No. More corners, the safer. Keeps the pack strung out, keeps it from bunching up.

My favorite are "L" shaped six corner crits.

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

There is a balancing act though.

We had a crit track made where I live, but there are so many corners it's more like a go-kart track than a crit track.

Worst part, was designed by an Aussie Grand Tour stage winner

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Baum Ristretto, Baum Mondrian Corretto & the '89 Merckx! | "If you could eat it in one sitting, hold your line." | twitter.com/Tinea_Pedis

Where do most crashes happen? curves, corners or straight lines?

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I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

Any time during the last lap as people are jockeying for position.

Problem I see with big four corner crits, is that no one wants to be in the front on the backside straightaway. The pack bunches up as the people in the front don't want to pull hard and people in the back want to move up to a better position. Then you have this big ball of riders that's too wide for the next turn and they have to sort themselves out.

With more turns, there less of an opportunity for this to happen.

Anyway, that's just what I've observed from racing a variety of downtown and industrial park crits over the last three years.

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

There are races in downtown SF? Or are you referring to downtown San Jose and other cities?

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Exp001

crashes happen everywhere usually at the moment when racers start seeing stars and forget every bit of etiquette they know. It just takes a moment to forget your surroundings, and then it's already too late.

Not to get too off topic, but racing safety is one of my peeves. I wish there were more stringent safety requirements (especially in USAC) before racers are allowed to upgrade. Now that I'm a higher category it's a lot better, but the starting categories are always the most dangerous and unpredictable. In a Category 5 USAC race, you can have a world-class triathlete and a person who has never even ridden in a group in the same race. And you only need to finish 10 races to upgrade. There should be at least a couple of mandatory safety clinics you have to attend that teach proper racing ettiquette as a requirement before upgrading is required. In Track racing you are not even allowed to race unless you've attended a couple beginner racing sessions. I've been racing track for five years, and seen two crashes, both in the lower categories. And there's not even "corners" in a velodrome

well, there's the Giro di San Francisco, which actually is in downtown SF, and is as painful as you'd imagine.

If mandatory safety clinics are imposed, the first of them should be required before being allowed to race in any category, not just as a condition for upgrading.

Your first 10 races are the mandatory safety clinics.....haha

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2012 Fuji Altamira SE - 6.42kg

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That's my favorite crit course!

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Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

What's so funny is when you do you first race and have been doing hard training races leading up to it... the first crit if it's flat is like "damn this is slow" I would advise any first racer to do one thing... attack... over and over again. Hopefully a break happens and that now dangerous crit is a fun small paceline which hopefully sticks. If not.. fade to the back and recover and go again. Sitting in the pack trying to save energy for a sprint is a recipe for a broken collarbone.

Never be afraid to blow your wad trying. Nobody will think the less of you. It just makes you stronger for the next one.