The Practice Crit From HELL

Recently I shot up to Los Angeles, CA to race the ELDO Crit Series. This is a USAC Sanctioned P1-3 bike race, they do also have Master's and CAT 4/5 Categories if you're chasing those ever elusive USA Cycling Upgrade Points that everyone needs.
This is a great race series for learning the ropes and there is a TON of talent out there. We had a pretty stacked field was some serious firepower in it. I made some horrible mistakes early on and pulled a rookie move doing too much work and completely missing the back of the field when I needed to jump back in.
This left me chasing in time trial position for a few laps until finally, about 10 more minutes passed in the bike race and they finally chased me down.
Once they did, I was able to get in the mix a bit, jump to some moves, and get involved in the race a bit more to get in some really good training and I learned quite a bit more about race craft when fighting a small field.
I had a really good time overall and highly recommend heading up to LA for a crit on Tuesday nights, especially if it's ELDO you plan on doing.
Thanks for watching!
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[@cooperk4]

Eldo is routinely harder than the weekend races. It’s an attack-fest and if you don’t play the course right the crosswinds will pop you for sure. I have learned a lot going out there when I can.

[@WaltDoesBikes]

Dude, I totally agree. Smaller field too. Honestly, it was a great learning experience. I realize I just need more of that. We have the same situation down here with FIWC on Thursdays but overall I still would say ELDO is tougher just because it's a little more actual racing and less group-ride-y if you know what I mean.

[@MarcoGarcia-qk4mi]

Sad that next week is the last of the series

[@WaltDoesBikes]

Man, I wish I lived closer I’d be there all the time. Best tactical practice and tbh workout I’ve had in a while

[@thecyclinggreek274]

Great presentation. Man I wish I could sound as good on my voice-overs.

[@WaltDoesBikes]

Thank you! Ah it’ll come with time, man. I’ve done a lot of these now and I feel like I’m still improving every time. Learning to not oversaturate the mic and keep levels smooth and also to not yell into it or crank the gain too high. So much to think about 😩

[@DeckMower]

Wait, so these count for upgrade points now? I remember being told that, even though it was USAC sanctioned, these races didn't count for upgrade points.

[@WaltDoesBikes]

Yeah, pretty sure ELDO does. They're USAC Sanctioned and I've seen a few people go 4>3 via ELDO. Getting points in that P1-3 OPEN class though is no easy task with the likes of Bahati, Charon, Nigel, etc.

[@TheCyclissimo]

I'm just here for the thumbnail.

[@WaltDoesBikes]

It took more time than the edit tbh

[@el_yoni02]

You probably didn’t have enough coffee 😁

[@WaltDoesBikes]

There’s never enough coffee tbh