Every year for the past 14, Team CARVE (Central Arkansas Velo) has put on a series of criterium bicycle races in North Little Rock's Burns Park Soccer Complex, the club's home track.
Team CARVE is an organization that aims to -- according to its president Scott Penrod -- enable members and the central Arkansas cycling community to become "the best cyclists they can be." This mission includes training events and seminars that are free and open to the public, and low entrance fee races such as the Ronde van Burns Summer Criterium series, which allows members to train their bodies and hone their skills without the financial commitment of bigger races.
Criterium racing is, as Penrod puts it, "like NASCAR on two wheels." Racers speed around a one- to two-mile track, lapping around multiple times before a final 20-minute push.
Bunched up in a tight group called a peloton,
cyclists are close enough with each other to rub elbows. To find success in this event, cyclists will need to learn how to work in the pack and to use the proximity of opponents to advantage: blocking out other cyclists, shielding your teammates (if you are lucky enough to have them) from overtaking opponents and navigating sharp turns without crashing into the cyclists around you.
"It requires somebody to be able to make a lot of decisions very quickly," says Hunter East, a three-time national champion in the criterium event and one of the founders of CARVE.
"It's sort of cerebral like that," he adds.
CARVE's crits take place on an eight-tenths-of-a-mile, six-turn loop in the soccer complex parking areas.
Participants must all be paid members of USA Cycling -- the national sanctioning body. They are sorted into five categories, from the beginner Cat 5 to the experienced Cat 1. Events are on five Thursday evenings through June 23. Three races take place during each day of competition, with two for beginners and the final for more elite riders and those of lower categories who are eager to test their wheels and wits against the toughest competition.
Arkansas has a relatively small but avid cycling community and Team CARVE hosts this event to give racers a laid-back race environment where they can practice cornering and time their sprinting in preparation for the biggest events across the South and all of North America. These include the St. Francis Tulsa Tough Criterium in Oklahoma, the Athens, Ga., Twilight Criterium and other official USA Cycling events.
The criterium is not exactly a beginner-friendly race. Even experienced marathoners, endurance runners and sprinters will find themselves sorely out of place right out of the gate. To hope to compete, riders must complete grueling physical training and in-depth seminars on racing strategy.
As Penrod put it, "We'll have runners, very fit people, they'll come to a criterium and find that even in the lowest levels that all the fitness in the world won't make up for the skill and knowledge needed to compete."
Katie Simmons, a relatively new member of the racing scene, confirms that "it can be really challenging -- something you really need to learn over time."
Although criteriums require more than "just fitness," she said those new to racing should not be discouraged by the steep learning curve. "I would definitely recommend that anyone interested in racing join us on Thursday nights and look into their local cycling clubs."
East added that "the cycling community in central Arkansas has grown exponentially, and the racing scene has become much stronger. It's very exciting to watch."
In the Ronde van Burns crit June 2, these dedicated cyclists raced in pouring rain, taking corners with slick tires and jockeying for position as their spandex was being thoroughly soaked.
Penrod said, "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes."
ActiveStyle on 06/13/2016