For me crits break down into "festival" and "industrial". The festival events (think Manhattan Beach GP) close major downtown streets and are generally put on by clubs with municipal cooperation or even enthusiastic support. Parking is always a huge pain. Bike clubs tend to put on one or two events a year so the person on the other side of the registration table is frequently an unpaid volunteer. Be early. REALLY EARLY! These are great if you want people to see you race. Onlookers want to know how fast you go, how much the bike costs and so on. There are nice cafes close by. Clean restrooms. Big value primes. If you want to see people and be seen these are great.
Industrial park crits can be club events, but you usually deal with the same small subset of promoters. I know some of them on a first-name basis. The sign on the table that says "Pre-Registered Racers" really means it. You give them your name and category and in ten seconds you have a number in your hand. Sometimes there's an extra local waiver to sign, depending on the venue. The primes are always pretty much the same with the same sponsors. Parking is free and plentiful (at least during age-group races, I generally leave before the Pros roll). The only people you might impress are close family members and your competition. The promoters know that if you don't like the racing you won't be back. Usually there's some sort of points series spanning a number of races to encourage repeat business. These are all good things as far as I'm concerned.
Some tips:
- Pre-register. It saves money and line-standing. Also it commits you to something so you're less likely to bag it come race day.
- Use this form when you enter USCF races so you don't have to fill it out on race day. It's a fill-in PDF widget, so you can complete it in Adobe Reader, print it out, sign and mail it in as your entry (usually).
- Scope the venue out if possible, riding the course with some teammates is ideal.
