warmups for criteriums

I recommend you pre-race oil for legs! But with or without it, drive some time with bigger cadence before start! Just don`t push too much and you can do it as much time as you want, but without exeggerating of course.🙂

sam218 said:

I'm thinking of doing a criterium but was wondering how / how much time people warmup for them.

A good warmup is absolutely crucial in criteriums. Although you might occasionally get lucky and have that starts out easy, the typical crit starts as an all-out race for position. At the beginning of a crit, the field has not yet gotten sorted out, so you will have weak riders mixed in with strong riders near the front. That will cause gaps to open and all sorts of squirrely riding for the first few laps, so you need to be very attentive until things settle down.

You do not want to be stuck at the back of a fast criterium where you will be hitting the brakes before every turn and then having to stand up and sprint after every turn. One clue is to keep an eye on the bigger teams and see what they're doing. If you see them doing a fairly fast warmup, you can bet there will be fireworks from the start. Also, the older you get, the more of a warmup you will need. I'd suggest getting on the bike half an hour before the start, doing some easy spinning, and as it gets closer to start time a few fairly hard efforts that will get your heart rate up. You will typically get only a limited amount of time to warm up on the course. Use that time to get familiar with the turns, especially if you haven't ridden it before. I like to do at least one lap on the course at about 75% effort right before going to the start line. Whatever you do, be sure you are mentally prepared to make some very hard efforts during the first part of the race in order to maintain a good position, bridge gaps, and generally keep yourself in the race.

Keep a close eye on the start line. You do not want to start a crit, especially if you think it will be a fast one, at the back unless you are just doing it for training. Riders will sometimes start staking out spots on the start line quite a while before they are called to the start by the officials. If you see that happening, get yourself over there pronto and don't let yourself get pushed around too much. A good warmup won't do you much good if you get stuck behind some guy who can't get his foot clipped in at the start, or a couple of guys playing bumper-cars ahead of you.

Be very careful to get your foot clipped in on the first try. Practice it. If you miss on your first attempt, it's better to get in a few pedal strokes on whatever your foot hits, and try to clip in a little later. If you're fumbling with your pedals at he start, you will be lucky to avoid being dropped on the first lap. Once things get sorted out, which takes a few laps at least, things will sometimes settle down a bit.