|
Since I have some time these days, I'll bite.
There are 3 main types of races for the road, time trial, road race
and criterium.
The time trial (or TT) can be either individual or a team, either way
it's a race over a measured course, against the clock. It can be in
any terrain; flat, straight, open road with a halfway turnaround, or
one way up a mountain. Riders who can push big gears or spin medium
big gears for extended periods will do well here. It also takes
great internal discipline and the ability to suffer.
The road race can be either on a circuit course of several miles,
usually with varying terrain, which is usually difficult (read hilly).
The action happens fairly slowly in a road race, the most sucessful
attempts are when a small group sneaks off the front. The peloton
(the "bunch" or "field", the main group of riders) almost always
breaks up into groups ("breakaways", or "breaks"), but not always.
The top catagory riders sometimes finich in a massive bunch sprint.
The successful road rider is one with a great deal of overall talent,
not necessarily one exceedingly great asset. It helps to be a good
climber, but a poor climber (like myself) can overcome this most
of the time by being a good descender. Of course, a large aerobic
base is necessary, since the races are long and mostly hard. They
start off slow, everyone warms up the first few miles, but they
speed up later.
Now to your other question, the criterium. This is a fairly short
road race over a short course, like a 50 mile criterium (or "crit")
on a 1 mile course. It is patterned after a track points race, with
sprints for prizes, or "primes" all throughout the race, sometimes
on every lap. The Wheat Thins Criterium series was a 35 mile race
on a mile course with 2 sprints PER LAP. This, however, was not
as exciting as it sounds, since the time trialists were the ones
who made the big bucks by soloing for as many laps as possible,
taking the primes along the way. But this race was an exception.
The rider who does well here must be a top notch bike handler and
a good sprinter. Road riders do win criteriums, though, mostly by
getting away solo or in a small group, and getting good support
(or "blocking") from his/her teammates.
CdH_the_sprinter
|
|
A criterium is a type of bicycle race ridden with road bikes (as
opposed to track bikes) on a closed loop course, typically of a
mile or less per lap. The total distance might be anything from
5 miles to 60 miles. These races are popular because they minimize
closing roads to traffic, maximize the visibility to the spectators
(they often take place in cities, and the riders come past every
few minutes), and they are exciting because of the bike handling
necessitated by the number of corners.
The peloton is the largest group of riders in a bike race, also
known as the pack. This group of riders is held together by
the desire to economize effort to overcome wind resistance.
|
| Chris left an incomplete sentence, so I'll take the
liberty of filling in the blanks.
"The road race can be either on a circuit course of several miles,
usually with varying terrain, which is usually difficult (read hilly)."
The road race can be either on a circuit course of several miles,
usually with varying terrain, which is usually difficult (read hilly) or
a long distance point to point race, often hilly.
ed
|