Video: AMTBC Dirt Crit 1 MTB Race
On Thursday I entered my first MTB race. This race was the 2009/2010 AMTBC Summer Series ‘Dirt Crit’ No. 1. A ‘dirt crit’ is similar to a regular road crit or criterium in that the course is very short, but it differs in that the course is mostly dirt, hence ‘dirt crit’. The race format sets a fixed amount of racing time for each race grade plus one finishing lap after the allotted time has elapsed.
This being my first race, I wasn’t quite sure which class/grade to enter. The grade system for this race was A through E, A being fast/elite and E being something like slow/recreational. The E grade raced 15 minutes plus one lap, and each successive grade added five minutes; the A grade raced 35 minutes plus one lap.
I entered in the B grade. My logic was that C must be average, and like everyone else, I think I’m above average. As I checked in and realized who was racing and what grade they were in, I began to question my self-assigned grade. But, it occurred to me that the worst that could happen was a last place finish. And, as luck would have it, that is exactly where I finished.
My official results; minutes:seconds:
| Lap 1 | Lap 2 | Lap 3 | Lap 4 | Lap 5 | Lap 6 | Lap 7 | Lap 8 | Lap 9 | Lap 10 | Lap 11 | Lap 12 | Lap 13 | Lap 14 | Total Time | Average Lap Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2:05 | 2:13 | 2:15 | 2:14 | 2:18 | 2:27 | 2:23 | 2:19 | 2:26 | 2:27 | 2:25 | 2:20 | 2:24 | 2:23 | 32:39 | 2:20 |
For comparison, grade average lap times; minutes:seconds (number of laps completed):
| A Avg. Lap | B Avg. Lap | C Avg. Lap | D Avg. Lap | E Avg. Lap | Overall Avg. Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2:12 (19) | 2:14 (15) | 2:19 (14) | 2:28 (10) | 2:33 (9) | 2:21 (12) |
Full results and more info available on the Adelaide MTB Club site: www.amtbc.com.
My average lap time was 2:20, which was only one second slower than the next fastest rider, but I was behind the cutoff and finished one lap down. Comparing my average lap time to those in the C grade, it looks like I could expect to finsih somewhere in the middle grade. This being the case, I think I’ll spend some time in the C grade and see how things work out. But, we will have to wait for the next dirt crit in January to see what happens.
Until then, a photo of a camera Velcro’d to a helmet (if ‘Googled’ is a word, then so is ‘Velcro’d'):
…and a koala from Eagle Park:
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:20
[...] AMTBC Summer Series, and my second MTB race. This race was similar in format to the ‘Dirt Crit‘ in that the course was short (about two minutes per lap), but the terrain was a little more [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 20:48
[...] was the third and final ‘Dirt Crit’ in the 2009/2010 Summer Series. I raced in the first Dirt Crit, but missed the second (oops). Anyway, I finished last in the B grade in the first race, and [...]