Crit training

markwb79

Took part in a local crit this weekend, didnt last very long though! Was only a 1.1km course, but including a 300m 5% climb.

Are there any specific training sessions that will improve my performance in them?

I am a very light person as it is, so I know I would do better in longer climbing events.

Thanks
Mark

rozzer32

Just keep riding them, racing is some of the best training you can do.

Otherwise crits normally have a lot of changes in pace so doing intervals to simulate this always helps.

markwb79

My main target this year is the Etape, I am mixing the crits with some longer rides.

Any suggestions on the intervals I could do?

Down the Road

More crits.

The more you do the easier they get

Rule74Please

If the Etape is your goal for the year why do crits?

You will gain nothing useable from them. Spend that time doing the miles and finding some long hills

racingcondor

Short intervals (over sustainable effort with little recovery) will help you to adapt to Crits. Riding more crits is a great way of getting this type of workout but only if you can keep up long enough to benefit... Tabata intervals on the turbo are great as well (very short and very intense. Do them right you'll practically fall over getting off the bike).

The other thing to focus on is how you are riding in the race, get that right and you can save a huge amount of energy. Riding smoothly near the front will allow you to pick a better line and hold more speed through corners, on the back you're at the mercy of 50 other riders bad cornering, braking etc and you'll have to sprint hard out of every corner.

amaferanga

Hour of Power as first suggested by Bill Black would be good for crit training.

Essentially, it is 60min of Threshold effort interrupted by surges of 10 - 15 revs into VO2max every 90sec or so returning back to Threshold and looking to escalate the Threshold power level throughout the 60min duration.

jibberjim

Rule74Please wrote:

If the Etape is your goal for the year why do crits?

You will gain nothing useable from them. Spend that time doing the miles and finding some long hills

Rubbish, crits are still an aerobic workout, they'll be 1 hour of hard aerobic work. Around me there's not a single climb that takes more than 8 minutes, and "doing miles" is done so often at such low intensity as to be irrelevant. The 60 minute (potentially) threshold effort of a typical UK crit is very good replication for a sustained 60 minutes of climbing. Yes it's not completely the same because you're not doing a steady effort, but that's not really that important until you're actually optimizing the last little bit. And if you're being dropped in a 4th cat crit, it's unlikely to be relevant.

OP, if you're really getting dropped that early into the race, then it's pretty unlikely that repeating short intervals are really your problem, but actually simple aerobic fitness, you're just not fit enough to race the standard you were at - part of that of course will be race experience and you simply waste much more energy than others there. Either way doing more crits will address both.

Matchstick Man

jibberjim wrote:

Rule74Please wrote:

If the Etape is your goal for the year why do crits?

You will gain nothing useable from them. Spend that time doing the miles and finding some long hills

Rubbish, crits are still an aerobic workout, they'll be 1 hour of hard aerobic work. Around me there's not a single climb that takes more than 8 minutes, and "doing miles" is done so often at such low intensity as to be irrelevant. The 60 minute (potentially) threshold effort of a typical UK crit is very good replication for a sustained 60 minutes of climbing. Yes it's not completely the same because you're not doing a steady effort, but that's not really that important .

Correct, in fact racing full stop will be probably the best thing any aspiring sportive rider could do, be it a club 10 once a week or a '25' at the weekend, or the local chaingang or road races,etc.
I would surmise that any of the above will simply make you aerobically fitter by working various levels of fitness that are very hard to do on the turbo.

I find it amusing that new entrants into cycling have eschewed club cycling and club cyclists as old hat when there's a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on.
As an example of what a club cyclist would do:

Mon - easy spin for an hour
Tue - chaingang
Wed - 2hrs steady
Thu - club '10'
Fri - easy spin for an hour
Sat - day off or open '10' if nearby
Sun - 70 mile club run

Fairly old school mentality but that adds up to about 11hrs or so of riding and I bet it's a damn sight more training than most people will be doing. It would also easily get you around a sportif either domestic or foreign.

Herbsman

if youre training for crits on the turbo just sit in for 45 minutes and then work hard for however long the last lap would be

okgo

Well they're not all like that are they!

They do have breaks and sprints out of corners etc. Its not always as easy as just sitting in then sprinting.

Herbsman

okgo wrote:

Well they're not all like that are they!

They do have breaks and sprints out of corners etc. Its not always as easy as just sitting in then sprinting.

No.

Yes.

cyco2

Markwb79 wrote:

Took part in a local crit this weekend, didnt last very long though! Was only a 1.1km course, but including a 300m 5% climb.

Are there any specific training sessions that will improve my performance in them?

I am a very light person as it is, so I know I would do better in longer climbing events.

Have a think about what you did in the race i.e. Number of times you got out of the saddle, accelerations, cornering speeds. You were not strong enough to be with the leaders which is the most comfortable place to be so you have to work pretty hard to keep up. Which means lots and lots of sprints, so go out and do loads of them. Try and monitor what you're doing so you can see the improvements. Stop just going for a ride on your bike, make it hard, break a chain type of ride, do short sprints, do long sprints. Do sprints with recovery then some without recovery. I hope you get the gist of what I am saying :evil:

okgo

Herbsman wrote:

okgo wrote:

Well they're not all like that are they!

They do have breaks and sprints out of corners etc. Its not always as easy as just sitting in then sprinting.

No.

Yes.

Are you the same person as p-tucker?

Herbsman

No.