Watched My First Criterium Race!

The Portland Twilight Criterium was held in downtown Portland tonight in the North Park blocks and it was awesome! I've never seen a live bike race before and this one took racers around a course which was approximately two city blocks wide by three city blocks long. The first lap was done by the Rose City Rollers Roller Derby as a skate exhibition. Ladies roller derby! That was fun. The the Cat 3 race (all ages + genders, cat 2 women allowed) - 40 minutes. Then the Professional's, cat 2 & cat 2 (all ages + genders) - 60 minutes! Each lap was one-half mile long which takes the racers just over one minute to complete! I stood about 100 yards beyond the start/finish line, and when the professionals rode by closely you could feel the wind they created! One rider was about a block ahead for most of the race, but when there were only about 3 laps to go they caught him and swallowed him up! It was quite a show. Of course there was a beer garden, food carts, a haldbuilt bike show, free bike parking and over 15,000 spectators AND it was free. I love Portland.

Sounds like fun!

Thanks Nick, for at least replying. I thought for sure I'd get some gals chiming in saying, "Oh, I'm a Cat 2 racer" or whatever. So you get brownie points for responding. Thanks! I was way more fun than I even thought. I'm glad I went.