March 23, 2013, San Tan Criterium 50+
Mesa, AZ   40 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
Many thanks to Julie Morgan for the photography (taken from the Team Area at the center of the course).

This was a 40 minute criterium on very smooth roads around a bar bell shaped course, 1.16 miles per lap. The length from the final turn is short, such that whoever gets through the final corner on the last lap will likely win the race. The weather was in the mid 60s, sunny, but with a bit of wind from the North North East.

I had won this race on it's inaugural event in 2008 and had competed in it several times in later years, so the course was familiar. We had 22 starters in the 50+ race and another 2 60+ riders riding with us. Mark Fosenburg would be the primary sprinter to watch and Keith Brodhagen would be the strong rider to keep an eye on, having successfully soloed away last year. Peter Brown from Tucson was also present and he can occasionally pull out a great result.

I started the race in the lead, taking the first corner first and down the stretch noticed I was doing about 29 mph and had a bit of a gap on the field, so I backed off and settled into the bunch.
Leading the start (dressed in black). First lap going the other way (Keith in Black behind me,
Mark in the middle with Paragon jersey).

We had a few solo attacks from Andrew Hosterman and Dan McGehee, but they didn't keep their momentum going well enough to stay away. When the primes came up, the speed surged and we started losing riders. Mark and Keith put in some good attacks right after the primes and I kept them in contact.

Keith was near the front so I kept close to him to avoid him successfully attacking and slipping away. Keith started putting some pressure on and did do a strong attack, but Mark and myself latched on to him and the 3 of us got a bit of a gap. However, the pack was strong enough to keep us from gaining too much and soon had us back in the fold.
Mark attacking on Lap 3, Peter in pursuit. Keith not far behind with me marking Keith.

Next lap, back together
(Keith, Mark, then myself, Peter to my right).		 Half a lap later, Keith attacking,
Mark on his wheel, I'm going with them.		 A lap later, all together again,
15 minutes into the race.

A few more solo attacks were tried, but after a while there were about 6 riders who settled in to the front position and the pack was happy to let them trade off. The primes would continue to stretch out the pack and gap the weaker riders, but when we eased up we came back into a group of about 16. It would be to my advantage to have a bunch finish, so I was pleased with how things were progressing so far.
Dan McGehee putting pressure on the front.
(I'm in sixth)		 Half a lap later, 24 minutes into the race.

As we got down to about 13 minutes to go, I started seeing Mark further up in the front of the action. He would then be the guy to watch as we started approaching a bunch finish. Since we had been doing slightly over 2.5 minutes per lap, I figured we should see the lap board soon and was surprised that on the next lap around the officials had the lap board with only 2 to go. It was then time to keep a close eye on Mark, one of the best sprinters in our group. Andrew Hosterman made another solo attempt and Jeff Biever gave chase, pulling the 16 strong pack behind him.
Jeff chasing with 2 to go, Peter following. Mark following Peter, followed by Dan then myself.

As we came down the stretch approaching the final corner before getting the bell for one to go, Mark was sitting about 8 back and I was concerned that if he didn't move up, I'd need to get into a more favorable position for the finishing sprint. After the first corner of the final lap, Mark moved up a bit on the outside and I stayed with him. After the second corner, Keith moved up even with me, but gave me the third corner to stay on Mark's wheel. Now going down the long curved stretch of 48th street, Mark was still further back than I liked and the speed of the pack was not at all fast. I assumed Keith was not far from my rear wheel. This scenario encouraged an attack on the outside (right of us) by 3 riders that swooped past us and we had to really dig in to get back into the game. This acceleration was successful in keeping the attackers at bay, so much so that they eased up and we passed them, leaving Mark in second position with me still on his wheel as we took that last right turn. For me this was ideal, as the speed had stretched out the pack, the speed was still high enough to discourage another attack, and I was positioned such that if Mark jumped early, I'd be able to use him as a lead out. As it turned out, we kept our position around the next left turn and down the stretch heading towards 2 turns to go. Perfect. With a slight tailwind on the next stretch between the two final corners, it would effectively shorten it and I wanted to be leading down that stretch. As we approached the penultimate corner, I started my jump just as we started setting up for it. This meant staying in the saddle since we were already cornering and I accelerated right on through the corner, surprising the lead rider when I passed him such that he wobbled a bit. This created a nervous situation for Mark who was still on his wheel, which gave me even more of a gap before he could start reacting. Having established about a 5 length gap, all I had to do was keep the speed up, take the final corner safely and I still had several lengths in hand by the time I hit the line. We averaged 28.5 mph on the final lap and hit a top speed on the stretch before the final corner of 33.3 mph. Mark took second and Keith was not far behind to take third.
Smiles after the win. Podium (sans Mark). My Mom was able to attend the event.

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)		 HR avg
(BPM)		 HR max
(BPM)
8:33 am 16.2 22 37:40 67, NNE@5 25.7 33.3 166 189

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