I'm considering building a road bike and getting into running Crits this Summer and I'm unsure as to go with an Aero bike or a climbing (lightweight) bike.
Based on my general understanding, when not going up steep hills (which of course is not done in Crits) as a general rule of thumb an Aero bike is definitely faster.
Based on this I would have expected to see most Crit riders on Aero bikes, but when I watch YouTube videos of Crits most of the riders are on lightweight bikes. There are only 3 reasons I can think of for this:
1) Cost, non-professional riders may already own an endurance bike used for long weekend training rides or commuting on rough roads and not have the $$$ to drop on a 2nd bike just for running occasional Crits.
2) If in the pack most/all of the race, some degree of the Aero benefit would be negated (of course this is not a very good reason b/c if you intend to win then obviously you would not be in the middle of the pack, at least not in the end).
3) Most Crit circuits have frequent turns, perhaps endurance or climbing bikes are better for this purpose?
Even considering the above reasons, the whole point of a Crit is to go absolutely as fast as possible for a relatively short amount of time, therefore I would have expected to see almost all Crit participants on an Aero bike, but from watching Crits on YouTube is seems very few Crit riders use an Aero bike. Can somebody explain this further?