Road Race vs Criterium: What’s Different and How to Train for Each

At a glance

What a road race is like

Road racing is the oldest form of bike racing. Everyone starts together and races a set distance over public roads, often a large loop ridden several times, and the first rider across the line wins. Races are long enough that nobody can go flat out the whole way, so the day is about spending energy carefully.

Riding in someone’s draft saves a lot of energy, which is why the field travels as a group and why a solo attack on flat roads rarely survives. Climbs change that: speed drops, drafting matters far less, and the strongest climbers can ride away. A hilly road race loses riders on every climb until only a small group is left to fight for the finish. The Berkeley Hills Road Race, raced since 1957 over the Three Bears near Orinda, is a classic example: it is typically decided on the last trip up Papa Bear.

What a criterium is like

A criterium, or crit, compresses racing into a short circuit of city streets. Riders pass the start-finish line every couple of minutes, and most crits are raced for a set time, with officials counting down the final laps. Primes (prizes for winning a particular lap) and attacks keep the pace high throughout.

The defining feature is the corners. The bunch brakes into every turn and sprints out of it to close the gaps, so a crit is dozens of short, hard efforts rather than one long one. Riders near the front spend far less energy than riders stuck at the back, and in the final laps teams line up lead-outs to deliver their sprinter to the last corner in position.

Training for road races

Road racing fitness is built on endurance: long steady rides in zone 2 make up most of the training, so the late part of a long race doesn’t empty the tank. On top of that base, threshold intervals build the ability to hold a hard pace up a long climb, and VO2max intervals prepare you for the moments when the pace lifts on a climb and the group splits.

Pacing matters as much as fitness on climbs. The climb calculator shows how long a climb takes at a given power, which helps you decide whether you can follow a move or should ride your own tempo. Long training rides are also the place to practise eating and drinking on the bike.

Training for criteriums

Crit fitness is about repeatability: going well above FTP for a few seconds out of each corner, recovering while the pace is still high, then doing it again. Sessions of short surges with a “float” at tempo between them rehearse that pattern, and sprint work sharpens the finish. Endurance still matters, because a crit gets harder as the efforts pile up.

Skills count as much as watts. Practise cornering at speed, holding your line and riding close to other riders on group rides before your first crit. Load “Crit surges” or “30/30s” in the workout builder to adjust the efforts and download them as a FIT file.

Racing both: the omnium

An omnium combines several races into one overall result, and the Berkeley Omnium puts the two formats on back-to-back days: the Berkeley Hills Road Race first, then the Berkeley Streets Criterium. The overall goes to the rider who can climb well enough to stay in contention on Day 1 and still has the snap for the crit on tired legs. Training for it means keeping both kinds of work in the plan and practising recovery between hard days. Racing the Berkeley Omnium covers both races and how to prepare.

Choosing a first race

Either can be a good start. A crit is short and on closed roads, and beginner fields such as Cat 5 are made for new racers, but it demands confident cornering in a tight pack. A road race asks for more fitness and pacing, with less time elbow to elbow. Most new racers find group rides are the best preparation for both.