January 30, 2010, University of Arizona Criterium, Masters 50+
Tucson, AZ
(Most images can be clicked on for a larger version)
Many thanks to Rick Giordano for the photography.

This was a flat, 30 minute criterium on smooth roads. It's about one kilometer around the circuit and this year the shape was reduced by a couple of corners by making it L shaped with mostly left turns, rather than a figure eight as in the past. The last five legs are pretty short, with a slight uphill grade on the back stretch before the last two corners. Still with that many corners on a short course, the opportunities to advance become much more limited. It was a beautifil day, although our race was the second race of the day so it was still a cool 57. Being in Tucson, some of the Phoenix riders may not have shown up, but the GST club from Tucson had a strong contingent.

The race began at a pretty good clip, with one rider from the Southwest Hand cycling team taking the lead. Oddly, two GST riders took the next two positions and allowed him to slowly gain a lead. After about a lap, the rider began looking over his shoulder and was limited to his progress, so he became less of a threat, but it become immediately evident that the GST team was going to play the team tactic card.

Bill McDorman took some lead time to reel him in, but nobody offered him any assistance and the GST riders remained very near the front. Soon, we caught the lone rider, but not long after a GST rider and another got a small lead. Bill tried to keep them close, but again was being shadowed by two GST riders, so I went up to try to help, but nobody else would lend assistance. This is pretty typical in a 50+ race, especially when one team is going to play team tactics and every other rider is just out for themselves. So I sat back a bit to rest up, but the lead started to get too large. So on lap 6 I gave a long, strong effort to try to get the pack within range in hopes that it would give initiative for the rest to finally reel them in. This turned out to be a huge mistake, as again no one would contribute after I pulled over, but we did get close enough for two other riders to jump across and give assistance to the break away riders, forming a lead group of four. It also took a lot out of me and I paid for it for the remainder of the race.

Early chase, leading with Bill behind and
GST in White monitoring.		 Pulling over to try to get someone to chase. Next lap, GST taking control.  

Trying to keep the break within contact.   But shadowed by GST.

So at this point it would take some miracle to motivate the other riders to work together enough to bring in the strong break while combating the blocking tactics of GST. At 20 minutes into the race I gave it one last surge to try to solo up to the leaders, but the gap was too large and I ran out of gas before I could get close. The season is still early and I've not yet worked on any endurance.

Trying an all out effort to bridge. McDorman trying to go with me. Next lap, all together again. GST keeping near the front for control.

So at this point, my only option was to wait, recuperate, and and see if I could get a fifth by winning the pack sprint, making sure no one else sneaks away before then.

The 4 leaders gaining ground. Lap 12. Lap 13.

Lap 14. Lap 15. Lap 16. Lap 17.

Although my previous efforts were taking there toll, I found it within myself to get to a very good position coming into the final lap. I was in about third position, sitting on Bill McDorman's wheel (who had shown strong sprinting capabilities lately), when Jay Guyot of GST took a flyer from the start line on the bell lap (he had been pretty much dormant up to this point). Bill started to chase with me on his wheel, when all of a sudden I noticed another GST rider coming in on the far left. Since we were fast approaching the first corner, one needed to be on the far right to properly navigate the turn into the narrow road after the turn, but this rider was shooting up the left side. Since he wasn't swinging out to set up for the turn, he would beat me to the turn and be almost perpendicular to me at the turn if he continued in this fashion. So to avoid a collision from the Kamikaze rider, I had to brake and swing dangerously wide on the turn, fearing that I was going to run into the outside curb. After safely completing the turn, I noticed that Bill was now 4 lengths away from me and we still had 900 meters to go until the finish with the entire pack sitting on my wheel. Thus I was in a predicament that seemed impossible to survive successfully. If I eased up to get on another wheel, Jay and Bill would never be captured. If I gave enough energy to reel in Bill, I'd be wasted before the sprint. My best chance seemed to be to keep Jay and Bill close and hope that they completely died and that I could find a second wind before the final two turns. Alas, Jay was able to keep his gap and get fifth, while Bill and I died allowing a few others came around us on the uphill backstretch, landing Bill in 8th and myself in 10th.

So a bit of bad luck, bad timing, not enough smarts, and getting ganged up on as the marked man made for a disappointing day. One consolation was that GST did not win the race, as Bob Pongratz of Team RPM was able to take the sprint for the win.

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)		 HR avg
(BPM)		 HR max
(BPM)		 Calories Burned
(Kcal)
9:41 am 11.7 27 27:56 57, Calm 25.1 33.2 171 185 342

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