Milford's first crit...

I know doodle about bicycle racing and criteriums (or crits as they are called). So when Milford had it first ever crit yesterday I wandered downtown (only about 3 blocks for me) to see what it was all about. I must say that I was disappointed in the spectator turnout that was there to watch the event, but I blame that a bit on a poor promotion job. The organizers did a great job on the logistics of holding the event - setting up the course, providing for temporary bathroom facilities and such - but didn't do as good of a job on the publicity. As late as Thursday's Milford Times there was still no schedule of races published, so I never knew until I got down there then the various races would take place. It's a shame, because they might have drawn a bigger crown with better PR. Maybe next year (if there is a next year) they'll focus more on publicizing the event to the public.

Talking to a few of the organizers and participants, they seemed to be happy with the turn out of racers, with almost 400 peddlers participating in the various races, which included a couple of "races" for kids. They got great weather for the event - no rain and it was cool (high 60's to low 70's) most of the day. They also had a celebrity announcer to hand calling the races - Frankie Andreu. Andreu was a pro bicycle racer for 12 years and was on many of the teams that Lance Armstrong was on during his run of victories in the Tour De France. He also competed in two Olympics and many other high-profile international bicycle racing events. He is quite well known and respected by the racers of today. I'm sure that having him announce was quite a big thing for the organizers of the Milford crit.

I'm not sure that I did my crit-watching correctly. I did walk around the course a bit to get different perspectives and see more than one corner. My initial impression is that it's sort of like watching a NASCAR street race from a single vantage point. You sit there for quite a while with nothing happening and then there are about 4-5 seconds of frantic activity as the pack comes by and then nothing again. The Milford course was fairly short, about .92 miles, so one didn't have t0 wait more than 3-4 minutes for the next pass of the pack. The race format was to have the riders ride round and round the track for anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes (depending upon the skill-level category of the race) and then sprint to the finish with 2 to 5 laps at the end. The strategy seemed to be to all stay together in the pack for the bulk of the race and then it was an every-man-for-himself mad scramble to the finish. There were a couple of attempts at early break aways in the races that I watched, but the pack always seemed to be able to reel in the break away riders.

I'm not sure that this form of racing is actually going to catch on with uninitiated spectators, because of the long periods of nothing happening and the inability to see anything going on around the rest of the course. It is exciting in extremely tiny and quick doses, but that may not hold enough attraction for people used to seeing all of the action all the way around the course on TV. Many of the riders where from clubs all over the state and there were lots from out of state, too. A local Milford rider won the second to last race, which was nice to see.


We'll have to wait and see how everyone reacts to this year's crit - the participants, spectators and the merchants along Main St. wh0 had to be disappointed with the sparse crowds and the negative impact on business from having Main St. closed off all day on a Saturday. It may work out better as a Sunday event. At least the merchants won't lose their Saturday crowds that way. Wait 'til next year!