by admin | July 17th, 2009
Last Thursday, Jenner Yaeso, who rides for GAS Intrinsik, taught a Crit clinic for Team Delphine members. For those of you who don’t know, Jenner has TONS of crit experience – she’s a Cat 2 racer who raced on a domestic team for years out of Boulder. Her speciality is the criterium. She’s done Super Week numerous times – which if you’ve never heard of, is like a week-long stage race that’s made up of just criteriums: a crit a day for a week. She’s also a track specialist.
Jenner explained how a crit is run and gave us some really helpful pointers for what to do on race day.
1. Get to the race at least 90 minutes early – 2 hours is even better.
2. Once you’ve registered/signed it, go to the finish line. Check out where the lap counter is (counts down remaining laps), finish line, wheel pit and race announcer. Make a mental note to check the lap counter every lap. Make a mental note to “eye” the chief official/announcer every lap to make sure you are crystal clear when you are in the finishing lap.
3. If you have extra wheels, drop them in the wheel pit. If you flat, crash or have a mechanical, you get a free lap. Head directly to the wheel pit.
4. Scope out the course – on foot if there’s a race in progress. Note how other riders are taking the corners.
5. Ride the course at least once if you can.
6. Warm up! Make sure you are very warmed up for the start of your race. This is where having a trainer is great – crit courses don’t always have the best places to warm up, and if you have a trainer, you can warm up anywhere. The sweat should be flying by the time you head to the line.
7. If it’s a good sized field, be at the start line 10 minutes prior. You don’t want to start way back.
8. If it’s a smaller field, you don’t have to be so stressed about getting to the start line early.
9. The first 5 minutes will be hard – very hard. Just tell yourself: “I can do anything for 5 minutes!”
10. Generally ride in the drops in a crit. It lowers your center of gravity, giving you better traction in corners.
11. Corner with your outside foot down and weighted (for those of you who ski, you’ll understand the concept of weighting the outside foot). At speed, you don’t steer through the corners, you lean the bike. Your tires have amazing traction. Trust them. Don’t brake in the corner unless someone in front of you brakes, at which point you have to. But, braking compromises your traction. Brake before you get to the corner (using the rear brake) if you need to check your speed.
She pointed out that your bike is comprised of two big gyroscopes, and when you’re pedaling and/or in motion, the bike wants to stay upright. If you get bumped by someone, just keep pedaling – keep your momentum moving forward and you will almost always stay upright. Another important tip is to keep your upper body relaxed and arms bent. If your arms are locked, you’re much more likely to get moved around if someone bumps you – you can’t absorb it. But if your arms are bent and relaxed, you can go with the flow.
She then had us do some race start drills, slow speed cornering, and then high speed cornering, as well as a chicane drill to help us really feel the effect of extending and weighting the outside foot.
Team Delphine riders found the clinic extremely helpful!
–Amy Frykman, Laurie Shammel