Photo Essay: Minnesota's Tuesday Nights at Crit City were Pretty Nice this Summer
The Twin Cities are doing something right with the Tuesday night crits at the State Fairgrounds
Bill has said a lot of smart things during his decade-plus time running the CXHairs media empire, but one of his smartest (smahtest, for our NECX friends) adages is “race locally, cheer globally.” [Ed. Note: He literally just said it again!]
Local cycling scenes are the lifeblood of the sport and where most of us make our friends and have our greatest Cat 3 achievements.
I spent the better part of 6 years getting pretty well immersed in the Wisconsin cycling scene, so when I moved to Minneapolis last February, I not only had to learn a new city, I had to figure out what’s good in terms of events, routes, and a whole bunch of cyclists I don’t know. With the pandemic officially starting six weeks after I moved to this new city, 2020 was a wash, but folks, in 2021, bike racing … is BACK. Well, for the most part.
With the uncertainty surrounding the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, it was difficult for many teams to take the risk of scheduling events this year, and here in Minnesota, only a handful of weekend crits and road races have taken place this summer. However, there is a weekly Tuesday night criterium series put on by Endurance Promotions at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds that started back in May and has taken place more or less every Tuesday at the State Fairgrounds since June.
Inspired by fellow Media Pit dweller Micheal Boedigheimer’s proclamation that it is the Hot Lap Summer, a few weeks back I grabbed my camera and headed over to check out one of the races, in part because it was hard to count cycling photography as a hobby when … there were no races to photograph, and in part because I remembered Nathan and Morleigh from SnowyMountain Photography telling me it was their strategy for making frenz when they moved to the Chicago area. Either way, it couldn’t hurt—I was on an off-week after all.
I was so impressed by the scene and engrossed in the challenge of photographing crit racing that I ended up going back several times, with the trips culminating with Saturday’s Minnesota State Championships. While this post is mostly an excuse to share some photos and tell some stories, I think there are also some good lessons to be learned about hosting bike races and some cool things going on in the Twin Cities cycling scene.
Minnesota’s Hot Lap Summer
The Tuesday night criteriums at the State Fairgrounds are certainly nothing new, as the State Fair crit series started in 2008, and Endurance Promotions has been hosting it since 2011. However, the races are new to me, and that’s all that matters for the sake of inspiring this post.
While located in the Twin Cities area, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds are technically not in either of the two eponymous Twin Cities—they are located in Falcon Heights, a small village nestled about halfway between the two cities. When I moved to the Cities, I had heard stories about the State Fair, but with the event canceled in 2020, I did not get my first glimpse of some of the spectacle until these races.
The State Fairgrounds are like a mini-city unto themselves, clocking in at 322 acres, or over half a square mile (three times the size of the Vatican!). The sprawling venue kind of resembles a mini Disneyland, if every shop and entertainment place sold a different kind of artery-clogging Midwest delicacy. Fries! Churros! Cookies! Chili dogs! You name it, the State Fair has it.
With the State Fairgrounds being so big and quasi-closed to the public most of the time, the venue solves one of the biggest challenges of putting on a crit—traffic control and recruiting corner guards. Madison used to have a mid-week practice crit at an office park, but it ended up fading away in recent years in part because no one wanted to come early or stick around to corner guard. I personally think it’s brilliant and a stroke of good luck to have such a venue to host races.
Hosting races at the same venue each week seems like it might get redundant, but with a whole mini-city at their disposal, the organizers are able to do any number of several routes. In the five races I attended, there were standard four-corner courses, a turn-heavy route, and a wide-open, long course with a looooooong drawn-out final straightaway.
For the record, like with a cyclocross course that is more hot dog than hamburger, the long course made for tough photography as some races were doing like 10 laps. More laps equals more chances to get photos that don’t suck!
Another challenge I think cycling faces for getting new people involved is that getting into racing is pretty complicated. You have to have the right bike, you have to know where to look to find races, you have to navigate registration, and you have to know where the race venues are that one weekend out of the year they host an event.
Having a race at the same venue each weekend creates some permanence and makes it easier for new riders to find events. Want to check out a race? Just go to the State Fair literally any Tuesday evening during the summer. Easy peasy. Heck, make a motion to rename the venue, or at least the portion where the races take place, Crit City during the summer. IDK.
When Madison held the practice crits, they had to squeeze them in after most folks went home from their office park work drudgery. Races started pretty late, and thus as far as I remember, there was a beginning race and then the advanced race. If women wanted to race they had to jump in with the men, and there were no real dedicated races for beginners. No traffic to deal with means opportunities for riders to race against their ability peers.
Speaking of more races. one thing I learned last summer was as L’Etoile du Nord, Minnesota gets two months of amazing, incredible extended daylight.
At the summer solstice, it stays light until like 9:15 pm. As anyone who listens to the Media Pit knows, I am not a morning person, so it was pretty amazing to work until 6 during WFH and then still have time to get a 3-hour ride in after work. It’s like a late-sleeper’s dream.
It also made for some great lighting conditions for photography.
It’s also a dream for a promoter looking to host as many races as possible, even after work. Each Tuesday beginning at 5:10 pm, there is a Women’s Cat 4/5, Men’s Cat 4/5, Men’s Cat 3/4 and Masters 50+, Elite Women, and Elite Men’s race. I will get to it in a bit, but having the dedicated beginner’s races has been great for encouraging new people to get into racing and providing a good race for the numerous Junior races to learn how to play the sport.
The crowds during the two Cat 4/5 races have been great as well. Like, a lot of people have been hanging out at the start/finish area and cheering all of the riders who come across, dropped or nah.
I’ve been on this train for years now, but while some of us may enjoy the self-loathing that comes from getting shelled race after race, most people want their hobbies to be uplifting and positive, so it’s great to see the community creating a positive vibe that *gasp* a newcomer might want to come back for.
Finally, while it is awesome that teams put on races that are often quite good, there is only so much a bunch of volunteer bike racers can do. Having Endurance Promotions put on the events means each race has a super-pro feel to it. Each race has chip timing, and Jim Cullen comes out to rock the mic as the announcer each and every week.
Why, they even get the results up faster than some national-level events (cough cough Belgian Waffle Ride cough cough).
Good Minnesota Vibes
Folks have been saying road is dead for so long, I feel like most people don’t even bother saying it much anymore. Against the backdrop of that cliche, it has been cool to see a little bit of energy behind the Twin Cities crit scene. Now, let’s not get too excited about a few hundred racers coming out in a major metropolitan area, but signs of life are good!
There are a number of groups doing good work trying to get more folks involved with the sport. Probably the coolest one is a new team called the Stamina Racing Collective that is encouraging F/T/W (femme, trans, women) and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color) to get involved with bike racing. It has been hard not to notice the abundance of Stamina riders in the Women’s 4/5 field.
The team has had a pop-up tent at each of the races, and walking by, it seems like the team is able to foster the kind of environment that people new to cycling would want to be a part of.
The Women’s 4/5 field has averaged 16 riders per race (you didn’t really think I’d go an entire post without some kind of math, did you?), which I would venture to guess is higher than most other local Women’s 4/5 fields. It appears that the effort Stamina and others are putting into the scene is paying off.
Southern Minnesota is also lucky to have two long-running, impressive Junior development programs in Minnesota Junior Cycling and Northstar Development. The two teams have been well-represented at all of the races, with a number of riders also showing out in the Elite races in addition to the 4/5 and 3/4 races.
The NorthStar Devo Women riders are among those who have been racing well in recent weeks, with Rowan Malmberg winning the Women’s 4/5 sprint two weeks ago, and Josephine Ramirez taking the Women’s 3/4 sprint at Saturday’s State Championships.
Allowing the newer cyclists to have their own race also means that coaches and mentors have been able to ride along with young riders and give them encouragement and pointers.
Probably the single cutest instance of this has been Erin Ayala riding with 9-year-old Mina Call during her time out on the course. Even my cold, neutral journalist heart melted a little bit each and every lap.
Crit City Champs
There is obviously some nuance, but from my perspective, racing cyclocross is much easier than criterium racing. Unless you’re good enough to land in strategic races at the front of the field, you generally put your head down and pedal as hard as you can for 30 to 60 minutes.
Top-level crit racing is equally as hard (go check out some of Boedi’s On Board with Vandergibbon videos for proof), but tactics play a much bigger role and margins in a sprint are often thin. Getting those reps from doing a lot of races is important for learning those skills.
One nice thing about having a series every single week is it encourages riders to take more chances and try their hand at a flyer here and there. If your local scene only has like five crits all season, there is much more pressure to play it safe and try to maximize your result. If you know you’ll be able to race again next week, why not go full send once or twice?
Before we get to the Elite results from the series, I have to give a shout to a couple of riders from the closest thing I have to a team in Minneapolis.
After spending all of 2020 riding aloooone because of the pandemic, I unsuccessfully tried to go on a group ride earlier this summer and was lamenting about the situation in the title of my Strava post. Jacob Beissel swooped into my mentions to recommend the Balance studio rides, and hoo-boy have they been not only awesome but also a trip. Apparently half the good crit racers in Minneapolis do the rides and getting my face smashed in doesn’t even begin to describe how hard the Thursday Night Worlds ride is.
While Tim Savre and John Heinlein III are among the riders who have been cleaning up in the Elite races, two riders who are closer-ish to my level absolutely crushed it in Saturday’s State Crit. Taylor Adams won his first-ever bike race in the Men’s 3/4 sprint, and Ryan Hafner finished third after pedaling back from an early mechanical.
Altruistically, I think being in the business of doing media, you learn to find happiness in the success of others, and thus I was beyond stoked to see Taylor win. However, selfishly, knowing that I am getting my legs ripped off by some of the best crit racers in Minnesota makes me feel a bit better about getting dropped on those Thursday night rides.
Continuing with the diversions, one challenge I have faced during my time riding in Minneapolis is resisting the urge to yell “Go Tobin!” at every male wearing a Donkey Label kit whom I pass. Tobin Ortenblad has moved on from riding with Donkey Label this year, but the temptation is still there.
A corollary to that is this summer, Kerry Werner has been racing some road with Project Echelon. Tim Savre, Peter Olejniczak, and John Heinlein III all race for Project Echelon, so when they showed up at one of the first crits I attended, I frantically texted Bill asking if anyone would understand the joke if I made a “Go Go Kenny’s Teammates” sign.
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You know what, I regret not making that sign.
Speaking of Kenny, shoutout to Veronica Church for dropping the finger guns to celebrate her July 27 Women’s 4/5 win.
Finally, an omnipresent part of the Minnesota Crit City scene has been Josh Bauer’s Safety Pizza. We here at the Bulletin are very pro-pizza and pro-bike-safety, so we definitely appreciate Bauer’s commitment to both pizza and bike safety.
I tweeted about the Safety Pizza, and he provided this explanation:
The eight Elite Women’s races that have taken place at the State Fairgrounds have seen a handful of women shine during the early dusk hours. Gabrielle Russell started the month of June by making her play for a spot in the Ginger Cyclist Power Rankings by taking the win at the June 8 race.
Since then, it has been Melissa Dahlmann and Carly Wilson engaged in a back-and-forth battle for Crit City supremacy. Dahlmann won four races to Wilson’s three, although Wilson won the State Championship, which probably counts for at least 1.5 races. Let’s call it 4-3.5 in Dahlmann’s favor.
Other riders who have snagged multiple podium spots include Gear West riders Eleanor Thermansen and Anna Zawadski, Junior rider Josephine Ramirez, and Erin Ayala.
The Men’s races have also had several repeat winners in Falcon Heights. Project Echelon rider Tim Savre has only taken one dub, but he picked the best-possible time by making the break with Innokenty Zavyalov, lapping the field, and then winning the sprint to take the State Championship.
Two-time State Fair winners include Robert Rutscher, Peter Olejniczak, and Patrick Welch. I’m not going to lie, there are fewer Elite Men’s sprint photos because my Milwaukee Bucks were busy WINNING AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP, and I frequently had to jet off to go watch them WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP. Anyway, here’s a grainy photo of Rutscher winning the July 27 crit, which, oddly enough, took place after the Bucks WON AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP.
I also want to give a shout to the Minnesota Dangler—and Ginger Cyclist Power Rankings hopeful—James Slade, who spent the State Championships race in Danglerville after also sitting tantalizingly close off the back of a breakaway in the Tuesday crit earlier that week. Danglers across the country salute your effort and dedication to the tradition established by Jamey Driscoll.
Since this post started with a Bill saying, it only makes sense to finish with one: Good job, Minnesota crit racing.
Seriously, props to everyone, from the promoters to the racers to the families and friends to the officials who made Minnesota’s Crit City an enjoyable place to hang out every Tuesday night this summer. When I went to the first race back in June, I only expected to go once, but the scene was so enjoyable that I made it a regular part of my summer. My Hot Lap Summer was a good one, and I’m looking forward to diving into the Minnesota Cyclocross scene and hopefully coming back to Crit City in 2022.
All photos here—and many many others—are available at zacharyschuster.smugmug.com.
For more photos, keep scrolling.