March 15, 2009, Hungry Dog Criterium, 50+
Tempe, AZ 12.7 miles
(Thanks go to Mike Kolin for the photography and Lisa Kolin for the movie)
Another beautiful day in Arizona.
80 degrees of sunshine and calm winds.
The 50+ race would start at a reasonable 11:15 am time and would only be a 30 minute race.
The course is about a kilometer long and completely flat.
It basically has just two right turns, but the last turn is about 180 meters from the finish and the curves just prior to it tend to funnel everyone together.
The Category 5 race had a crash involving about 5 people on these curves.
Of the several races that I watched finishing, the winner had come through in second and come around the outside.
I have never won a race on this course and I had yet to win a 50+ race for the year, so I was hoping to change that on this day.
I've tried from the front and I've tried coming around in bunch sprints in previous years on this course.
Often I would be the aggressor, trying to form a small break of 4 to 5 riders that I could more easily manage at the end, without success.
This time I would employ a different strategy.
Keith Brodhagen had placed mostly first or second all season.
He had won from solo efforts, pack sprints, and small breakaways, so he is tough, fast, and smart.
My plan would be to shadow him the entire race and take him in the sprint; if a break developed, he most likely would chase it down or be in it to begin with.
From the registration information, he was number 115.
So instead of my blazing start to put everyone immediately in pain, I started off slowly, drifting back and scanning the rider's numbers to find Keith.
At half a lap I was completely at the back and there he was on the tail end.
So I slipped in behind him and we were both sitting back there for several laps.
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| Start. |
Leisurely beginning. |
The pack was not at all aggressive.
There were a few prime sprints offered with generous $20 prizes, but anyone who went after them immediately waited for the pack afterwards
and Keith made no motion towards contesting them or worrying about a subsequent break-away.
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| Sticking to Keith, 115. |
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Break Away attempt |
About 8 minutes into the race, two riders jumped off the front just past the finish line.
After the first turn, Keith pursued them with me on his wheel.
We quickly caught them, I took a pull to keep it going, but when I pulled over, there were 3 lengths behind me and everyone coasted back into the pack.
Then we resumed our leisurely tour.
We had another surge at 21 minutes and Keith and I joined one other rider to form a small break of 3.
Just as 3 others joined us, they called for another prime and everything quickly fell apart.
So at this point, it was most likely going to come down to a pack sprint.
Strategy for the finish was going to be tricky.
There were no other dominant sprinters in the group.
The long right bend before the final turn makes it difficult to get away early.
The slight bend to the left just before the final turn funnels everyone to the left as you can't take the turn tightly coming from the right side of the road.
Plus the very inside of the final curve has a long cement gutter that's slightly banked the wrong way, making it risky to cut very close inside.
Since the distance of the final straight is short, I was banking on Keith getting up to speed before the final turn, which would stretch out the pack and give me opportunity to pick my best line for attacking him at the corner.
As we went down the back stretch for the final time, Keith was not towards the front adequately to perform my prediction, but by then I was boxed in by the curb on the right and riders on the left.
Flowing out of the long right bend, riders started passing us on our left and I was completely boxed in.
I was much farther back than I wanted to be, about 5th position (instead of 1st or 2nd) and everything seemed to be going down the drain quickly.
I was still on Keith's wheel (who was in 2nd position) and to make matters worse, I was having to use my brake to avoid running up on him right in the middle of the corner;
speed I could not afford to give up.
There were riders on Kieth's outside, so I could not just move around him at higher speed.
All I could do at this point was to give everything I could after coming out of the corner, keeping it as tight as possible.
I stomped on the pedals and the gear felt too big (I don't remember when I shifted and had not made a conscious decision to put it into a specific gear due to all the shuffling just before the last corner).
This slowed my acceleration, but hopefully I could make it up with a higher top end at the line.
The finish still seemed a good distance away and I ramped it up, coming up on Kieth's right, but he was too fast and I ended up second again.
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| Half way down the stretch; Keith on my left (I'm centered in yellow). |
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| Still trying to overcome Keith on my left. |
Jay moving over, Keith off of photo. |
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| Just a few more lengths. |
Almost done. |
The maximum speed achieved during the finish was only 31.9 mph just before the corner when I braked slowing down to 30.3 and then only getting it back to 31.1.
So I've got some catching up to do in that department.
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) |
| 11:25 am |
12.7 |
22 |
31:00 |
80, Calm |
0 |
24.6 |
33.1 |
167 |
190 |
Results
Racing page Bike page
