January 24, 2016, Avondale Crit #1, 45+
Avondale AZ
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

The flat, half mile, flat course had warmed up to 68 since my early morning race, but the winds had also increased, with an 8 mph wind hitting us in the last part of the curve before the finish head on. I wore my warm skin suit with long sleeves and was fine. This being one of the last races of the day, almost everyone had ridden a race earlier in the day and some as many as 3 additional races. So our pace was not intimidating at the start and also for most of the race, although a few strategic alliances of attacking kept the pace more than adequate to give us an average of 24 mph.

I did not know most for racers too well, but James Kramer would be the likely favorite. Eventually the strongest riders were showing themselves towards the front of the pack and were going to chase down anything that looked like it might succeed. So I just stayed mid-pack and made sure nobody slipped away unexpectedly. James teammate Chris Poole would often make a go of it and go off solo and I was wary that James would try to block chase attempts, but someone was always willing to make a long effort to close the attack down.

At the end of lap 11, 14 minutes into the race, the officials gave a bell for a prime, announcing $50. I moved up to about 5th position and one rider started picking up the pace early. He was still leading as we came to the finishing straight, with another rider close behind, but the finish line was within reach so all it took was a quick kick up to 32.5 and I had the prime won, creating the fastest lap of 1:00 (thus paying the entry fees and gas).

I was concerned about an immediate attack right after that, but everyone eased up and I had time to recover. At the end of lap 15, another prime was announced, but I didn't hear the amount. I was a bit farther back than I would have liked at the time, but tried to move up without expending too much energy. As we came to the end of the final bend I thought I might have a chance and gave a kick to 32.9 mph, but I was too far behind to take the win. The next several laps were rather moderate, so I had plenty of time to recover.

They gave us a lap countdown with 7 to go out of our eventual 27 laps and I worked my way over to take command of Kramer's draft. Kramer's team-mate thought he might dislodge me by elbowing me off his wheel, and did so right in front of the officials to my verbal objections. There are better strategic ways to accomplish that rather than pure bullying and I didn't appreciate it. He quickly gave up and tried a solo off the front again, but did not make much headway.

I was fairly certain that Kramer was still the favorite and had figured he would use his teammate as a lead out into the sprint. So my plan was to stay on Kramer's wheel while he battled the head wind in the final part of the final bend and then hopefully come around him on the leeward side to his right.

Just after the 3rd hard corner, Kramer got the plan in motion and on the back stretch yelled to his teammate that it was a go. The leadout was pretty good at 30 mph and the swing off was just where it should have occurred. James got out of the saddle to accelerate and I tried to stick to his wheel, but my legs were not delivering and he pulled away from me. With the gap, I didn't have a draft to assist and another rider was able to pass me on my right before we hit the line, netting me a third place.

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)		 Course Length
(Miles)
3:42 pm 13.8 13 34:31 69, W@8 24.0 33.0 0.5

Results

Racing page     Bike page