Criterium Training Guide
Are you getting ready for this summer’s CRITSQUAD or CRITLIFE?
We know we are! We’re anxiously awaiting the opening of registration for events like Tulsa Tough, Intelligentsia, Speedweek, Athens Twilight, Armed Forces, Tour of America’s Dairyland, Bucks County, and so many more!
But what does it take to do well in crit racing? Big FTP? Huge VO2Max? Large Anaerobic Capacity?
Watts are important, but so is positioning. What’s your bike race strategy? Are you attacking early and getting in the early moves, driving a break to stay away, or are you waiting for a last ditch attack? Let’s get you ready to feel more comfortable riding in a pack at speed, surging and accelerating out of corners, and attacking the bell lap!
See Also: FTP Training
What Is Needed To Win A Crit?
A high FTP is surely a plus, but your anaerobic capacity (read: FRC or W’ depending on your software preference) also plays a part, because whether you are attacking or maneuvering through the pack, you will definitely be riding above FTP during a crit race. You need to be able to handle these surges above FTP by improving your anaerobic capacity.
Additionally, you need to be able to recover from repeated attacks and surges by training your body to clear lactate. This is accomplished by building a huge aerobic engine and also doing specific workouts to train your ability to recover from repeated hard efforts.
The finish will quite often end in a sprint, whether it’s a mass bunch sprint, or from a reduced group. So unless you are a monster that can just ride away from everyone (time to upgrade your category!), you’ll need to cap things off with a sprint, even if it’s just versus one other competitor.
See Also: How To Train For a Cycling Stage Race
Criterium Training Plan
A criterium training plan should be well rounded and focus on all facets of criterium racing. If you want to be a top level crit racer, you need to do it all. Your plan should feature a blend of endurance, high intensity and anaerobic training.
You really want to do an assessment of what you’re missing, in order to better understand what you’re going to need to train.
A big aerobic engine is extremely helpful in any cycling discipline, so time is well spent getting in as many hours as possible by riding endurance, and working on your FTP; whether it be including Lactate Clearance intervals (over/unders), Threshold Bursts, and some Lactate Tolerance work (think steady state FTP intervals). More information can be found here.
VO2Max training will also help to lift the aerobic ceiling which can help to increase your FTP, not to mention, it will help you become more comfortable by being uncomfortable, and going really hard at VO2Max wattages or above. Train your VO2Max with endurance, and some intervals at your maximal aerobic power. More information can be found here.
Bicycle interval training for anaerobic capacity and the ability to put out power above your aerobic capacity is also important! More of this is not always better though, as too much anaerobic training can make your power production become more glycolytic, which could hurt your aerobic power (FTP and VO2Max). Ask yourself if you really need more surging power, and address this from there. More information can be found here.
Related Post— VO2max for Cycling: Click Here
Sprints…everyone needs a sprint, even to win from a small group, but since sprint training can be very fatiguing, I’d take a close cost/benefit look at this, and see how much of it you need. Even a few sessions before the first race might be enough. Make sure you’re also focused on not just the max watts, but how quick you can react and accelerate. A quick acceleration can save you some watts if you get into someone’s draft fast enough!
Here are some season planning resources that you can use to help guide your training, or contact us and we’ll do it for you! Having a coach is a great resource to help fast track your success.
Related Post: Try These New Interval Workouts to Improve VO2max
Do You Have The Physiology For Crit Racing?
Is your FTP as high as possible? Have you done the right work to not only produce the maximum amount of watts at FTP, but also focused on aspects of lactate clearance work to ensure you can handle the lactate that gets produced? Have you put on your Lactigo before the crit for max watts?
What about your anaerobic capacity? Do you have enough power from the glycolytic system to handle the surges that will happen throughout most of the race?
And lastly, that sprint we talked about….700 watts isn’t going to cut it. Let’s make sure you can still win from a small group!
Let us perform a FREE Power File Analysis to see what your strengths and weaknesses are as a rider. We’ll be able to key in on your rider type, and hear more from you about your past crit experiences, to help map out the best way forward for your crit races.
See Also: How To Increase Anaerobic Capacity
Criterium Warm Ups
Being warmed up for a criterium is absolutely crucial. These races start with you immediately clipping in and sprinting towards the first corner. Every racer is filing into place, and a good start will greatly help your success. You want to get close to the front, as soon as possible.
In order to have your body prepared for the high intensity start, it is a great idea to have your body warmed up for the efforts.
Over time, you will develop a warm up that feels best for you, but here is a very basic one that Brendan still uses to this day, whether for intervals or race days.
See Also: Peak Cycle Training
Workout Details
12 min @ 65-75 % of FTP
3-4 min @ 85-90 % of FTP
3 min @ 50-75 % of FTP
3-4 min @ 92-95 % of FTP
3 min @ 50-75 % of FTP
30 sec @ 110-120 % of FTP
4 min @ 50-75 % of FTP
30 sec @ 110-120 % of FTP
5 min @ 50-75 % of FTP
There often is NO time to warm up IN the race.
If you are pressed for time, cut it down and just focus on the portion with *** with a quick sprint to open up the legs. Go get it!!!
Supposedly if you do this within 30 min of start you'll be warmed up still, so don't freak out about doing this right up to the exact minute of the start.
GET READY FOR CRITERIUMS WITH OUR CRIT-SPECIFIC PLAN
Team Vs. Solo Racing
Racing as a team is a huge advantage. Why would you want to race with a team?
Before the race even starts, traveling to a race with teammates is extremely fun. It no doubt beats showing up and racing alone. If there are back to back races that weekend, having a group to hang out with after the races is so much fun!
During the race, you have a much better chance of winning if you have teammates. If your teammate wins, you win! It’s a team sport. However, the chance that YOU specifically win also increases if you have teammates, because you will be working together to attack, and counter attack moves that get up the road.
You are no longer just making best guesses as to which move is going to be THE MOVE. It’s always a disappointment when you get up the road early in a group, only to be brought back and counter attacked by another group, which ends up being The Move that stays away for the win. You cant get them all right by yourself, which is why you want to have teammates so that your team can always be represented in moves going up the road.
See also: How To Train For a Bike Race
How To Manage Multiple Races Per Day
Racing twice in a day is very common for criteriums, especially if you are in the newers categories. You might be able to race in the Cat 4 / 5 and then 3 / 4 race. Or Master’s and then your respective category.
Whatever the case may be, racing twice in one day is awesome!
Even though the races are not long, you want to lean your diet towards carbs, and really focus on having your glycogen stores topped off so that you are prepared for the high intensity intervals that are a huge component of criterium racing.
This is especially true if you are racing twice in one day; so while you might not need to eat as much for a long gran fondo, you do need to have adequate carbohydrates.
Between races, stick to race-type foods: sports drink, gels, easily digestible foods. I wouldn’t fill your stomach though, unless you have many hours between the races. If just 2-3 hours, stick to easily digestible carbs so that you can go hard again at the second race.
Get into a cool spot (under a tree or in air conditioning) to bring your core temperature down. Refuel, and then leave time for a short warm up before the next race. This warm up will totally depend on how tired you are from the previous race. If you are pretty shattered, you might have to accept that the next race isn’t going to be the BEST performance, so plan to conserve what matches you have left. Get warmed up with easier, high cadence spinning to get the blood flowing, and save all of the watts for the next race.
See Also: Garmin Screen Set Up For Cycling Racing
Criterium Racing Tips for Beginners
We pinged a bunch of athletes in the EVOQ Discord to get more criterium tips for you. Hope these help!
Before the Race
Be confident: Don't be afraid of other riders and never fear riding in the front even if you're told “you/i don't belong here”
Be warmed up, because it will be full gas from the gun; you don’t want your first effort to be the first hard effort of the day.
Once the race before your is over, and the course is open, jump on and take a few corners at/near race speed. Just cruising around the course a few times doesn’t do much. Getting in a fast lap is worth more than a starting position on the first row. In other words, don’t be the first one to stage, unless it’s a huge race like Tulsa Tough, where moving up can be extremely difficult.
Positioning
If you aren't moving up, you’re moving back. Burn a match to move up when needed.
Be on guard and watch for bad wheels. This means that if someone looks sketchy, don’t ride near them!
Practice riding in a group before the first crit. You should be able bump shoulders or elbows and not let that bother you. This is definitely a skill that you will learn over time. Bumping drills in the grass before a ride is a great thing to practice!
You don’t get boxed in, you box yourself in. If you ask yourself, “can I follow a move right now if people attack?” and you CAN NOT, MOVE.
Following Moves and Attacking
There can be a lot of stop and go at times, whether it’s the first corner, or a funky course. Make sure you can accelerate quickly. Big watts are important for a sprint at the end, but being “quick” is really important in crit racing.
Don’t chase every attack. Some moves aren’t worth following, especially early on. Oftentimes it’s not the biggest attack that sticks, but a solid one at the best time.
Timing: attack when there is a lull or when people least expect it.
BELIEVE IN YOUR ATTACK. If you just burned a match “going for it”, GO FOR IT.
Don’t attack from the very front, it’s better to go from 5-7 wheels back, as it takes the group more by surprise, and people have to pause and think, “Do I want to chase that down?”
Find ways to move up without using much energy. If the pack slows down, keep pedaling and move up as many places as possible. It’s so much easier than fighting to move up while the pack is strung out or moving at higher speed.
Don’t risk crashing or burning a match just to move up one spot. Don’t get too excited, slow down your mind, pick your battles, and be conservative with your energy. It’s rare that the person who works the hardest or attacks the most wins a crit. It’s usually the person that is the most conservative with their energy, moves calmly through the pack, and puts themselves in the right position at the right time that gets a shot at winning.
Cornering
Riding in the drops will give you a lot more control when you are blazing through corners, and it’s much safer, and no one can hook your bars.
The only time you really want to be up on the hoods is if you are off the front, as it’s been shown to be more aerodynamic.
Brake BEFORE the corner. Braking while turning can lead to a nice crash.
Don’t chop a corner, meaning divebombing in front of people or “chopping”, or undercutting the peloton, into the corner. You will not make friends this way.
Outside inside outside…how to corner!
The Final Sprint
When in doubt, lead out! The sprint that is, unless there is a blistering headwind or you’re too far from the finish line. Too many times people lose the race by going into the last corner as 4th wheel, only to end up in 4th place.
Make sure you practice some sprint finishes with friends or a group ride so that you know how far you can sprint! If you go to the first crit and haven’t practiced your finishing kick yet, you’ll have no meter of how hard you can go, and for how long!
Feel free to reach out to us with more questions about the criterium racing training plan, or to get some more crit tips.
We’d love to help you hit all of your goals this season!
CUSTOM CYCLING TRAINING PLANS
As an amateur cat 4 racer, I feel like I’ve learned more from these guys in the last 6 months than I have on the cycling scene for the past 10 years. Their knowledge is deep from training on and off the bike, your nutritional needs and most importantly your racing psyche. What’s most appealing to me as a cyclist is that the majority of their knowledge comes from things that they have tried and tested as racers that started from the bottom and have elevated to the top of the game. Two thumbs up for Brendan and Patrick! Give these guys a shout.