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M38A1
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I shoot a regular Thursday evening bicycle road race series. Within that series is another three week series called Saturday Night Fever. These races are held on - wait for it - Saturday evening.
Over this summer, a few members have PM'd me on just what these bicycle races are about. So here's a little storyboard on what goes on for a race.
There's a typical registration process where riders can register on-site or pre-register on-line before the race day. There's a little incentive to "pre-reg" as it's called as they provide a prize for each group racing to one lucky participant. There's roughly 180 people racing each week. I've heard (but not confirmed) this is the largest/longest running crit series in the country at the moment.
There's an EMS/Medical crew present at every race too. Yeah, there's folks that go down at these events.
About 4pm or so, registration is setting up as are the various vendors. There's food trucks, bicycle repair shops and massage tents setup. While this is going on, the racers of all categories are warming up on the track. The track is about three miles in total and can be configured to run clockwise/counterclockwise and varying distances each direction. Here's a few of the folks warming up. This is one of the larger teams.
This participant came up from Houston to race this evening.
Here is a typical starting lineup. The racers are categorized by skill level and age. There are overlapping categories or "Cats" so some can be in multiple races throughout the evening. This particular race is the Womens 3/4 and Jr 4/5. You can think of the Categories as 5 being the beginners/less skilled and 1's as the top of the tier system.
The announcer (Logan) does announcing, race starts/commentary and provides some great tunes for atmosphere.
This is Paul in the Jr 4/5 category. He's wearing the "leader" jersey as at this point in the season of racing he's in 1st place.
The race underway. I get a lot of different facial expressions as the riders are comfortable with me only feet away from them. I also try to find good vantage points to grab images. This race is 30min in duration.
These women are all competing against one another, but look at the faces. Most are smiling. I'm amazed at the friendship within the groups and also amazed at just how much they talk to one another (strategy) during a race. Again, the leader jersey is visible in this shot for this category.
Next race is the Mens 3/4. These guys are beasts in my book and it's a fiercely competitive group of riders, It's also about 50 or so in the group. It's huge.
This is Billy F. He went on to win this Cat race and in the rain no less. The two leaders were back and forth, back and forth all race long (30min) and that talking goes on here too. As these two guys pulled away from the pack, on the last lap I heard the other guy say "you can have this one". So I concluded there's some strategy even in that decision.
Next up (and in the rain no less) was the Womens Pro 1/2/3 & Mens 35+ 1/2/3/4. This is a seriously fast group of riders. They race for 30min.
Note the faces again. All smiles.
One of the sponsors, Woombikes, puts on a Kids Lap. There's some real photo opportunities in this group. I try to hit the start line, then run across to the Finish Line. Logan is starting to give me a head start before he releases the kids. I must be getting old.
Here's one at the start line before the lap
And a proud mother with their child crossing the finish line area
Next up is the Mens Pro 1/2/3. Call it the cream of the crop in the category rankings. They race for 55min.
The rain doesn't seem to slow these guys down much. Even in turns.
Certainly not optimal racing conditions in my opinion
This was the last turn before the Finish Line. There were half a dozen spills during the evening at this location.
Again, even in less than ideal conditions the riders seem to have a sense of humor.
The last race of the evening is the Mens 4/5. Another very well fielded class. Here's the starting line prior to the start. Still raining but slowing up.
Here's Grahame, one of our own TWT members who came up from Houston to race.
These guys and gals are in every race. They are safety riders who stay at the back of the pack and in the event of an accident, they radio the medical guys to come.
Here's first and second with a lap to go. Note the leader jersey on the lead guy.
...and lookie who crosses the finish line for the win. Jonah is wearing the Leader jersey and is the coach of Colton who was just behind him. The two worked hard to get to the front and stay there and Colton got the win.
I hope this has been a good little story board to give you some insight as to what bicycle racing is all about. I skipped the after-race beer pics.
.
Over this summer, a few members have PM'd me on just what these bicycle races are about. So here's a little storyboard on what goes on for a race.
There's a typical registration process where riders can register on-site or pre-register on-line before the race day. There's a little incentive to "pre-reg" as it's called as they provide a prize for each group racing to one lucky participant. There's roughly 180 people racing each week. I've heard (but not confirmed) this is the largest/longest running crit series in the country at the moment.
There's an EMS/Medical crew present at every race too. Yeah, there's folks that go down at these events.
About 4pm or so, registration is setting up as are the various vendors. There's food trucks, bicycle repair shops and massage tents setup. While this is going on, the racers of all categories are warming up on the track. The track is about three miles in total and can be configured to run clockwise/counterclockwise and varying distances each direction. Here's a few of the folks warming up. This is one of the larger teams.
This participant came up from Houston to race this evening.
Here is a typical starting lineup. The racers are categorized by skill level and age. There are overlapping categories or "Cats" so some can be in multiple races throughout the evening. This particular race is the Womens 3/4 and Jr 4/5. You can think of the Categories as 5 being the beginners/less skilled and 1's as the top of the tier system.
The announcer (Logan) does announcing, race starts/commentary and provides some great tunes for atmosphere.
This is Paul in the Jr 4/5 category. He's wearing the "leader" jersey as at this point in the season of racing he's in 1st place.
The race underway. I get a lot of different facial expressions as the riders are comfortable with me only feet away from them. I also try to find good vantage points to grab images. This race is 30min in duration.
These women are all competing against one another, but look at the faces. Most are smiling. I'm amazed at the friendship within the groups and also amazed at just how much they talk to one another (strategy) during a race. Again, the leader jersey is visible in this shot for this category.
Next race is the Mens 3/4. These guys are beasts in my book and it's a fiercely competitive group of riders, It's also about 50 or so in the group. It's huge.
This is Billy F. He went on to win this Cat race and in the rain no less. The two leaders were back and forth, back and forth all race long (30min) and that talking goes on here too. As these two guys pulled away from the pack, on the last lap I heard the other guy say "you can have this one". So I concluded there's some strategy even in that decision.
Next up (and in the rain no less) was the Womens Pro 1/2/3 & Mens 35+ 1/2/3/4. This is a seriously fast group of riders. They race for 30min.
Note the faces again. All smiles.
One of the sponsors, Woombikes, puts on a Kids Lap. There's some real photo opportunities in this group. I try to hit the start line, then run across to the Finish Line. Logan is starting to give me a head start before he releases the kids. I must be getting old.
Here's one at the start line before the lap
And a proud mother with their child crossing the finish line area
Next up is the Mens Pro 1/2/3. Call it the cream of the crop in the category rankings. They race for 55min.
The rain doesn't seem to slow these guys down much. Even in turns.
Certainly not optimal racing conditions in my opinion
This was the last turn before the Finish Line. There were half a dozen spills during the evening at this location.
Again, even in less than ideal conditions the riders seem to have a sense of humor.
The last race of the evening is the Mens 4/5. Another very well fielded class. Here's the starting line prior to the start. Still raining but slowing up.
Here's Grahame, one of our own TWT members who came up from Houston to race.
These guys and gals are in every race. They are safety riders who stay at the back of the pack and in the event of an accident, they radio the medical guys to come.
Here's first and second with a lap to go. Note the leader jersey on the lead guy.
...and lookie who crosses the finish line for the win. Jonah is wearing the Leader jersey and is the coach of Colton who was just behind him. The two worked hard to get to the front and stay there and Colton got the win.
I hope this has been a good little story board to give you some insight as to what bicycle racing is all about. I skipped the after-race beer pics.
.
