February 27, 2005, Sun Devil Criterium, Category 4
Tempe, AZ 17.0 miles
This was a flat, 40 minute criterium on very smooth roads.
The course was a 1/2 mile, somewhat roundish course with 2 ninety degree turns, the last one 230 meters from the finish.
The corners were pretty safe and the roads generally very wide.
The weather was great, 66 degrees, sunny and basically no wind.
We had a safe start and I kept near the front to keep an eye on things.
We'd occasionally hit 32+ mph on the front stretch due to the prime sprints, but my heart rate was in the mid 170's and I was not working hard.
On lap 7, we came around the last turn and I saw the rider about 3 ahead of me start to veer a bit wide toward the curb on the outside.
Sure enough, his wheel hit the curb and down he went, wiping out a few other riders behind him.
As they went down, the carnage creeped further into the roadway and I missed one of the downed riders wheels by about 18 inches. Whew!
There was a prime sprint on lap 10 and after the sprint, 2 guys were slightly off the front.
One can't chase every rider off the front, but I kept an eye on them to see if they might stay away.
A couple laps later, one rider jumped off the front to join him, but stalled soon and didn't gain much.
But then the 2 lead riders started to make some headway.
As we came into lap 13, I shot off the front, passing the chasing rider quickly and hitting my highest speed of the race (33.4 mph, hr 194 bpm) in an attempt to join the break away.
A kilometer later I had closed within 50 feet of them, but was running out of gas and knew I would not be able to make it to them; I had miscalculated and waited too long to make my move.
I had to abandon and get some rest to rejoin the chasing pack.
I spent the next 6.5 miles recuperating.
With 5 laps remaining I was starting to feel back to normal.
With 3 laps to go I had positioned myself to third position as we crossed the line.
With the final turn only 230 m from the ine and having watched the finishes of the other category races, I figured I had to be first through the final turn on the final lap.
As we crossed the line with 1 lap to go, the pace eased, we got all bunched up, brakes were screeching, and I got boxed in badly.
We came around turn one for the final time, but I was in the middle about 10 back; not where I wanted to be.
I had picked a point on the back stretch where I wanted to begin my jump, but I couldn't get to the outside and the speed picked up before we got there.
Fortuanately, this put me in about 5th position right on the wheel of Jesus Lamb, who is a pretty good sprinter.
I couldn't move up before the turn and hoped I could pass some riders on the final short finish stretch.
We went through the turn in single file and I picked up the pace through the turn to start to pass Jesus as we exited the turn.
However, he did a very sloppy turn and swung way to the outside, pinning me to the curb and I had to ease up to avoid getting pushed off the course.
With this slowdown, there was no chance to catch any of the other riders that were already accelerating away, so I just eased up and finished somewhere around 8th overall
At least it was a safe race for me, although half a dozen other guys were not so lucky.
No prizes or upgrade points.
The chase effort took a lot out of me and I was hoping I could still adequately perform in the Masters race less than 3 hours later.
Summary
Start
Time |
Distance
(Miles) |
Starters |
Duration |
Weather
(Deg F, mph) |
Climbing
(Feet) |
Speed avg
(MPH) |
Speed Max
(MPH) |
HR avg
(BPM) |
HR max
(BPM) |
HR waking
(BPM) |
Calories Burned
(Kcal) |
| 9:22 am |
17 |
40 |
39:05 |
66, NW@3 |
0 |
26.1 |
33.4 |
175 |
194 |
48 |
361 |
Results
Racing page Bike page
