Crit Race | Newbie races Dalton Crit Cat 4

So im new to this and thought i would give it a go. Here’s how things worked out for me on my first ever race and certainly my first ever crit race. It was a lot of fun and im determined to head back and give it another go. First goal was to simply make the finish line. I absolutely loved the sprint finish on this and its got me excited for me. I have another couple of races coming up so plenty more bike racing action to come.

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so today I am doing something that both excites me but also makes me ridiculously nervous guys we are going crit racing welcome back to the what life let’s roll so I’m in Abingdon at Dalton Barracks I’ve never done this before I don’t know what I’m doing I’ll talk to you all through it in a sec um Nick um and uh yeah going to give it a crack I Max in the past is going to talk you through in 30 seconds very quickly very quickly what you need to do to get registered to be a bike racer to come and do an event basically I haven’t signed on I need to sign on need to jump on my bike get some warm-up laps in and then uh yeah we’re going to go I’ll talk you through it in a sec if you want to go racing the first thing you are going to have to do is get yourself a race license and it’s quite easy go to the British cycling website and then click on membership scroll down and you have three options the first is free then you have a member and you have a premium membership if you want to go racing you are going to need to use uh either the member or the premium register as a member which is what I did which is the middle one and then from there you’re going to have to get yourself either a day license for a single event or you can buy a race license for the calendar year that ends in December which will cost you 40 quid so all in I paid 50 Quid for a membership and 40 quid for a race license [Music] so I don’t have a clue what I’m doing but we’re going to give it a crack there is a cat 4 only race I’ve been told it’s nice and wide I think that obviously helps and just signed on so we got a bib I got a timing chip which I’ve just seen some guys attaching to their front fork so I guess that’s what I’m going to do um give me a sec I’m grab my gear I do not have Arrow kit I do not have a race suit just normal kit normal suit um and we’re going to dive in I presume maybe you take your uh tool bag off the back I I don’t quite know how crit racing works I think on the website it said 45 minutes then they ring a bell for three laps or or they put the tip the lap board out and then it’s three laap then it’s a bell and then it’s the last lap I don’t know I guess we’ll figure it out but I at least I get to go into a cat 4 crit race that is somewhere where it’s nice and open and wide so apparently one thing I can do is just kind of stay on the outside and at least try and have some fun for my first event ever right we’ve only got 20 minutes to go so I need to get I need to get my stuff [Music] sorted I am really nervous about this I’ve never ever done anything like this before and and I don’t really know what to expect I don’t really know how to do it it’s very diff just different um doesn’t help being a YouTuber as well because you don’t get to be the uh you don’t get to be like the guy that’s just new to it you just immediately get put into that guy’s an idiot with a camera I’m not saying they’re wrong I’m just saying that they skip straight to that that presumption anyway I’ve got some gels and just make sure my tire pressure is set up I’m probably leave my phone in the car go do some warm-up laps I think I guess car key goes in the back pocket and figure the rest out as we [Music] go it’s 6:15 now my race starts in 15 minutes I’ve got no idea what to expect I think the plan is just to ride with obviously the group see what they do I don’t I just don’t I don’t know anything guys I can’t help you cuz no one’s here to help me but we’re going to give it a go and see what happens I think I’m just going to ride around and try and stay in the bunch and if people go then I think well you know if people go if anything happens I think you then have to decide whether you want to move with it the only bit of advice I’ve had from the guys is you know if you don’t feel comfortable try and sit in the outside and don’t do the work for other people I think was a another tip which I think is quite a good one but I don’t know what that means I really don’t know what that means right let’s do it do I do I take a water bottle have a little cheeky look to see if other people have brought water bottles it seems like most people are not running water bottles so that’s what that’s what I’m going to do cuz I’m man of the people I feel so like out of [Music] place um I’ve never done a race before Cat 4 race yeah would you mind just saying a few words about how it worked so crit Race So if you’re new to cycling this is the perfect venue wide as you can see very wide circuit it’s a 45 minute race roughly very wide C 4 is the entry level Rock up either sign on in advance on BC website or come down and see us pay cash on the day know we’ll give you a brief Before the Race anyone that doesn’t know anything that wants questions we’ll just answer them there and then give you as much guidance as possible and then really it’s just about blasting around a track with no cars on it and having a bit of fun so so 45 minutes and then you get a lap board is that right so you get three to go that will make the race roughly 45 minutes so we’ll work out from your race times oh so the the the race total is 45 minutes between 45 and 50 depending on where you are in the circuit cuz there’s two races run concurrently so you’re on with the E12 3es so the fast boys um two separate races so we’ll try and keep the finishes as far apart as possible it’s not always possible but we calculate with so we we’ll be running with like the quick so we should expect to have a few like whizzing by us yeah so they’ll go so you’ll start first normally they will then catch you at some point normally two or three laps in we’ll go past you you can’t jump on the back of their race it’s their race um they’ll disappear off in the distance possibly lap you again depending on how quit they’re going or how quit you’re going and then we basically work out and about 30 minutes when we think we’re going to call three laps too based on where you are on the track cuz we can work out from lap times how far how fast they’re going to catch you nice so lap time so if you’re doing a 430 and they’re doing a 350 40 seconds okay you can figure it yeah yeah you work out that way basically any advice to a newbie cap newbie I would say I would sit at the back of the bunch to start off with just get a feel for the track you know and the advantage with a newb is you’ve got a sight and lap so there’s no one on the circuit before your race you can get around and have a for the circuit first just take it easy you don’t need to try and win the first race you enter doesn’t need to be done if you do pretty it well done but generally I would just say roll around get a feel for it hold your lines in the corners don’t chop across the apexes hold your lines if you chop across someone behind you will be based it in time which is not nice for anybody you all them um and no one likes the sound of carbon going crack it’s not fun um apart from that G it’s just have fun that’s my main bit of voice enjoy it that’s my that’s my little personal bre thing which I thought was very useful he didn’t mention how windy it was it’s [Music] windy so I don’t know what I’m expecting from this I’m well I’ll be honest with you I’m not expecting anything other than a learning experience I’m just going to go up and down head back get to the briefing try and hold the group stay in the group keep my lines in the corner learn to ride with that kind of Bunch group mentality try and get comfortable with that and see how it goes I’ve been told because it’s a wide track that you end up getting for the best part a bunch Sprint at the end of the 45 minutes so I’ve never done one of those before uh there’s a lot of things I haven’t done before that we will figure out this evening but for me we’re going to get set up try and hold the group smash a gel before we go and just try and hold on say be evening huh hello dude just thought I’d come along yeah do it just go fast turn left yeah and you be fine go fast turn left Ro yeah you’ll be good it’s quite a uh it’s quite an interesting wind direction for today it’s uh it’s very rarely from the right okay so it’s going to be an interesting [Music] one I’m so nervous though oh my God why is it so nerve-wracking it’s like literally just riding a bike it’s like riding a [Applause] [Music] bike so after all that it didn’t take long before we were on the start line and before I even knew it they were saying go so time to take a closer look at some bike racing not sure how many riders were in our race it looks like there’s about 16 to 18 of us maybe 20 Riders as you can see I’m kind of settled in at the back let me just talk you through this we have my watts in the bottom right we have uh my Cadence and then my heart rate and then speed down the bottom and at the top we have a little course map plus the distance guys the total distance for the race was about 22 Mi so that’s the probably the best way to kind of keep you uh up to speed of how far through the race we are and you can see that especially on this first lap like I said I did not actually get a chance to ride the course beforehand so I well the intention was always to sit a little bit further back and guys I welcome any and every comment um please you know things about performance as in just you know wattage the answer is always going to be just be better be faster be stronger but in terms of kind of positioning you know any any kind of tips and stuff about positioning kind of holding lines movement that kind of thing is is very much welcomed uh but you know just saying Ride faster be better is is probably not that helpful um and on my first lap especially you know I’ve kind of never really moved you know i’ I’ve always ridden on a road with groups where you are basically determined to where you can be in part you know the traffic and the actual law of the road plays a role on here there is obviously there is no kind of law enforcement in place whatsoever you can go anywhere and do anything in theory so this is my first ever experience of that really and for that reason it it’s kind of why I have sat further back I do allude to this a little bit later but it turns out that this was a you know a slightly quicker Cat 4 race that they have had in in the previous weeks I think obviously the nice weather really helps and you can see that the uh group has kind of really stretched out from the off and this was the very first lap and you can see my wattage keep like diving up into the uh 6 700 Watts as you know and I was actually kind of thinking you know oh my God if it does this for 50 minutes I am in a lot of trouble but hopefully uh in a second you you’ll see that it quietens calm or it quietens right down and we bring the group back together but fundamentally this is you know this is me taking you through the very first lap and at this point I decide that I have to move up because I want to try and hold this front group and you know I put a little bit of effort in here only to realize that the group actually completely slows up and kind of getting back on is is not so much of a problem but it does look like you know we might even have been losing touch with the group uh before the end of the very first slap which I I guess in some kind of references would be class as a bit of a disaster I’ll also point out that my heart rate is 171 and I kind of previously to this thought i’ topped out at about 176 but this evening I hit 182 during my final epic Sprint finish so if you do nothing else please do cut through to the Sprint finish of this race because I am uh mly proud of it and I’ll talk you through it once we get to that point so it still looks like we have you know 16 18 riders or so in our group and for for the best part you know my goal for this was trying to understand what it means to hold a line in a corner it’s very easy to say it but doing it and the practicality of that is is something else and to me it kind of means that you know if you shoulder check and you see there’s one Rider inside you then you you effectively have to leave at least one Rider’s room for that person on the inside and that was the nicer thing about this race I think I think we get to a point where there’s 12 or 13 riders in our group and it means that you know if you look over your shoulder and there’s one R and I think this happens here I look over my shoulder and realize there’s one Rider inside me so I can come across slightly knowing that I’ve only got to leave like you know a rider and a half’s room um so I come off that corner and then and kind of move through and I realize that the wind at this point is coming from the right hand side a big old kind of cross SL head wind so this finish straight is always kind of directly into the wind and for that reason I kind of just let myself fall back and then tuck in on the back of the group having to put some Watts through and it tends to be why this start finish straight is a little bit slower than the back side of the course with the corners where you get a bit more of a Tailwind you get to kind of use that as an advantage so the best position as you are going down this particular point on the course is to be tucked in on the left cuz then you are sheltered from the Riders on the right so this guy that’s on the right just in front of us here is is actually just taking a fullon battering and I’m actually trying to try to stay as far left as possible and use what I can to kind of sit in Behind These Wheels I I’ll also say that the GoPro sometimes exaggerates the gap between myself and the rider in front I’m fairly sure that we are quite um tucked into to one another at this point um there isn’t much longer of me holding this front group and I I think when I try to figure it out there was about 10 Riders ahead of us maybe maybe 11 but at some point uh a few of the guys at the front kind of go so keep an eye on the wattage as we near the top Corner um and we round it because you you’ll see what kind of happens and and the way that we have to try and respond to that and bear in mind we are maybe three four laps into this so I have done a proportion where I’ve just got used to kind of cycling with this group but the other thing that I had to learn very quickly was cycling through the corners and you see the guys here just you know we’re all still turning the pedals as we go around the corner 500 odd watts and then kind of come back into the group and at this point i’ probably say there’s about 10 or so Riders ahead of me um and then you can see the guy at the front a couple of the guys just start kicking out the saddle off they go um I try and react to it probably not strong enough um and hit that kind of 6 700 Watts I don’t sustain it uh and this was the ultimately the move that that drops me off the very front kind of group that and it kind of felt like it was touching distance something similar to this happened a few laps ago and then the group slowed down and it gave us half a chance to ride back on uh my heart rate obviously hitting 171 which is you know that’s that’s some hard riding for me so I just kind of realized that oh God I think I’ve kind of ballsed this up and missed the move a little bit but I was using this as a massive learning experience and part of that learning experience is kind of understanding how much you can or you know how much you can lean above bike over and keep pedaling through the corners how you can like adjust your line through the corners with other Riders on your inside and and Riders on your outside um and that was kind of like part of the focus for me certainly within the first like four I think it was like four or five laps that I might have done uh with the with the main group but the interesting thing is that when I fell off that main group I was kind of like a little bit disheartened I was like what do I do what do I do and it turns out that these two Riders uh came from from behind so these guys have been working together and they kind of caught me up as I was like cycling around kind of looking over my shoulder what is the best thing to do cuz I’m obviously not going to be able to work back onto the group I don’t have that strength in me um I saw these guys coming they come past me and I was like well let’s kind of put our little threepers team together and here we are coming down the start finish straight and as you can see the rider on the front is always kind of forward and right because the that is obviously where the wind is coming from so the most shelter is just tucked on the inside of the rider in front of you to kind of get that most protection if you will so this is our little three man or three up riding section now and this is what actually became really fun for me because even though we dropped off you know the the first 10 11 places in the race I now get a chance to to ride with two other guys we get to alternate turns and and we were very kind of treating it very much as like um an eort that the three of us kind of understood that we’d be getting more out of it if we were to work together and and try and take us up but at the same time you know I will point out this is the penultimate lap so we’re going to finish this lap and then we’re going to go into the last lap of the race so this is the three of us you know things to consider I guess at this point is is sharing the workload um who’s doing time at the front but and then when I realize that we kind of come round this lap and we come into the very last lap and I hear a bell and I kind of like okay well this is the last lap of the race it suddenly kind of popped into my head okay well where do you want to be positioned you know how much work do you want to do um and bear in mind guys I I am fully aware that this is a cat 4 race you know it’s fun it’s enjoyable but at the same time you know I think part of that enjoyment is is kind of taking it you know in that kind of serious context of like well you know it’s still it’s still a race it doesn’t matter that it has catall written in front of it so you know we can only extrude the amount enjoyment enjoyment from it that it the your mindset will allow so I was kind of taking it uh you know not not massively kind of crazy serious but I was like you know what it’s fun to to consider these things it’s fun to have to make those tactical decisions that eventually come in so this section that we’re doing now as we come down the back side of the course is very much wind assisted and after doing you know a number of loops on this course I realized that I can come into to this corner a little bit wider and come under the rider in front of me and that kind of puts me inside the wind on them uh when I come out of the corner and these are things that I was trying to do now knowing that on the last lap they could come in quite handy so being like kind of tucked in on the inside and just a bit more wind protected coming out of the corner was going to put me in a better position and the same thing goes for what is effectively the next Corner which will next lap be the last corner of the race before we come in into the start finish and it’s a good it was a good chance because I’ve never rid this course before I’ve never done a race before I don’t really know when people kind of I I don’t want to say break off but I don’t really know when people kind of go when do people kick how you know when do they push I’ve never done it I’ve got no experience of it so a lot of this is me reacting or having to react to what other people are doing and thank you for the little elbow throw um throw in the elbow as you come onto the start finish straight which is entirely into the wind kind of I I knew that this kind of in some respects put me in a good position and I knew that I wanted to take take our little three-person group up the entirety of the start finish if you look at the map on the top left you’ll see that you know it it is a good length of distance to cover guys that’s the start Finish Line that we are crossing now and on the next lap that you know that was the Bell lap so or this is the Bell lap this is the last lap so so we have just done effectively what will be the last corner and then ultimately the Sprint so I these these are things I’m thinking about and I was thinking that if I lead the entirety of the start finish with a three-man group I am going to let the group come through once we get to the top they will understand hopefully that I’ve you know I’ve put in a reasonable effort so at least one of them will lead half the other lap and then the other one can lead like the half of the D so it kind of puts me in quite a good position if I was to only do a little bit of this start finish stray I might end up on the front kind of well you know at the wrong time and my my idea was was that basically there’s two riders that are are behind me now who I am effectively competing against in you know the loose sense of the term so if I let those guys come through at the right time I’m going to get the rest that I need to put me in a a good position for for the finish line or certainly the Finish Line Sprint not that I actually understand or know how to perform a Sprint so there we go I’ve basically taken us up the entire length of the start finish uh and then I let the the other two come through and dive straight back onto a wheel so with only basically half a lap left here you know and having me done uh this the whole start finish straight I’m thinking that I’m in a reasonable position because hopefully these guys will do you know a quarter lap each and then that basically puts us you know I the next time I’m on the front is Sprint finish time not that I actually know what that actually means I just know that you know do less uh you know and this does actually Circle back to the um the comment that originally someone said to me was you know don’t don’t work for other people uh i’ I’d done my work but I did hopefully did it at the right time which then lets me kind of move to the back of this group and it is obviously caveated by you know we are fighting for you know 12th 13th 14th 15th whatever position it is so part of part of this ride was you know the enjoyment of working together as a group but then ultimately that that switch has to turn off at some point so we get a nice S turn which was you know a quarter lap and then I’m thinking okay right well this is there is two things that are going to happen now either we’re going to basically just ride the full length uh to the finish line um or he’s going to pull off and and let me kind of lead in onto that finish straight so you know anything can happen I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen I just know that if all I need to do is kind of focus on my positioning I feel like I’m in a really good position here because out the three of us I’m second wheel so I’m getting some wind it means that if it does come down to that kind of Sprint then I’ve only got one wheel to to try and like push past so for me I was like pretty happy here I’m just trying to see what’s kind of going to happen I I know that I want to start on the outside of this corner and end up on the inside of him on the exit of this next corner do notice that the hands go down onto the drops I didn’t actually realize it at the time but obviously I think he was getting ready to dive out the saddle and put a kick in I see his kick and I cover his kick straight away and this guys I love this I love this so much I cannot tell you how much I love this keep an eye on the wattage so he kicks he kicks straight out the corner and he kicks hard but I managed to cover the whole kick and then I end up behind him and the Watts come off just slightly as he dies back into the saddle and I was like well now’s my time guys I’m overgeared here I’m working you know I’m way overgeared but damn it comes down to like literally inches and I think out of our like fighting for the positions we were in I take [Music] it oh your boy has finished the race oh that was hard but guys did you see the finish that was very fun right let’s get my I’ll give you a full debrief in a second the cat 3’s are going now with the women I think let me sort myself [Music] out what a great night for some racing very cool few words for the YouTube for the YouTube yeah hi um okay I’ve never raced before right okay so when we kind of joined up and had our little kind of three person yeah I’m calling it a break away but it was a break off I mean that that seemed to me like a lot of fun yeah yeah it is it’s it’s just demoralizing because you’re just competing for whatever’s left at the end but yeah must must have been like seventh or eth I think um I I’ll officially um I haven’t checked but yeah there yeah and like we were just doing the right thing right just taking you’ve got two choices at that point it’s kind of Never say die or you can drop off and you can Kiss It Goodbye and uh leave it till next time so I I almost always go around and see what I can pick up you know you’re in for a workout anyway right so I loved our Sprint down the the the which you edged yeah yeah yeah I I didn’t know what I was doing I just saw you come out of the corner and to be fair you led into the corner so I knew you had the harder you had done more of the work coming into it sure but between us three I felt like you were the strongest Rider of the three but I think you led into the corner came out of the corner then you kind of went and I knew that if I just tried to hold your wheel I’ve never done it before I just saw I’ve just seen it happen on TV so I I’ve done it a couple of times I know I can that’s generally from there to here is about a 30 second Sprint yeah um so I’ve got it more or less measured but to be fair I think I had done the lap before where I pretty much done that turn I was hoping um the other guy who’s with us the Condor guy he um he basically LED most of that but then he tactically came off just before the last left hand so that’s why I thought you went early because I thought you didn’t want him basically coming oh no so my my feeling we had another but you said at the end that we’d laed him but I thought he kind of jumped on at the end so I was like hang a minute you haven’t done any work I want us for Tov protected so I wanted us to fin finish at the end so I have to say though I I really appreciate that last like effort coming CU I for my first race I couldn’t care where we where we came to get to the Finish Line like what felt like inches apart from one another that’s that’s the fun of it I’d rather Miss by an inch than kind of like just do nothing oh man I appreciate it like you literally made my day for the first ever Racing Experience so I’ll I’ll be telling everyone there’s one every week until second week of July okay cool yeah I I’m going to try and come down if you’re can hang in [Music] my legs are absolutely killing me okay little debrief from that was first and foremost I really enjoyed it uh a lot of the anxiety kind of stuck with me over the first few laps I actually didn’t get to do a sighting lap I think that’s what it’s called which made it a little bit harder cuz I didn’t really know the know the course that’s the lesson learned for next time though get here a little bit earlier or at least you know do a do a lap before you have to try and race it I spent the whole time at the back which was fine like it felt like the most comfortable spot for me so when I fell off the back I was a bit like what do I do now because there was a little bit of anxiety about that like you know effectively do I just keep looping around do I just on my own but luckily we found that little three-man group which then became incredibly fun it’s like the race within the race one of the guys did say afterwards that that it was quite a fast evening obviously it’s a you know one of the nicest evenings we’ve had in June which made it a little bit quicker but what I did learn is you know you speak to the guys afterwards everyone is super super friendly we had our little three-man race which I like whole heart like hand on heart really enjoyed that and then that finish just like I I I literally can’t believe it what’s I mean I know that I wherever we came in the race which was not near the front it was still so exciting to to see someone go to then try and have to hold their wheel in a cat 4 race guys like context and then kind of just what felt like nose over the line it wasn’t a bike throw guys I’m not I don’t know how to do that but it felt like you know we was it just felt like a proper race which I just thought was was like a lot of fun so I’m going to have to come back next week and we’ll give it another crack cuz I really enjoyed it guys thanks for joining in hopefully this has given you guys the encouragement that you might need uh and just some details about what it’s like kind of joining in on a race and getting stuck in so my advice is give it a go so if you guys found that useful you know please do like subscribe to the channel um we will be racing again soon I’ve got a City race next week which again that’s going to be crazy I don’t know what’s going to happen there but yep I will see you guys on another one soon thanks for sticking around