By Will Beeker, Hub Cycle Coordinator for Partners for Active Living
Last Friday PAL held the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Criterium for the 12th year, and I thought I would give everyone a short history of how crits as we know them today, came to be.
In the early 1900’s there were very limited ways for people to catch even the slightest glimpse of their favorite local cyclists. The exploits of these vaunted athletes often grew into legend as stories travelled back home from the grand tours like Le Tour de France, Vuelta Espana, and Giro d’Italia.
So as a way for locals to be able to see these racers first hand criteriums were created. They began as loops around the town perimeter, or larger city center, and would give spectators only a few opportunities to glimpse riders as they came past. These races also gave riders who were less fortunate in the tours another opportunity to win a race in their home towns. Over time these races were held as a prologue before other events, and most have become longer stage type races and are used as prologues for the tours. There are a few that are still run to this day, the most famous of which is the Criterium Du Dauphine, which is now an 8 day stage race, and includes many of the famous alpine climbs from the Tour de France.
Criterium racing came to the U.S. in the early 1920’s and in true American fashion we’ve made it our own. We began with the traditional European form of a longer lap, and over a short period of time we made our laps shorter and shorter. Races are most often limited by time. Some crits award monetary prizes for different achievements on laps called “primes” (“preems”), such as fastest lap or the winner of every 10th lap.
Currently crit racing is the most popular form of road racing in the country. Most all races are sanctioned by USA Cycling, and require riders to have a racing license in one of 6 Categories (“Cats”) to participate. As a cyclist the more you race the faster you’ll get, and you’ll be able to “cat up.” The lower the number of your Cat, the faster and more experienced the riders become. Our race combines Men’s Cat 4 and 5, Women’s Cat 4 and 3, Men’s 3 will race alone, and both Men’s and Women’s Cat 2, 1 and Elite racers will be in the same race.
These races require the rider to leverage all of their skills as the speeds are consistently high, the groups are always tight, and there are often many pitfalls that you would normally see but in the fog of peloton you miss out on. This gives the spectator quite the show as they get to see riders zoom by on the edge of their abilities many times over in a short period of time. Often the race is just as exciting for the spectators as it is for the riders.
Professional cyclists have used crits for years to keep their skills in groups sharp while they’re training for long tours and stage races. So the chances are good that if you come out to spectate that you’ll be able to hearken back to the origins of the sport, and see your favorite cyclist riding by.
We hope to see you out May 6th for the 12th annual Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Criterium. It’s the fastest night in town, and we promise a good time for the whole family.
For more on PAL, visit www.active-living.org
