That didn't seem right to me. I looked it up,
got no results for that misspelled *criterium,*
but got criterion instead with a definition
that seemed apt: a standard by which something
can be judged or decided. Whatever.
Attempting to meet a standard seemed to be
exactly what these cyclists were trying
to do when I saw them Saturday morning.
This group was participating in the
Men Masters 40+/50+ Race, a 45-minute
competition on a .95-mile course over
the streets of downtown Indy.
Over sixty men participated in this heat.
Led by a blue Mini Cooper, riders flew around
the hourglass-shaped course so quickly
that the Mini was really having to work to maintain
it own position as pace car, honking and
beeping as it entered the intersections
to warn pedestrians of the approaching peloton.
The riders shown above quickly sprinted
to a substantial lead over the rest of the field.
I don't know whether they were able
to maintain that dominance to the end because
I left well before the race finished. But I wasn't able
to leave before one of the leaders crashed, heavily,
to the street. Winded and definitely injured, he was trying
to help medical personnel tend to his wounds
(a broken collarbone, at least?) as I left the area, the other
cyclists speeding by as the race continued.
