January 20, 2007, Tucson Senior Olympics (50-54 age group)
Tucson AZ
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This is my third year of racing in the Tucson Senior Olympics.
Typically it is a small turnout of riders that are not trained as racers.
But a nice pre-season, low key event.
Last year they had used a new course on the West side of Tucson that most participants were not happy with.
It had a hill climb, lot's of traffic, and rough roads.
The plan was for this years event to be at the same location, but with just a couple days notice prior to the event, it moved to a location I had suggested to them last fall.
The new course would be on flatter roads that I ride almost every day and just a 10 minute drive away.
The weather was cold, but even though there was still some wet on the roads from the previous night's rainfall, the roads gradually dried and we got some sun.
The course lengths were a little longer than what the actual course would conveniently allow, so the 5 km course was closer to 4.75 km, so we got a little relief.
I was planning on riding a tough race just NW of Phoenix on Sunday, so I was planning on not going all out for any of these events.
We had four events today, 2 time trials and 2 mass start races.
The first was 1 mile in length.
I was able to use my Time Trial bike, but I was bundled up in a lot of clothes.
I started fourth (30 second intervals) and I caught the rider that started immediately in front of me before the turn around.
1 mile Results
The next event was a 5 km (3.1 mi) TT, but it was actually a bit shorter due to road situations and was only 4.7 km total on an out and back course.
Four riders in my class started ahead of me at 30 seconds intervals and I passed all but one of them before I finished.
5 km Results
We had a bit of a rest before the massed start events.
They decided to start us off in 3 groups at 15 second gaps.
This meant that over the two laps we were to do, it would be very easy for the groups to mingle.
We were allowed to ride together if this were to happen.
The only other real racer participating today was Norm Kibble in the 60 year category.
Norm is famous for being the best sprinter in Arizona, irregardless of age, and has won Master's National championships in the past.
So my desire was to wait for his group to close up the 15 second gap and have a go at beating him in the sprint.
Sure enough, just after the first half lap, we became one large group and remained that way until the finish.
The pace was pretty easy and it was just going to end up in a bunch sprint.
Norm and I toyed with each other at the back and I persisted in staying on his wheel so I could better apply any tactics.
We got to within half a kilometer and we had a nice group of 10.
The wind was crossing slightly from the left, so Norm and I stayed to the right, but had the curb blocking our thoroughfare.
As we got to about 300 meters I considered sliding back to jump around the left side.
However, a rider at the front on the right side thought he should move out of the way and shifted to the center of the road, leaving a gap on the right.
Just then Brian McQuiston started his jump on the left side and got a gap off the front.
I waited to see what Norm was going to do and he eventually moved up through the hole on the right and so I followed.
After clearing the front of the pack, he swerved to the left, passing Brian on his left side, probably to try to leave less room for me to follow.
Since the wind was slightly from the left, there would be more shelter on the right, so I ran up Brian's wheel and passed them both on the right, beating Norm by about a wheel length.
10 km Results
We had about half an hour of rest before the final event, a 20 km mass start race (4 laps around the same course).
This time we would have a one minute gap between the three groups.
Our guys started off with a bit more energy and efficiently traded turns at the front, so this made it more difficult for the next group to catch us.
Since we're going back and forth on the same road, it was easy to see how much of a time advantage we had at each half lap.
Just before the finish of the first half of a lap, Norm had a gap on the rest of his riders, leaving him alone to do all the work to try to catch us.
With our guys trading off well, this would be tough.
I didn't push the pace, but did participate so that if Norm did catch us, he'd be a bit more worn out for the sprint.
Norm started to close down a bit, but never got really close, as this is not his strength.
Our little group gradually whittled down to just Lee Gardner and myself and Norm eventually lost ground.
I let Lee ride side by side with me for the sprint and let him make the call as to when to jump.
With about 150 meters to go, he jumped out of the saddle for the finish.
I gave a few hard pedal turns while in the saddle to accelerate past him and he immediately gave up, which was what I expected.
20 km Results
So four golds out of four, even though there was no challenge.
I didn't feel wiped out so I should have been good for Sunday's racing.
I did go to the race in Peoria the following day, but the weather was lousy.
All morning the temperature stayed at 41.
All of the races up to my event were in pouring rain.
Registration closed at 30 minutes prior to each event and at 30 minutes before my event, it was raining hard with a stiff breeze as well.
The racers on the road at the time had blue skin and their nostrils were practically faucets as snot poured out from the cold.
Some of them were obviously in anguish and they were entirely soaked and covered in road grit.
I dread wet and cold and thought that this would not be fun.
Plus, the wet roads increase the likelihood of crashes, especially since this was in a parking lot, only 750 meters around per lap, with 10 corners.
So I decided to watch instead.
Although the rain stopped just as the race began, the course was still wet.
I took lap times of the race.
The pace didn't look too hard and then one rider (Bob Pongratz who was flying in 2006) attacked on lap 10, 15 minutes into the race.
He was doing 1:20 to 1:22 per lap and held a small gap of about 10 seconds for most of the race.
Half way through the race I was wondering if I made the right decision to not enter.
Then 25 minutes into the 40 minute race, there was a crash in the last corner and everyone went down except for the top 3 riders.
With 6 laps to go, Bob's front tire lost air (punctures are more likely in wet conditions) and he lost time on the tight course, allowing David Bixby to catch up to him.
On the final lap, Bob could not risk any speed and David handily won.
I have beaten both Bob and David in sprints in previous races.
Later on, the weather cleared up and there was a rest period where I could ride the course.
I was able to use my training equipment and do 1:20 to 1:25 laps consistently for about 15 laps at about 85% effort while dodging riders that were warming up on the course, so the race would have been easy.
Hopefully the weather will be more conducive at the next race.
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