April 5, 2014, Tolero Criterium #1, 60+
Oro Valley, AZ   30 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

An early morning criterium on a popular half mile technical course just North of Tucson meant hitting the road at 5:00 am. The excitement I had from the previous day's race had extended far too long, causing me to not be able to fall asleep early, and I only had about 3 hours of sleep for the night, but I felt fine. I was fortunate to share the experience by driving down with a fellow 60 age racer also from Phoenix, Wayne Lewis. The race weather started off a little cool at 61 degrees, so I was wearing an extra jersey, leg warmers, and arm warmers.

One theme that had been occurring during this last month of criterium racing, was hearing from riders that they were afraid of crashing their expensive road bikes in crit races. The problem with a standard road bike is that it is generally made for comfort out on the open road. When it comes to extreme cornering, such as taking a city block turn at 35 mph, they tend to under steer. The height of the bottom bracket is pretty standard and designed to keep the riders center of gravity low which works fine for rounded turns down a mountain, but has the consequence of making the pedals low to the ground, which increases the chances of pedal strikes when cornering a very tight city street turn. Riding a road bike in a crit is like entering a NASCAR vehicle in a F1 Grand Prix race; it would be a bit of a harrowing experience that could get you into trouble, although one might still get around the course. I had Andy Gilmour in Tucson custom build my bike with a 74 degree head tube angle (just like my crit bike from 1974) and only a 55 mm BB drop (1.5 centimeters higher than a standard road bike) and it turns on a dime while being impossible to hit a pedal on a flat, high speed turn (which I've tested empirically). I've also been doing work for Habanero Cycles and I'm working with Mark to introduce a titanium Crit frame that could provide a safer crit racing bike that doesn't need a second mortgage to purchase. There's definitely a need for riders to ride safer bikes in criteriums.

I rode the Tolero crit races last year, where the 3 classes of 50-54, 55-59, and 60+ all rode together for one overall prize in addition to separate prizes for each class. So I was a bit surprised this year when we showed up to the line and the 50-59 where instructed to be on the line and the 60+ riders told to get in back and wait until the other pack had reached the first corner. I assumed then that there were not going to be any combined prizes this year.

Normally when races start in this fashion, the separate groups are not allowed to mix with each other, unless they inter-mix on the last lap. So to be clear (and remind the other racers of the proper protocol), I asked the official at the line just before we started if we were allowed to mix if riders of the two groups came together. His answer was "Well, your numbers are so inter-mixed that we won't be able to tell the difference". My understanding to that was that we were still not supposed to mix, but the officials may not enforce it, but if they could tell the difference, that rider could be relegated or disqualified. So for some it could turn into a free for all and for riders like me that are easily identified, I must obey the no-mix rule. If indeed we were allowed to mix, my best strategy would be to immediately sprint up to the 50+ group and never see the 60+ riders until we lapped them, a feat I could easily accomplish. This statement on the ruling was much different than the normal official's harsh stance of instructing the riders to stay separate and to neutralize when encountering another class, which is exactly what we were told one week ago at the State Championships and several other crits during the previous month. I don't know why these officials wanted to give an unclear message and not follow the standard protocol.

We watched the 50-59 riders clear the first corner at the top of the hill and then we were given permission to start our race. I had no real threats in this race, so it was just a matter of finishing it to take an easy win. Since I planned to ride the 45+ race immediately after this race, I had no intention of using up extra energy and the race would basically be an easy warm up ride for me. My buddy Wayne was probably the next fastest rider in our group.

Our laps started pretty leisurely with the first lap only averaging 20.1 mph. The next two at 22.3 mph and 22.1 mph were also very easy. The officials offered a prime sprint on the next lap to liven things up and we averaged a more modest 24.3 mph and I easily took the prime with a top speed of only 30.4 mph. The next four laps all averaged less than 22 mph and I had dropped to the back of our small bunch of 6 to check out the competition. Some of them did not look like they had good bike handling skills and I'd take the turns extra wide when behind them to give myself clearance in case they took themselves down.

Then on lap 9 as we were going up the hill towards the finish line, the 50+ front pack came flying by us on our left. I yelled to the rest of our group "riders coming through" and the 50+ pack got about 4 lengths on us. But then they settled down a bit and two of our riders picked up the pace and brought us all up to the 50+ group, even though it would have been proper to keep separate. So sitting at the back, I quickly tried to memorize jersey's as to who was in what race, because as the lead riders exchanged turns at the front, they would drift farther back into the 60+ pack and start to really mix things up. Lap 9 averaged 24.0 mph and lap 10 averaged 25.6 mph, so our race was definitely affected by those 60+ riders choosing to intentionally mix in with the other race. As we came by the officials stand, I sat up a bit and put my right hand out off the bars, implying that I was asking a question like "are you going to make any formal announcement abut mixing now that we've got this mess?". I probably should have also verbalized it so that I could have more emphatically demanded clarification.

As we entered lap 11, it was starting to get really mixed up. I was putting most of my concentration on tracking which riders were in the 50+ and which were in the 60+ while feeling that I should not go to the front with the 50+ as I felt we should not be mixing at all with those riders in the first place and I was hoping we'd eventually separate out again in the not too distant future, yet didn't want any 60+ riders to sneak away in the process. We rounded turn 1 at a slow 18 mph while I was near the back of the pack (although a couple of 50+ riders were behind me) and the 60+ rider immediately in front of me clipped his inside pedal against the ground, slid out his rear wheel and thus presented his body as a direct barricade to the only path I could take. With no room to maneuver to the right or left and no time to brake, I tee boned him and flipped over the bike, rolling on my left side. My feet automatically unclipped and I immediately stood up and did a quick check of myself. I didn't feel any severe pain, so I looked at the riders ahead of me and knew I should easily be able to chase them back down. I went to grab my bike, but was devastated to see that the impact had destroyed the steel frame and it was no longer ridable. So that was the end of my racing for the day, while also not being able to start the more serious second race that would follow this one.

It seems that for my own safety, I'm going to need to promote the idea of riders using crit specific bikes for riding crit races. While I can usually break even or even come out ahead at races from the prizes and primes, this easiest race of the year turned out to be the most expensive setback. I also put part of the blame on the officials for sending a mixed message on whether or not we could or should mix classes when they came together. If they said explicitly that we couldn't (normally implied by starting them separate in the first place), I could have stayed near the front of our independent group and avoided the less safe 60+ riders as I had been doing for most of the race. If they said that we could mix, then I would have gone up to the front of the 50+ pack to also be ahead of the less safe riders. Unfortunately, the officials put me in the worst predicament with expensive and painful consequences.

On the plus side, Wayne Lewis took the sprint for the win of the 60+ race, his first cycling competition win, so he was a happy boy.

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)
7:44 am 5.1 6 13:46 62, Calm 22.4 30.4

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