Twilight Criterium

We are just a few day away from this year’s Twilight Criterium, Saturday June 6th. If you’ve never seen bike racing then this is the event to be at. Not only is the weather forecasted to be nice this year but a Criterium is one of the best spectator friendly races. And being in the heart of downtown Ballard, there are plenty of places to grab a cold one to watch all the action.

A criterium, or crit, is a timed race done on a closed course about 1–1.3km long. There’s usually 4 corners but it can vary depending on the area. As for the racing, it’s kind of like NAS Car done on city streets with a little rugby and the running of the bulls thrown in for good measure. But that’s not all, randomly dispersed throughout the race are prize laps, or primes, just to keep the action jumping. Yeah it’s an exciting race.

I’ll be racing in the Cat 4/5 race at 4pm. I won’t lie, my fitness is suspect having only done 3 race this season. My plan is to go hard until I blowup and then try to hang on and finish with the peleton. It’s only 35 minutes but it’s going to hurt from the gun. The pros/1/2 field goes at 7:30 for 70 minutes and there are sure to be some fireworks. I’m looking at the Rocket, Dave Richter from HSP, to take it.