I am trying to return to some high level masters racing in 2026. One of the things I feel like I can’t quite get over in my life is the thrill and joy of racing a criteriums. The thing is–I’ve been injured in them before, and had friends who were also (a few quite badly) injured racing them. I have my first one slated just 3 short months away, part of a training series. I’m both excited and actually terrified, as I haven’t been competitive in crits for almost 20 years.
Does anyone have tips on getting through these races unscathed, or is that just not really possible?
You can reduce the risk by sensible riding but no way to eliminate it.
If it helps, I race in the UK Masters races and they are much safer than the open age British Cycling races. There are still crashes, but much less common.
So bottom line is that racing crits carries a higher risk of crashing than just riding. There’s nothing you can really do to avoid that. But there are certainly things you can do to lower that risk. Most of the crashes I see are 100% avoidable either by one person doing something stupid or by the other person not recognizing the threat that person poses early enough. I totally believe that the occurrence and severity of most crashes is a skill issue.
I’ve avoided crashes this year by doing things like leaving just a little space when you see the field going into a corner 6 wide that will take no more than 3. Not only will this allow you to brake earlier when someone crashes ahead of you, but you might also be able to have an extra split second to find an exit path and get around it.
Being either further up or further back. Depending on the course you might be able to tailgun. Sitting at the back, coasting through corners, waiting till everyone else tires themselves out in the washing machine while you stay safe. Obviously there are some courses where this doesn’t work. In this case you want to be as far up as possible, like the top 15% or so. It might actually be worth spending a bit more energy to stay up there because your race will be safer and likely easier overall.
Stay smooth and stay in control. Most of the crashes I see are from people just wanting it too much at the wrong times. The corner dive bombs, the close passes, etc. The best chance you have of staying safe are to not do anything erratic, and to keep a wide view of everything around you. More awareness is almost always preferable to more effort. Not only are you likely to recognize dangerous moves around you but you can likely find the faster and easier paths to the front. This year in a crit I had someone run right into the back of me because they must have just not been paying attention at all. I was way off the back tailgunning when a crash happened probably 50 yards ahead the spread barrier to barrier. I had enough time to sit up, yell crash, slowly brake, and someone came in and clipped my back wheel going easily 10mph faster and launched themselves over their bars. Totally unnecessarily because they were completely out of control and not paying attention.
I’m sure there are other tips but those are the big ones for me.
The thing is, no matter how good or measured you are, you can get taken out at any time by others. My last big race some guys tangled, swept left across the group and took out over a dozen riders. I broke my collar bone as did a few others, and a couple of riders were hauled off in ambulances with more serious injuries. I used to find that level of risk acceptable, but I don’t anymore. I now mainly mtb, where I still crash and sometimes get injured, but it’s my own doing.
I have only done two crits, but clearly the risk is higher. At the second one I had someone crash right on front of me and only thanks to luck I was able to steer into a gap. During the same race someone hit my spokes with his pedals. At the first I had someone touch my rim with his tire.
In none of these cases did I deviate from my line or do something unexpected.
Crits are undoubtedly fun, but I reckon they are riskier than many XC mountain bike races.
I’ll add some other things I guess cause this is something I think about a lot.
I think this is one of the biggest determinants of safety. These more local series typically have the same people doing them week over week, they don’t build their season around them, and they’re for practice and fun. People just generally are safer around people they know and know they will have to see week after week, at the local bike shop, or on group rides. It’s still hard racing because everybody is competitive and wants to win but there’s just a little more space given, less risks taken, less dive bombing, etc.
Obviously crashes still happen but almost across the board local training races (especially off season) are safer than more prestigious mid-season races.
I stopped racing crits ~7-8 years ago after a pretty bad wreck, hospital visit, year+ of vertigo issues from hitting my head so hard, etc. It happened with me sitting in the top 5 with the field strung out (safe situation in theory). Wasn’t my first wreck in a crit, but a pretty nasty one and completely out of my control. As much as I loved the thrill of racing shoulder to shoulder in a big group and the sound of all those carbon wheels on the pavement, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk anymore. I still did a bit of road racing, but eventually transitioned to gravel and marathon MTB. In many ways, I get more of a rush out of gravel racing than I did from crits. The racing can be almost as fast and the starts can be dangerous for sure, but it becomes selective in a hurry and groups get manageable. Much more common to end up in smaller groups with folks of similar skills/ability. And easier to avoid danger and stupid stuff. It’s still pack racing and you are still at the mercy of others, I just find it much safer than crits. Been at it for about 8 years and no bad wrecks (knock on wood). More wrecks doing marathon MTB, but most are minor and almost always due to my own stupidity.
I do miss racing crits a little bit and have considered jumping in one here and there, but I would only do masters category. In my experience, masters is significantly safer and the racing is more interesting/dynamic. I found Cat3 most dangerous, much more so than Cat4/5. Cat4/5’s do stupid stuff because they don’t know better. But you can typically see and avoid the bad riders. Cat3’s are more skilled, but tend to prioritize results/aggression over safety.
Totally agree. Cat3 is that perfect mix of skill, speed, stupidity, aggression, motivation, etc to make it dangerous. It’s like the peak of the bike racing Dunning-Kruger.