April 19, 2009, Arizona State Criterium Championships
Phoenix, AZ   11.8 miles
(Most images can be clicked on for a larger version)
Many thanks to Mike and Lisa Kolin for the photography.


This was a 30 minute criterium on a figure eight course with the addition of a U-turn almost immediately after the start/finish line. Although the final stretch from 4th Ave looks long, there was some unexpected construction on the right side of the road before 3rd Ave that required barricades that obstructed a full lane on the right. There were also barricades in the center of the road to the East of 3rd Ave for the two way traffic of the race. The weather was nearly perfect with barely a perceptible wind and temperatures in the upper 60's to 71 by the end.

The State Championship Masters races are divided into 5 year age categories and the promoters had decided to join all the 50 age and older racers into one race, but score the age groups separately. This was my first year in the 55-59 age category and it seemed that the trick would be to get away with some 50-54 riders if they attacked. Otherwise a bunch finish would be best to my advantage.

Although I originally had anticipated this to be an easy win with the 50-54 age riders being in their own category, the race from three weeks ago still was plaguing me. In that two hour road race, I had severely cramped all the leg muscles in both legs. The following two weeks had persisted with pain in the legs, not allowing me to do any hard training. I did one short effort a week ago and some short low gear sprints three days ago, but I felt that I had lost a lot of fitness. Plus, I still had pains in my right quadriceps and my left quad had a huge knot in it. So I dared not put out too much effort and hoped that I could pull off one sprint effort without my legs failing me.

The start was very weird. The officials had lined us up by age category, where the 50-54 age riders were at the start line, with the 55-59 in the second row, and each age group following suit for a total of 40 riders in the race. Since we had a U-Turn just 75 meters up the road, the start could turn out to be decisive. So after a brief announcement of the rules, the lead official stated "riders ready?" And I quickly clipped in my right foot. He then counted: "Ready", "Set", pause, pause, then several riders started rolling off, then others followed, finally about a quarter of the pack was rolling, the officials were blowing whistles and I and several others were still standing still expecting a restart when the officials started yelling, "Go, GO, GO!". So great, now I needed to play catch up to the leaders that were furiously attacking at the start.

Within a couple of laps I was able to get myself up to the leaders and began watching who was strongest. I had expected some 50-54 riders to make things difficult, but the attacks were coming from my 55-59 group and the chases after them also from the 55-59 group. As it turned out, none of the top Arizona riders that are in the 50-54 age group had entered, so our category was the strongest.

I was able to stay in the top six pretty easily and no major attacks occurred. We had a couple of prime sprints, but the pack stayed together with no one really contesting them.

U-Turn. Last Corner. Lap 2, watching Bixby.

Finally we got down to our 5 laps to go and things became a bit more tense. My two main contenders to watch were David Bixby (who had won several state championships previously in this event) and Bill McDorman (who had won last week's 50+ road race and had also won the final road sprint three weeks ago when I cramped). I had learned during the race that the best position was on the left side of the pack, which provided the best opportunities to move up and the least complications of getting boxed in. I kept David and Bill slightly in front of me to keep an eye on them as the laps counted down. However, Bill kept to the far right of the pack and with a couple of laps to go I wrote him off as I figured that this positioning would limit his ability to place well. So I moved up to just behind David, who would usually sit about mid-pack and about 4 from the front. There were no surprise attacks during the laps as we approached the final lap, so no stresses on my system that would aggravate my sore legs. Now I just had to get the final lap in.

With the U-Turn in the course, it allows the racers to see escapes, or in this case upcoming lapped riders. As we got the one-lap-to-go sign (I never heard the bell), we could see that we were about to run up on slower riders that were about to be lapped. I had a bad experience last year when we had used the same course without the U-Turn leg and we caught up with lapped riders also on the last lap. It was like running into a flock of geese where you could not predict what was going to happen, disaster was always threatening, and the congestion made it impossible to move up in position. Fortunately during the weeks previous to the event, I had a plan for this eventuality.

However, we had another complication in that on the stretch after the U-Turn a 50-54 rider (Andrew Hosterman) rode off the front with no chasers and then Larry McCormick in the 55-59 also rode off. I was with David Bixby, who rides for the same team as Larry and he intentionally let Larry get a lead on the pack (I assumed he'd rather have Larry win than me, even if it meant sacrificing himself). Thus I had to carefully judge how far I could let Larry go and still keep him within striking range to reel him in during a sprint. The two escapees soon integrated with the lapped riders and it was going to get messy.

With 4 corners to go (on Monroe St), I attacked just before the corner. I have a pretty good jump, so I usually get about 2 to 3 lengths with my acceleration. This gave me full speed through the corner while the rest had to wait until after the corner before they could start pedaling again and get up to speed, giving me another couple of lengths. Now I had to pick my way through the upcoming slower riders and try to set a line that would confuse my chasers, causing them indecision as to which way to get around the flak. David had expected me to ease up once I had caught Larry and prepare for the sprint, but as I passed him on 4th Avenue I just kept on going. After taking the final corner, I caught the 50-54 rider who was dying fast. I buried my head and hoped I could keep everyone at bay until the line. As it turned out, David finished in second many lengths behind and Bill came up fourth in the 55-59 group.

Last lap: coming out of final turn
approaching 3rd Ave and dodging the barricade.		 50 meters to go. 10 feet to go.

Movie of finish

So it felt great to win another State championship in the Criterium event. Last time was 2005.

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)
6:59 am 11.8 12 28:50 70, calm 0 24.6 32.1 177 195

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