Ok, there has been some hymning and hawing over last Sunday’s Arizona Criterium Championships so I’ll take a moment to add in my own 2-cents… or is it sense? I’ve never really known.

For starters, anyone unfamiliar with the course, see the map below.

Yes, that is a figure-8 combined with a u-turn. I will now let you marinate on that for a moment.

(insert moment here).

Ok, now that we’re all on the same page, lets proceed.

I personally thought the course was good fun. Yes, we’ve already established that it was a figure-8, and that it also had a u-turn. No doubt that is a bit whacky/out-of-the-ordinary/non-traditional/(insert your own descriptive word here). But what I liked about it was the fact that it wasn’t a traditional course in a traditional business/industrial park. You know, the mind-numbing type where you can turn your brain off and day dream about how you’re going to ask you wife if you can buy the 50″ flat screen tv that’s on sale at Best Buy.  Now, before you get upset, understand that there is a purpose for the traditional 4-corner business park crit. I personally love them…. plenty of runway to get up to speed, safe, good spectating, nice grassy areas, day dreaming time, etc. But it’s also nice to spice it up every so often and do a crit where standing on the start line you softy recite 4 Hail Mary’s and hope you don’t stack it in the 1st corner. You know… keep you on your toes, nimble like a cat (or dog for the non-cat types reading this) kind of race.

I don’t bash the riders that crashed in the u-turn as some are great riders and bike handlers. In fact I knock on wood whenever I think about it. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking (and knocking) that there were 5-7 u-turn crashes in the men’s pro 1-2 field. That’s a lot but it’s somewhat understandable given the situation. You hit the u-turn the first time and think… “well, that wasn’t so bad”. You hit it the second time, third time, fourth time, and you begin to get it down. Then, right when that false set of confidence sets in and you find it crucial to move up a few extra spots…’WHAM!’. You fall like a sack of potatoes and smash your stackie on the ground cracking it 3 times. (See: 2007 Tour de Gastown criterium, Austin King mid-way through, last corner: wet, off-camber bricks… insert sack of potatoes analogy).

I don’t like crashing as much as the next bald guy so I try and do my best to avoid it. Avoid it the best you can but sooner or later Uncle Crashy’s going to creep up on you when you least suspect him and ‘WHAM!’… take you to the tarmac like that sack of potatoes I’ve previously mentioned.

I guess for the sake of time and to end this rambling, I applaud RideClean for promoting a rather non-traditional, OMG, how many turns is that?, kind of crit course. It kept me sharp and focused and my mind off that 50″ tv at Best Buy.

Good day.