At the end of all the races the person with the lowest recorded time wins. During the mass start days there are daily time bonuses given to the first, second, and third place finishers. Although the entire group may finish together and get the same time for the day the winners get a few seconds taken from their time as a bonus for finishing the day in front. The road race was uneventful with a group finishing up the road a couple of minutes and the main pack all finishing with the same time. It was interesting because in early season races there are always tons of crashes.
People are so anxious and excited to race that they do things that are a little more risky.
The crazy thing was that every crash that happened in the road race happened right in front of me. Three separate crashesobikes, wheels, barricades, desert dust, and cyclists were flying all over the placeoright in front of me. And that is exactly what I did and was lucky enough not to get tangled in the accidents. The final stage was a 70-minute criterium. It is fast, dicey, and anything can happen in a crit.