Dream crit?

I'd like there to be separate Women's 4s and Women's 3s fields in addition to a Women's 1-2 race. And for the Women's masters race to be a separate as well. Four women's races! And for them each to be at least 40 minutes +2.

I think a technical course with curves and climbs is more interesting. But no "suicide curve" where crashes are inevitable. Fencing and marshalling that insure no one wanders onto the well-swept and debris-free course.

Primes are fun. Payouts 10 or 15 deep in the large fields is great. And medals for the top 3. Everyone loves a medal.

And a DJ playing fun music, an amusing announcer, food stands. Registration fees under $30 would be great.

Any crit with a short, sharp hill is rad.

Twilight crit, pouring rain, technical, fast, flat

I'll take that short, sharp hill...as long as the races are LONG like superweek style! None of this 20 minute crit junk.

Um... Superweek seems to know EXACTLY how to run a race...

8-10 corners (2km in length), twilight, 1.5 hrs long, fast, with the sharp hill that makes the legs burn, a nice long finishing straight, and a prime every 3 laps to keep the pace amazingly high (doesn't have to be a large prime)! With a field off 100+

Also loud music blaring along the sidelines.

Oh and rain is always welcome...just no white painted pedestrian crosswalks...

Afternoon crit, bone dry, non-technical, slow, hilly ...

Take the two-day schedule and the insane purses of Elk Grove. Ditch some of the pro races and add more women's races. Everyone except Cat 5's races 45 minutes or more. Transport it to a more interesting course, like Beverly or Winfield Twilight -- or some kind of non-Euclidean Mobius strip that climbs and climbs but never descends.

Drum up the crowds of Nascar and the good-natured heckling of Snake Alley or Cyclocross. Rope the Tribune into a sponsorship so that its sports section is compelled to show some love. At the beginning of the morning's first juniors race, a squadron of F-15's should scream overhead, and at the end of each race there should be fireworks and confetti.

Instead of metal barriers, the course should be lined with walls of cotton candy. This way, instead of crashing and injuring themselves, riders get slurped into a pillow of pink stickiness. They then spend the rest of the race eating their way out.

Back to earth: $20 is a nice price. $10 for a second race is nice, too. I don't know that a lot of us plan our schedules based on prize money. We race because we're racers. The thought of actually winning is so far-fetched for most of us that prize money is an afterthought. Sure, we'll do a double-take at a $5,000 purse, but speaking as a 3, the difference between $300 and $750 and $1,000 is negligible.

Primes are fun. Announce them beforehand, so that we have a better idea whether we're sprinting for socks or Ksyriums. It's impossible to hear announcers as we fly by. We spend half the lap asking one another, "Was that a bell? Did he say 'twenty-five smackers' or 'tuna fish sandwich'?"

Seriously, get people to watch. Evanston did a fantastic job last year getting people to show up, but then also helping them understand what was going on by passing out educational brochures. The speed gun was a fun feature, too, so that the crowd could see how fast riders were going.

Pet peeves? Short races, slow or inaccurate results, bad marshaling, four-corner flatness.

yeah, evanston did a good job last year, except for the BK Stacker.

crits are the best in urban settings. evanston got close to an urban setting last year. the BMC Software crit near Wall Street in NYC is really amazing, and the Chicago Criterium should be exciting this year.

i'd like to see manhole covers covered in rainy conditions.

The BK stacker wasn't the fault of the crit promoters, rather the racers (note there were zero crashes there in the P/1/2 field). Four lanes down to one is pretty exciting. They do the same thing at Philly just before the wall.

-dream crit?
podium girls that have "non-stock parts" that give you bonus prizes.

- Twilight crit or night time crit.
- Free drinks (beer!) for spectators
- Local bands playing for free
- Convenient location for racers & spectators (parking, public transit)
- Separate fields for all women, men, & juniors.
- An MC who can fake knowing how the race is run & who is racing by name/team.

In other words it would be cool to see a crit where a lot of people came out to watch. Especially non-cyclists.

You took the words out of my mouth, Luke. The purses and pavement of Elk Grove. The crowds of Snake Alley, the hill of Fox River Grove, the technical turns of Downers, but with the long straight to the finish of Evanston...oh, and the green grass, trees, and spaciousness of Whitnall Park.

No 20 minute crits. When you are paying more than $1 a minute it takes the fun out of racing.

Any crit with Druber so we can all hear throughout the event how stupid we're all riding and just in case we were hard of hearing, read about what a bunch of idiots we all are a few days later. Gotta love the Drube!

Any crit where the road hazards have been properly addressed (yea, I'm talking about you Superweek/Carl Zach/Waukesha, get it together this year). Crashing due to overlapped wheels, bombing corners, etc is one thing. Crashing because of course neglect due to unfilled potholes, unmarked gaps between pavement, etc is another.

Crits that did it right (to name a few): Snake Alley, Grays Lake, Whitnall Park, Superweek/Bensenville

Evanston had it just about perfect on their first try...but we are talking "dream" crit here:

1. Evanston's course (fast, flat, technical, decent pavement)

2. Elk Grove's payout

3. Downer Grove's atmosphere/spectators

4. Gateway Cup's catering to the racers (free spaghetti dinner at a Bocci club)

5. Superweek's competition/prestige

6. Superweek's race length

7. Reasonable entry fee (under $30)

8. Traditional categories (pro/1/2, 3s, 4/5s, i.e. no "3/4" or 1/2/3)

9. good finishline services/announcer (velotech/fletcher lane)

10. good officials (Gateway cup/Missouri)

11. podium girls (gateway cup - giro della montagne, lafayette sq.)

12. a pro-only event like downer's grove to watch the big names, or pro-am to cheer your teammates' just to finish another lap

Port-O-Potties close to the line, for last minute emptying. Any races shorter than a decent warm-up should be categorized as a felony.

Crowds of the Snake, course like Bensenville or Evanston (if they patch up the back side a bit, even better).

I'm also a fan of night races, particularly on big streets in big cities. Good pavement, decent lighting, fast course.

matt seemed to have the insight-i'll add that a 50+ category be raced in the cat 4s or at least scored seperately and raced with the 40+

Places to fill up your bottle with water.

The big crits were they don't provide water have an unbelievable amount of waste from water bottles.

Depending on the layout--a place that is shaded or protected from rain.

A patient official overseeing registration.

"Um... Superweek seems to know EXACTLY how to run a race..."

WTF? WTF? WTF?

It's wonderful to drive 1 + hours to a race, only to have to sit for 45min. while they get the permit o.k.'d from the city, or to have the course set up.

$800 / 1st place Pro 1/2 $ for 18 days.. WTF? 10 days! 10 Days! No more 18 days of garbage races poorly put together.

Two lard ass's running a GREAT event into the ground. Great representation for our sport.. Events run by people who have never turned a pedal = piss poor events.

What a shame they are slowly killing a great event!

Twilight miss and out crit. It would be great for spectators too!

All this talk about a twilight crit?? You have heard of Giro d'Grafton in Wisconsin, right? It was one of my favorite races last year and the crowd WAS amazing for the final few races. Registration is already open...

Oh, and it was run VERY well.

My dream crit:

1. Traditional categories (1/2, 3, 4, 5, 30+ W/1/2/3 and W4)

2. 45min+ races.

3. Hot laps (where you do $10 for the leader of each lap on the last 10laps of the race...we did this last year at our race and it was insane).

4. No whiners...like Mr. Benner.

I wait all year for Superweek. I've never found it an ordeal the few instances I've had to wait 45 minutes more.

Thomas, I think this is the second time you've come here to slag on Superweek and its promoters. I don't get it. If the events are so terrible, why are they so popular? Why are they so full? Why do so many people come from across the country to participate?

Who are you? I don't see your name (assuming its your real name) in any results. Are you a racer? A rival promoter? What explains this axe you're grinding?

Sorry to state the obvious, but I think that the biggest goal of the promoters should be to get more riders to the race. The most important thing is to get the race organized well in advance and promote the race through avenues other than word of mouth.

They need to have a decent course. I suggest consulting multiple higher category and masters riders before just deciding on a course. For crits, some people like them flat, others like them with small hills. I for one love a screaming fast, flat, multi corner crit. FWIW ten years ago the USCF rulebook stated that a crit should be relatively flat for the area. Narrower roads and corners make the race more technical and tend to string out the fields, making for much more excitement. As a side, for those riders that can't take a narrow corner without touching the brakes I suggest watching a pro race, looking up the term "apex" and perhaps some lessons. No joke. I'm sure Robbie Ventura would be glad to help in this area.

Prize money does attract riders. So get sponsorship early and don't rely on the entry fees to cover it. Once the race is established as a good race, higher attendance will help you obtain your goals (read as profit). For riders that are interested in prize money, races that payout $100 to 3 places deep are not nearly as attractive as those that pay $500 to ten deep. Lower payouts also make the race less attractive to everyone else that doesn't care about prize money because the field is smaller. The higher the payout the deeper it goes, appearing more attainable and attracts more riders.

Entry fees should be reasonable and give incentive to do multiple races to attract more riders, making the fields larger. In Wisconsin I've seen races that charge $10 for a second race and $0 for a third. It should be no skin off the promoter's back to allow someone to do a second/third race in a day for peanuts because they probably wouldn't race a second race if they didn't feel like they were competitive enough to warrant paying the full entry fee. There are riders (me included) that don't show up to certain races because of the fee/prize ratio and because promoters are charging full price for that second race when they could go elsewhere and race for cheaper or spend the day doing a training ride without having to pay.

Short races suck, especially when the entry fee is high. That's all I have to say about that.

I think it would be interesting if there were more races with a sliding category schedule. Something like P/1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5. This would allow someone that is in an in between category (2's, 3's, 4's) to decide which race they would like to race in, gain experience from the higher category and would also allow for riders to do multiple races in a day. A masters rider would theoretically be able to do three or more races. I know there are some people reading this thinking, "He's nuts, people are going to be squirrelly because they're toasted," but we all do 3-4+ hour training rides and with the races spaced appropriately it would work. If you can't handle a second or third race you just get dropped. This would increase field sizes.

One thing that I don't think has been touched on is scheduling. It's probably wise to run the masters races in the morning from oldest to youngest so that masters riders are putting out their freshest effort for their age group. Assuming the sliding category idea is implemented, the women's and junior's races should probably be inserted in between the men's categories such that both the men and women could have a break in between races should they choose to do two.

And oh yeah, Superweek rocks because of their prestigious courses, 17 days straight of racing, deep payout of nice size purses for all categories, long races and probably because the aforementioned whiners don't show up, but people from all over the country (and world) do. I also really love the Memorial Day weekend Quad Cities races because they are well run.