Yasmin Boakye had just finished the 2024 Mid South Gravel race in Stillwater, Oklahoma, when she heard about a unique opportunity with Bicycling.
With three years of gravel and triathlon experience, the 33-year-old Baltimore resident was fired up and looking for a new challenge. We were offering an exclusive chance for a Bicycling member to train with us for our hometown race, the Easton Twilight Criterium. Each Memorial Day weekend, the race attracts the best riders in the country to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. The course is a short, technical, and relatively flat 0.71-mile circuit with six turns. Thousands of spectators line the route, and many watch from the city’s downtown bars and restaurants.
Signing up for any race, especially if it’s your first time, can feel intimidating. But with the right preparation, training, and gear, racing your bike can be a rewarding chance to challenge yourself. That’s why Boakye didn’t hesitate to submit an application. And when she found out she’d been selected, she couldn’t wait to get started. “Getting to train in a really focused way was very exciting to me,” she says. “I figured I can figure out the racing part.”
We set her up with one-on-one access to Bicycling editors who ensured she had everything she needed for success, including a personal coach—21-time national champion and Pan American gold medalist Daniel Holloway—who designed an 8-week individualized crit training plan for her to follow.
Legendary Italian bike manufacturer Pinarello donated a brand-new $6,000 Pinarello F5 105 Di2 to ensure Boakye had the right bike and the best riding experience while training and racing.
With her coach, Bicycling staff support, and new road bike, Boakye was more than ready to take on her first criterium. Here is how it went—and why she would do it again in a heartbeat.
Holloway and Boakye checked in online weekly for the duration of the training, followed by an in-person meeting prior to the race. Here are some things Boakye focused on during her training and what she learned about herself in the process:
→ How to Ride in a Tight Pack: Group dynamics and riding in tight packs have always been a struggle for Boakye. “Coming from triathlon, where we can’t draft, I’ve never been super smart about conserving energy and knew this would be important in a course as challenging as Easton.”
Riding in a pack takes practice. Holloway advised Boakye to focus on staying close enough to the wheel in front of her to benefit from the draft, but not so close that she would feel the need to rely on her brakes to slow down. And avoid fixating on that wheel; keep your eyes scanning “6 feet, 8 feet, 12 feet [ahead so you have] time to process and make a really good decision,” Holloway says.
→ How to Get Out of Her Comfort Zone: Training for the crit made Boakye a more self-assured long-distance athlete, despite the style of race being very different than what she was accustomed to in triathlon and gravel riding.
“What I discovered is that [they all] require you to push deep outside of your comfort zone. So even though there’s not much crossover in terms of training zones or intensity, I had to learn how to push myself to get past the next barrier of fear—whether to chase a break or ride solo for 100 miles, it’s all the same mental conversation of seeing how deep you can go.”
→ How to Manage Anxiety: Boakye had nightmares leading up to the crit about being instantly dropped by the pack because she wouldn’t be able to clip into her pedals fast enough.
“I was especially worried about this because Easton starts on a slight incline and goes into a corner,” she says.
Holloway assured her: “You don’t get anxious at a red light when it goes green, right? You’re just watching the green light.” When it came to clipping in, he reminded her that she’d done it a million times before. “Press off, coast for a second, find your pedal, and clip in.” The advice helped her stay calm at the start and, in fact, she had no issues on race day.
→ How to Tackle an Unfamiliar Course: The day before the race, Holloway and Boakye walked the circuit so Boakye could get familiar with its unique characteristics: things like parking meters, trees, buildings, and bumps on the road. That way she could visualize the course and anticipate obstacles.
“Even though the barriers weren’t up on Thursday, we were able to look for any road hazards, places where the corners would be obviously difficult or tight, and it helped to ease my mind,” Boakye says.
→ Why to Prioritize Rest: As a triathlete, Boakye was used to multiple training sessions a day, but Holloway encouraged true rest leading up to hard workouts, which helped increase her performance. “One of the most surprising benefits was seeing the impact it had on my bike fitness. While I still struggle with some of the strategies of racing, I’m now able to keep up with faster group riders.”
→ Warm Up: It’s crucial to warm up before you hit the start so your legs are ready to go as soon as the gun goes off. Holloway suggested a 30-minute warmup like this one to prime the muscles for the hard efforts to come:
- 10 min. recovery pace
- 10 min. endurance pace
- 3 min. at 100+ rpm in zone 3
- 90 sec. at 100+ rpm in zone 4
- 30 sec. at 100+ rpm in zone 5
- 5 min. recovery pace
→ Eat Right and Hydrate: Before lining up to race, make sure you have something to eat and drink. “A gel about five minutes before the start works well for most riders, but you have to find your own timing,” Holloway says. Beware of eating sugary foods too far out from the start, as this could lead to a spike and then a drop in blood sugar, which could mess with your energy levels.
→ Get Organized: “The more rehearsed your routine is, the smoother it goes on race day,” says Holloway. “Organized equipment will help avoid scrambling to look for a bottle or gel at the last minute. And allow time for a final trip to the bathroom, to put on gloves, or to check tire pressure.”
→ Monitor Your Effort: Pacing your efforts during a crit and optimally managing your energy and strength is something that comes with practice and experience, says Holloway.
“In a crit, there is no real pacing strategy,” he explains. “You can monitor your efforts by cornering efficiently, using momentum, and following the rhythm of the race to know when best to expend energy correctly to either attack or position yourself for the finish.”
The simplicity of crit’s format belies the technical finesse this style of road racing requires. These are the three skills Boakye worked hardest on:
→ Sprinting: As a triathlete, Boakye had never done much sprinting. While reviewing her history, Holloway noticed that she’d never ridden above Zone 3 (tempo), with an average heart rate at 84 to 94 percent of her functional threshold power, the average number of watts she could sustain for an hour. In comparison, a sprint is an all-out effort in Zone 7 while being in the drops and out of the saddle, involving the upper body. To help build her top-end speed, Holloway added some all-out efforts to Boakye’s training several times a week.
“It took a while to understand the mechanics behind putting that much power into the pedals all at once,” Boakye says. “As a person who naturally has a lower cadence, the idea of starting at a higher gear, staying in the drops, and pushing high RPMs was both terrifying and thrilling. But in a wide open space, it became incredibly fun to practice.”
→ Cornering: Knowing that the course required navigating a downhill grade into a corner—at high speed—Boakye made it a point to practice this skill.
Cornering, as Holloway explains, is all about carrying momentum rather than hitting brakes in the middle of the corner and losing traction. It’s important to brake early and look past the turn rather than focusing on the apex.
“On race day, I was surprised by how comfortable I felt on the corners, despite seeing a crash in the men’s 4/5 right before my race,” says Boakye. “I knew from Holloway where the better lines were. It wasn’t easy, but I stayed upright and enjoyed myself. I also felt good that I had the power to close an early gap and ended up joining a small group that tried to work together as long as we could.”
→ Cadence: Before she started working with Holloway, Boakye thought of cadence drills as something to do to mix things up. But she soon learned that this skill, which refers to the rate at which you’re turning over the pedals measured in revolutions per minute (rpm), helps boost efficiency and improve pedal stroke. Holloway included cadence drills in the training plan at least once each week.
“Now I understand the importance of being able to work in a wide range of cadences,” Boakye says. “That has been a really impactful piece of training.”
→ The Electronic Shifting: Before receiving the F5 from Pinarello, Boakye was riding a gravel bike with mechanical shifting.
“The [Pinarello] was so much more responsive, so much lighter, easier to handle,” she says. “I had always had a hard time coming out of the big ring into the small ring, so even just the electronic shifting on the Pinarello is fabulous. I never had to worry about getting stuck in a gear.”
→ The Light Weight: Boakye noted that the F5 felt lighter and more efficient on climbs compared with her previous bikes.
“Many people are surprised to learn that Baltimore is hilly, and it’s not uncommon for an everyday 30-mile route to have 2,000-plus feet of climbing,” she says. “I always thought that having more gears on my gravel bike cassette was an advantage, but I found I didn’t need that range on the F5. It’s been fun climbing confidently in the big ring.”
Bicycling's Take on the Pinarello F5
This unmistakable Pinarello shares a beautifully balanced handling and smooth ride quality with the brand’s flagship Dogma F but at a much lower cost.
Starting at $3,900, the F5 is the least expensive model in Pinarello’s F road competition lineup. Sometimes the cheapest bike from brands specializing in high-end stuff is disappointing. Not the F5. Yes, it’s expensive compared with some competitors, but it has a smooth feel, is reactive, and handles well.
What struck us about the F5 is the robust feel of the chassis. The F5 feels dauntless, as if it will truck through any pothole, shrug off any crosswind, and remain judder- and shudder-free on any descent. It has quick reflexes and feels smooth and controlled. It’s also surprisingly comfortable, with balanced handling. We appreciate that Pinarello employs the same aggressive fit on this bike as its top-of-the-line Dogma F.
The F5 incorporates much of Pinarello’s signature swoopiness and aerodynamic tuning—even down to the crazy winglets on the fork dropouts.
Pinarello relies on its partnership with Toray Industries for carbon, using various grades of the material throughout its bikes. The F5 uses a lower grade of carbon than the Dogma F. Lower-grade carbon is typically less stiff, so more of the material is needed to hit stiffness targets, which results in a heavier frame. While the Dogma F has a claimed frame weight of 865 grams, the F5 frame is still an impressive 990 grams.—Matt Phillips
“The race was thrilling in a way I didn’t expect. The energy was electrifying, I loved the crowd support, and I’m glad I took the leap of faith. I was absolutely terrified the entire training process, because all I’ve ever known about crits was crashing, so getting to see my body at peak fitness and being able to hang with super strong women was a great and surprising feeling once I let go of that fear. Training for the Easton Twilight Criterium made hard things feel easy.
“I would love to race a crit again. It made me passionate about seeing more women line up for races. While Easton had a larger women’s field, most of the other events I did locally this year were quite small, and I know much of that is because many women are also scared about crashing. But on the other side is a thrill and a joy that I haven’t found anywhere else in the cycling scene so far. So hopefully with more clinics and more access, more women will give racing a try.”
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