View Single Post
Old 02-21-19, 01:11 PM
  #16  
ljsense
Senior Member
 
ljsense's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Madison, Wis.
Posts: 754
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 284 Post(s)
Liked 152 Times in 92 Posts
In Wisconsin, they added an open fixed category to all the USA Cycling crit races last year and are continuing it for 2019. It's a 20-minute race that goes off at the end of the day, around 5pm. I didn't try it last year, and the results showed really small fields -- in one case, I think 2 riders. I don't have a fixed gear bike anymore, but started to look around, figuring they'd be everywhere for cheap since I thought the fixie craze was over. But I had a hard time finding anything. I thought there'd be a bunch of track-ish fixies for $400-$600, but not that I saw. And there aren't a lot of companies turning them out new. Trek used to make a fixie; Cannondale had the Capo -- not sure how many big manufacturers are interested in this product anymore.

I question the notion that it is a way to get people into the sport; to me, it seems more intimidating than riding a road bike in a crit. And at least here, I see smaller and smaller crit fields across all categories.

One thing that I do find encouraging about the road racing scene -- crits in particular -- are the videos that Trainer Road are putting up on YouTube. They are really fun, useful videos with great discussion. I love them as a racer, but I also think that they really invite people to try racing.
ljsense is offline