Thank you for racing with us

Hi everyone,

That’s officially a wrap on the first season of the York Durham Crit Series. First, thank you to everyone who came out and supported the series. Whether you raced once, raced the full series, volunteered, brought someone out, or helped spread the word, you helped us build something new this year. We had 75 unique racers participate, and one of the biggest wins was that every race had more participants than the one before it. That tells us there’s an appetite for this type of racing and gives us a lot to build on for next year.

2026 takeaways

The Beginner group was probably our biggest success. We wanted to create a place where someone could try racing, learn how a race pack behaves, practice positioning, attacks and sprints, and build confidence without worrying about immediately getting dropped. We saw riders progress throughout the summer, and that’s something we absolutely want to continue.

We saw the same progression in Intermediate. We started with controlled and timed sessions and gradually moved toward full racing as skills and confidence developed.

The Season Ender gave us the opportunity to try something completely different with a closed road, two races per category and a reversed course for Race 2. It was a great way to finish the year and gave us plenty of ideas for what we can do in the future.

What we learned

Year one was also about figuring out what works and what needs to improve and NOT losing money!

For 2027, some of the key takeaways are:

• Timing at every race. We need proper timing and results at every event, not just the finale.
• Better course equipment. Proper cones were an obvious need, and those have already been purchased.
• Thursday nights. We’re planning to move from Wednesday to Thursday. That gives racers an extra recovery day after Midweek and also works better with the businesses on Anderson Blvd, particularly the dance school.
• Keep Intermediate and Experienced separate. Combining them isn’t the direction we want to go. Both groups need their own racing.
• Move racers up. Some of our Intermediate racers are ready for Experienced, and we’ll be encouraging that progression next season to build a stronger Experienced field.
• Recognize female and junior racers. We need to do a better job of recognizing and celebrating both groups within the series.
• Start earlier and finish earlier. Rather than running into September, we want the regular season completed by the end of August.
• Bring back a Beginner trial event. Before the regular season begins, we’re planning another free introductory event specifically for new racers. It will give people a chance to experience the course, learn how to ride in a race pack and decide whether crit racing is for them before entering their first race.

We’d love your feedback

Please take a couple of minutes and tell us how we did. It’s super important to hear what we missed and your general thoughts.

Our current plan is to start in May, race weekly on Thursdays and wrap up by the end of August.

We also want to build on what worked this year rather than completely reinventing the series. Accessible racing, reasonable entry fees, a welcoming Beginner environment, separate racing for different ability levels and a fun local atmosphere will continue to be at the core of YDCS. Our goal is to have the 2027 plans finalized by October.

Personally, I’d like to thank you for taking a chance on a brand-new race series. We learned a ton in year one, we grew with every event, and I’d like to think that we improved with every event. We have a great place to start from and we’re very excited for the future.