Tips for Watching and Enjoying Bicycle Races

With the Amgen Tour of California being shown on TV and the Taleo Racing Criterium coming to Benicia soon (Sunday, June 12) I thought it would be a good time to talk about the different kinds of bike races.

The Amgen Tour is a stage race. These are road races held over several days or even weeks. Each days' race, or “stage”, is usually a point-to-point course from one city to another. Each rider is timed and the one with the lowest cumulative time is the winner of the “general classification” or GC. Sprint points are awarded for stage victories and sprints at designated points in each days’ stage, and the points leader is awarded a secondary prize at the end of the race. A similar points competition for the first to climb mountains may also be included.  In the Tour de France the polka dot jersey goes the the "King of the Mountains".

Stage races often include a stage run as a time trial. While road stages are mass-start events, the time trial is ridden alone. These are shorter stages, usually 15 to 30 miles, but tough as there is no drafting and tactics or teamwork don't come into play. For those in contention for the general classification title, the time trials can be a chance to gain time on their rivals, or lose it.

Road and stage races are not spectator friendly, as you can spend hours getting to a viewing spot and watch the race go by in a matter of seconds. They are great to watch on TV, with helicopter mounted cameras, and motorcycles with cameras next to the riders. The Amgen Tour is being shown on the Versus cable TV channel.

In the United States criteriums are the most common form of bike racing. Like the upcoming Taleo Racing Criterium, they are held in cities on a short course closed to auto traffic. Criterium races are either a specified number of laps or a specified amount of time, such as an hour. The first person across the line on the last lap wins.

A common feature is the “prime” (pronounced preem), a sprint at the line at some point during the race. The race announcer tells the riders and spectators about it during the race, and the winner usually gets a cash prize. Critierums are spectator friendly.  You can stand in one spot and watch the racers go by again and again. Although bike racing is big in Europe, criteriums are not. They are only held after the Tour de France, so the fans can see their heroes up close.

Check out the video of fans in Modesto watching the finish of  a stage of the Amgen Tour of California  in their town recently to get a feel for what it's like to watch a bike race.

Come on out to see the Taleo Racing Criterium in Benicia. It's fun for the whole family to watch.

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