This subject came up in a discussion.
Looking to make a list of all short crit laps and rate them.
I have ten listed below. If you have raced on them, what is your opinion?
If there was a CRIT RACE SERIES, which would you include?
Volcano lap (one of the first and comes with a timer and lap counter)
4.1 km 20 meters per lap
Richmond Flat lap (flat and fast)
5.1 km 12 mpl
Jarvis lap/Classic
4.7 km 49 mpl
Crit City lap/Dolphin/Bell (lap times)
2 km 17 mpl
I did a survey a couple years ago to inform route selection for the Rhino Crits. Currently we are using Downtown Dolphin, Bell Lap, Glasgow Crit Circuit, and Neokyo Crit Course, but we have switched them up occasionally. The survey does not include all of the routes you mentioned so it doesn’t really answer your questions but it remains pretty clear that Crit City is a winner, and Glasgow is also quite popular.
Your list doesn’t include either Classique or Innsbruckring which might qualify as crit circuits.
Personally I also find that I do not like the forward and reverse of a given route equally well. For example Downtown Dolphin is IMO better than Bell Lap, having all the climbing in one go.
Castle Crit is one I like personally but it has such a hard start, my experience with using it is that it has a high DNF rate as many riders get blown out the back in the first few seconds.
that was a suggest run route. nothing stopping it being a cycle route other than having to start at the beach and head out through the esses for a lead in.
Right. Not every loop can really be called a crit.
A crit has multiple laps, usually short and flat.
London Classique and Richmond Flats are both a bit longer at about 7 to 8 minutes.
I do hate the reverse because almost all races are in the main direction. Comfortable.
Paris (I was part of this) is a long lap over 9 minutes maybe ten. It is beautiful and was important for virtual France. It has been a long time since I raced it.
In Crit City, I have been dropped and slow pedaled, recover, and rejoin the pack. I like that it really confuses some people, taking a fts. lol.
The crit style races on Volcano are races of attrition. Sometimes, you just hold on for three, five, eight of ten laps. This is due to the short climb. In Richmond, you should be able to draft the entire time. In London, the leaders/fastest riders will jump on the climb and try to split the field. But, the climb is too small and short to have a good shot at dropping the main pack. The Watopia Hilly route is just a loop with a short hard climb. It isn’t a crit race.
I like all the feedback. Makuri/Neokyo has a bunch of loops. I dare anyone to free-ride and make all the turns manually. It’s a spaghetti map that looks like nonsense.