I don't think Kermesse and US Crits come close to eachotherkillerrabbit wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:08 amI think closest euro equivalent is belgian kermesse, but yea they crazy here in US. Especially Cali, and South florida to a lesser degree
https://thechainstay.com/bicycle-racing ... n-belgium/
Kermesse is how we race en europe. We usually ride laps, because it's too difficut for organizers to close too many streets. But the laps are bigger than crit laps. I've seen laps as small as 10 km and up to 30 km. But usually they are around 15 km.
You are probably right. I was just concerned about safety in those races. During the years we had some fataleties in races, usually because of motorists forcing their way into the closed laps we race on. So safety both towards outside traffic but also between riders is highly prioritized.TobinHatesYou wrote: ↑Fri Jul 21, 2023 11:12 pmThis isn't something you should be confused about. Many riders enjoy fast crits with huge fields.
When there are safety issues like terrible course design, shitty fences, not enough hay bales, etc. complaints are filed.
Regular road races exist, but crits are more popular and the big ones draw spectators. 30 riders in a road race is borderline too small, especially if a couple teams show up with 5-6 riders each. I mean, I love them because it becomes far less technical and more of battle of fitness, but it's not for everyone.
This year I've done 7 races and had no crashes. There was only two races with crasches in my category. So seeing those big crashes with a lot of riders looks like a nightmare to me.
We also don't have teams. There are only tradeteams en cat 1. We do ride for our club, but I wouldn't call it a team. We never work against eachother, but we don't ride like a tradeteam with teamleader etc.
We also have crit's, but they are not that popular. Riders here want to ride 2-3+ hours instead of 1 hour.