Here are four pro tips for winning a Criterium Race. These simple tips will ensure you are in the best position to come home a winner. This is part of the free cycling coaching and training advice from Cycling-Inform’s website.

Warm Up Well
It’s important that you get to the race early. There is nothing worse than having to rush around just before a race and it does nothing to ease your pre race jitters.  By getting to the race early you have the time to settle in. There is a lot of things you have to sort out before a race. Things like finding that car park, registering, warming up, going for a toilet break, stretching, hydrating, sussing out the competition for the day, putting together your race plan and finally pinning on your number and arriving at the start on time and ready to go flat out. Criterium races normally go hard from the start so it’s important that you have allowed enough time for a proper warm up to prime your legs and energy systems so that they are ready for what’s to come. A warm up is preferably done on a trainer close to your car but with a view of the start line (so you can see when you are just about to be called).

A simple exercise like this is a good starter for warming up:
- 10 mins of E1 @ 100 rpm
 - 5 mins of E2 @ 100 rpm

Then two or three sets of the following:
- 2 mins of E3 @ 100 rpm finishing hard-ish (80%) into your VO2Max zone
- 2 mins of REC @ 100 rpm
  
Start fast
Most criteriums start fast so it is important that you can start fast too. Practice getting your feet in quickly so you secure a great position before the first corner.  

Sit in the sweet spot
See my article about the sweet spot of a criterium race but simply put, sit in the front third of the bunch during the race.  

Finish Fast
Nearly all criteriums finish fast. The last 2-3 laps are usually ridden at a really fast speed. Once you have managed to get to the last final laps this is when all your real cycling criterium skills are put into play. You need to start thinking about getting your position right based on the type of sprinter you are. Ideally you want to be in the top 3-5 coming out of the last corner and sitting on the wheel of the rider that is going to lead you out for the finish. If you are an explosive sprinter then you can come from the back and win the sprint in the dying meters. If you are a slower sprinter you'll want to start earlier and try for a jump on the lead group hoping for the sprinters to be caught napping and not having enough time or power to bridge the gap before you finish ahead of them. Take note of the wind direction. If it is a head wind finish then sitting in for as long as possible is a better plan. A tail wind is ideal for the early solo jump. Also, if it’s a cross wind; make sure that you pass on the leeward (away from the wind) side. But don’t get boxed in if the sprinters line up in the leeward gutter. No need to mention that in your final sprint you have to give it truly 100%!     

Note; If you are finding that you are riding well but always placing in the top 10 and not the podium then it’s time you thought about some serious high intensity speed training to ensure that you are fresh at the end of the race.