by Spinnekop

[Frosty]

A teaser video from the series we promoted a few years back:

 

[AdamA]

A teaser video from the series we promoted a few years back:

 

 

Nice!!! almost makes me want to get another road Bike

[Frosty]

Diarize 27/11... the first of many Friday night crits.
More details to follow.

 

https://www.strava.com/segments/26062314

Edited November 3, 2020 by Frosty

[Chris_]

This is cool! I'll definitely keep an eye on this

[mecheng89]

Will keep an eye on this.

Dont know if Crits is something I'll enjoy, but may just give it a go and take it from there.

I don't like crits either, they hurt like F, but it's awesome training if you're into road racing in general. 

[mecheng89]

Nice!!! almost makes me want to get another road Bike

YOLO

[Long Wheel Base]

Is this near the history museum? Sounds lekker, I have done a few night crits way back in 2015 at the builders warehouse kempton park parking lot. It was very good fun. The lap shape was pretty much the same as this one but a lot smaller and also had 1 speed bump on the back straight. It was very good training. Our lighting was not great but you could ride without a light but it was always better to have one. There was a crash almost every race and it was always just one guy taking a corner too fast and luckily never more than one person involved. I never used my carbon bike though as the crash risk was higher and would rather crash my old raleigh. Luckily I never actually came short. IICR we kept each race to like 6 or 8 guys and on an evening you got to race against almost everyone there(we were all vets/elite). You did like 3 or 4 races. Ours was a Wednesday, Thursday at work was a loooong day.

[mecheng89]

Is this near the history museum? Sounds lekker, I have done a few night crits way back in 2015 at the builders warehouse kempton park parking lot. It was very good fun. The lap shape was pretty much the same as this one but a lot smaller and also had 1 speed bump on the back straight. It was very good training. Our lighting was not great but you could ride without a light but it was always better to have one. There was a crash almost every race and it was always just one guy taking a corner too fast and luckily never more than one person involved. I never used my carbon bike though as the crash risk was higher and would rather crash my old raleigh. Luckily I never actually came short. IICR we kept each race to like 6 or 8 guys and on an evening you got to race against almost everyone there(we were all vets/elite). You did like 3 or 4 races. Ours was a Wednesday, Thursday at work was a loooong day.

yes sir. 

 

There is lighting, we consider it to be sufficient. 

[The Ouzo]

Is this near the history museum? Sounds lekker, I have done a few night crits way back in 2015 at the builders warehouse kempton park parking lot. It was very good fun. The lap shape was pretty much the same as this one but a lot smaller and also had 1 speed bump on the back straight. It was very good training. Our lighting was not great but you could ride without a light but it was always better to have one. There was a crash almost every race and it was always just one guy taking a corner too fast and luckily never more than one person involved. I never used my carbon bike though as the crash risk was higher and would rather crash my old raleigh. Luckily I never actually came short. IICR we kept each race to like 6 or 8 guys and on an evening you got to race against almost everyone there(we were all vets/elite). You did like 3 or 4 races. Ours was a Wednesday, Thursday at work was a loooong day.

This i what concerns me. Should I be using my old bike rather ?

[TNT1]

This i what concerns me. Should I be using my old bike rather ?

Most of the time you're gonna come off if you push your limits too far too soon. This kind of racing is a skill that you can learn, and good bike handling will help you when commuting or racing or whatever. Don't try and stay with the front guys if you feel you are on the ragged edge. Rather drop back and work on your skill then you'll be fine when that catches up with your performance. 

 

I assume some of the guys at the pointy end will, like me, have grown up racing this kind of thing and racing on the track so it's second nature for us.

[The Ouzo]

Most of the time you're gonna come off if you push your limits too far too soon. This kind of racing is a skill that you can learn, and good bike handling will help you when commuting or racing or whatever. Don't try and stay with the front guys if you feel you are on the ragged edge. Rather drop back and work on your skill then you'll be fine when that catches up with your performance. 

 

I assume some of the guys at the pointy end will, like me, have grown up racing this kind of thing and racing on the track so it's second nature for us.

thanks.

[Twaatie]

This i what concerns me. Should I be using my old bike rather ?

Most of the time you're gonna come off if you push your limits too far too soon. This kind of racing is a skill that you can learn, and good bike handling will help you when commuting or racing or whatever. Don't try and stay with the front guys if you feel you are on the ragged edge. Rather drop back and work on your skill then you'll be fine when that catches up with your performance.

 

I assume some of the guys at the pointy end will, like me, have grown up racing this kind of thing and racing on the track so it's second nature for us.

bull**** go out and drop everyone [emoji48][emoji6]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T&C : not responsible for any injuries that may occur if doing the above

[The Ouzo]

bull**** go out and drop everyone [emoji48][emoji6]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T&C : not responsible for any injuries that may occur if doing the above

If there is more than 1 bike on the road its a race

 

actually, even with 1 bike on the road its a race