January 18, 2015, Avondale Crit #1, 60+
Avondale AZ
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
The first Arizona Criterium of the year, held in Avondale, just West of Phoenix.
The 50+ and 60+ races started together at 7:55 am with clear skies, calm winds, and a cool 46 degrees.
I had 2 layers on my legs, 3 on my arms, and 4 on my torso, but some of the other riders had bare legs.
Oddly, the prizes would be distributed for the entire group of 21 starters, so just beating the 8 60+ racers would not guarantee me any prize money;
a fact that was not exposed to us until after the race.
The Landis team was well represented and have applied team tactics in the past.
Brian Lemke started off the line strong, so I moved up to keep him in check.
He soon let a teammate off the front and Landis slowed the pack down, letting their rider gain a substantial gap.
A lap later a few riders gave chase and I went with them, giving a pull and seeing that the lone rider was not going to be strong enough to stay away.
So I settled back in, but soon a Prime prize lap was called.
I hadn't even thought of going for primes prior to starting, but figured I'd place myself in good position if the opportunity arose.
As we approached 200+ meters to go, one guy was trying hard, but not really going fast, so I accelerated up the inside of the gradual curve,
shot up to his wheel and on to the inside and easily got a large gap where the prize was easily taken.
I immediately eased up to settle back in to the pack to rest.
Not much strong attacking happened for a few more laps, so the announcer gave us another prime.
I stayed a little ahead of mid-pack as we came around the final long bend, saw that the speed wasn't all that great,
so I did a spurt up the outside and again easily took the $25 restaurant gift card.
A Landis rider went off the front and Mark Fosenburg joined him and they began to pull away.
Knowing how strong Mark usually is, I bridged up to them on the back stretch and took some pulls.
But the Landis guy was faltering, not coming through for his pulls and the pulls he did were too slow.
I told Mark that the speed wasn't fast enough for us to remain successful and sure enough the pack soon came up to join us.
A few laps later a third prime was announced.
I decided to conserve my strength for the race finish and did not contest it, although the speed wasn't all that fast and I could have easily taken that one as well.
They started announcing finishing laps with 8 to go.
At 6 to go, I got onto Fosenburg's wheel who was watching Lemke.
Robert McNulty was fighting me for Fosenburg's wheel for several laps, but he eventually relented and got onto mine instead.
With 3 to go, the speed did a quick pick up, but we remained as one pack.
Just after we crossed the line for 1 to go, Fosenburg did an attack on the inside, heading for the first corner.
I was right with him and followed him the entire way.
By the time we exited the last sharp corner, we had a good gap and Fosenburg continued to churn, fully aware that I was on his wheel.
He kept a good pace up and at 200 meters to go got out of the saddle to pick it up, but I had already started my acceleration and
staying in the saddle, was able to easily beat him to the line for the overall win.
McNulty was surprised when he looked at the results sheet and saw that he was second, as he hadn't realized I was in the 60+ race; he got 3rd place prize money though.
The top five overall finishers got cash prizes and I was the only 60+ rider to get that reward.
My new teammate Wayne Lewis enjoyed his race and made the podium with a 3rd place finish in the 60+ race.
Getting my bike ready the night before, I discovered the rear wheel had a stripped spoke nipple, so I couldn't true the wheel.
Since I did not have the time to deal with pulling the tubular tire, I switched it out to a 28 spoke aluminum clincher, which matches the front.
Many racers go with really high end equipment, using carbon wheels with minimal spoke counts.
I'm also probably the only racer out on the course racing a steel bike (built in 2007).
My bars are 26.0 aluminum, an aluminum stem, aluminum seat post, plastic 10 year old shoes, only a single front chain wheel on aluminum square taper cranks, and a 10 year old aluminum 8 speed rear derailer (on a 10 speed cassette),
where many racers think they're at a disadvantage if they're not using carbon for all that stuff.
So the lower tech wheels fit that setup pretty well and don't seem to prove to be a disadvantage.
Results
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