February 27, 2005, Sun Devil Criterium, Category Masters 50+
Tempe, AZ 15.6 miles
This was a flat, 35 minute criterium on very smooth roads.
The course was a 1/2 mile, somewhat roundish course with 2 ninety degree turns, the last one 230 meters from the finish.
The corners were pretty safe and the roads generally very wide.
The weather was great, 72 degrees, sunny and basically no wind.
With only 12 riders in the race, it was expected to be easier to keep track of everyone.
There were 2 other very good sprinters in the race, David Bixby (AZ State Criterium champ) and Norm Kibble (2nd in sprint at track Nationals last year).
An interesting aspect of this race was that 5 of the riders belonged to the same team (Team RPM) and had planned to ride with a team strategy.
Unfortunately, both David and Norm were a part of this team.
Right from the start, one of the Team RPM riders pushed the pace and I was in second position to keep tabs on him.
He pulled over on the back stretch and I took a turn to do my part.
However, immediately another Team RPM rider went off the front and no one bothered to chase.
I pulled the pack up to him and got onto his wheel.
About half a lap later, another Team RPM rider slipped off the front as the second position rider, also of Team RPM, let him get a gap.
Again, there was no other response, so I jumped up to him, he eased and the rest of the group joined us.
Now that I was aware of their mission, I would try to keep any other attacks by Team RPM within a couple of bike lengths so that they could not get a commanding lead, but I'd need to try to get some of the other riders to help with the effort.
The pace was not very intense and we had several prime sprints within the race, mostly swept up by a Team RPM rider.
I normally ignore the primes to conserve my energy for the final sprint, but they can cause breaks in the group which have to be watched.
With 5 laps remaining there was a prime and one of the Team RPM riders again took it, but the next rider was his team mate and again let a gap open up.
This particular rider was not very strong, so there was not a major threat that he would stay away for good.
However, his team mates were blocking (getting to the front and easing the pace) and the other riders were not making any concerted effort to pull him back in.
Besides me, there was basically 3 other riders that could reel this guy in, but we really didn't want to expend any extra energy too close to the finish.
And when we did, a Team RPM rider would latch onto us and then disrupt the pace when the chase rider pulled over to allow the next rider to come through.
With three laps to go, the lead rider had about 150 feet on us and I gave an open palm signal to Noel on the sidelines as if to say "what can one do?".
On the back stretch with 2.5 laps to go, I made a strong pull to try to get the other guys to pick up the speed.
One of the other riders did go to the front and gave it all he had, but he was breathing hard and his pace was so slow that he was almost helping the rider stay away.
If I were to give a really hard effort, all the other riders would ride my tail and I'd be spent towards the end and have nothing for the finish, even if we caught the lone rider.
The next time around on the back stretch, one of the other riders made a hard jump and the rest of us latched on.
This gave us enough momentum to bring us all back together with one lap to go.
As we head down the back stretch for the final time, I'm on David's wheel in about 5th position and was scanning carefully for my predetermined point to begin my jump.
I know Norm was somewhere behind me, but there was nothing I could do about that.
If I had positioned myself behind Norm, he would just ride easy and let David take the win.
As we approached my jump point, we were only doing about 24.5 mph; perfect.
I gave it my all at just the right time and caught David completely off guard.
I flew through the corner first at over 32 mph, popped the gears up a couple notches and headed for the line.
However, Norm was able to follow my wheel during the entire process and was able to come around me with 30 m to go.
I got a solid second and David was third.
A fun race with all the tactics involved and a safe finish.
Norm is very hard to beat in a sprint, but I hope to do so sometime during this season.
I'll need to better my top end in a sprint to pull it off.
Noel and I had a very enjoyable lunch afterwards at one of the many nice restaurants in Tempe.
Summary
Start
Time |
Distance
(Miles) |
Starters |
Duration |
Weather
(Deg F, mph) |
Climbing
(Feet) |
Speed avg
(MPH) |
Speed Max
(MPH) |
HR avg
(BPM) |
HR max
(BPM) |
HR waking
(BPM) |
Calories Burned
(Kcal) |
| 12:49 am |
15.5 |
12 |
37:50 |
72, NW@3 |
0 |
24.7 |
33.3 |
172 |
195 |
48 |
337 |
Results
Racing page Bike page
