April 5, 2013, Mesa Fixie
Mesa, AZ   20 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

This was an evening race (9:15 pm) on fixed gears over a 0.85 mi course with 8 corners. Most of the corners were fairly safe, but turn 7 was a critical corner and also had dips in it for drains and also narrowed as you went down the stretch to turn 8. Any racer of any age and any category could enter. There were 15 racers, 8 of them with a USA Cycling license and 5 of those entered the night of the race. One racer to watch would be Rick Bucher, a category 2 racer, aged 41 that would also ride the Pro/1/2 event just prior to this one.

We started off at what seemed a fairly moderate pace, averaging about 24 mph for the first 3 laps. One rider then gave a solo attack and Rick was quick to chase with me right on his wheel. We caught the rider in about a third of a lap and bunched up again.

Since many of the riders were not regular racers, it was a bit worrying that some may not be very safe in the bunch. There were two riders wearing State Bicycle Company jerseys (Craig Streit and Thomas Keating) and they were intentionally shouldering riders (deliberate punches using their shoulders). I was trying to keep to Rick's wheel and one kept coming up to me and hitting me hard in the shoulder to knock me off of his wheel. Since we still had half the race to go, I let him have the wheel and got behind him, only to see him then move up further in the pack ahead of Rick and start bumping others. Apparently these two riders were intentionally intimidating the other racers so that they could be more aggressive and not have others contest them. Since I got back onto Rick's wheel, one of them started bumping Rick and annoyed him to the point where he took his left hand off the bars and started fisting the guy in the shoulder in protest.

Other than that the race went fairly smoothly. I was having difficulty figuring out what would be the best plan for the finish and decided to try to be on the inside of turn 6 and try to be first going into turn 7 on the finish.

We got the notice for 5 laps to go (out of 10) and the pack stayed together. I was watching Rick mostly, knowing that if someone tried a solo that he would most likely go after it. At 9:30 the lawn sprinklers came on to water the grass at turn 7 and it spilled onto the roadway in the drainage dips, making for a wet turn 7 for the last couple of laps.

We came to one to go and still we were rolling around as a bunch. Rick was sitting a bit far back, so after turn 5 I moved up considerably. Just after turn 6, one of the State Bicycle Company riders (Keating) made a strong jump and I was able to get on his wheel, approaching turn 7 in second position. I had hoped to accelerate strongly through that turn, but the water made that hazardous and I had to follow the lead rider. And just as we went through the turn, the lead rider slowed down severely right in front of me. I was a bit trapped and should have tried to dive inside and accelerate, but being unsure of the safety of the wet corner, the surprise caused me to hesitate and this was just enough for the other State Bicycle rider (Streit) to come up even with me, who then proceeded to push me into the curb. He knew I was there and he had plenty of room to make a good setup for the final turn, but he chose to endanger me and shut me out instead of winning by speed. So at 200 meters to go to the finish, I'm braking to avoid running into the curb and never even started a sprint, my highest speed being the section between turns 6 & 7. The two State Bicycle Company riders took the first two places with their 1-2 punch in the final corners and Dominic was able to easily pass my slowed pace to take third. There was a $600 prize for first place in this race and I got $10 for fourth.

I remember riding with bullies in the 70s and 80s who would try to win by intimidation and blatantly forcing riders into the curb. I didn't appreciate the lack of sportsmanship then and I didn't like it this time either. I'll probably not enter this race next year if it happens again. I lost a lot of respect for Craig that evening, along with State Bicycle Company and his official club Body by Vi p/b VeloVie, if they condone this kind of behavior.
Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)		 HR avg
(BPM)		 HR max
(BPM)
9:09 pm 8.5 15 20:28 79, Calm 24.9 33.9 167 191

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