January 28, 2012, Bicycle Haus Criterium, Masters 55+
Chandler, AZ   13.7 miles
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
Many thanks to my wife Noel for the photography.

This race was just 10 minutes away from home, but we went a bit early to see some of the other racing and for me to try out the course beforehand. The Firebird Raceway is a venue of several race tracks primarily used by cars and motorcycles. We would be using the East track, running just East of Interstate 10. It is 1.2 miles per lap, totally flat and the sharpest corner is the final turn about 250 meters before the finish while traversing it clockwise. At the start of the race we had a tailwind on the finishing straight, but the winds shifted such that it would be coming from our left when we finished. The weather was sunny and in the seventies, so no extra clothing needed. Our race was to be 35 minutes, which would make it 11 laps.

Since I had placed second the previous week in a 50+ week, this race was mine to lose with the ages starting at 55+. I knew I was the fastest in the sprint and the strongest if I were to get into a break, so I just had to keep everything rolling my way. Steve Cullinen would be the biggest sprint threat, and pretty much all I had to do was make sure that no break was let to walk away due to apathy in the pack. Kevin Charmichael was present, but he had not been riding much due to his work schedule. We had about 5 in the 65+ race that would be riding along with us, but racing for different prizes.

As I was finishing my warmup, about 10 minutes before the start of the race, I felt my rear tire go soft. It was definitely flat and I had brought my training wheels along for spares. So I'd be racing on training wheels both front on back for the first time. Then just before start, my friend Norm Kibble from Tucson had a flat on the front and I lent him my other spare wheel so that he could ride the 65+ event. So I had no wheels in the pit if I were to flat during the race.

Due to the non-technical course and small turnout, I was not expecting much in the way of attacks. We had a few primes and they were not hotly contested and created no threats to any attacks for a breakaway. I probably should have gone for a few as they would have been easy to win, but as usual, I saved my energy for the race win. The few times I took a turn at the front were disastrous, even if I were trying to up the pace to keep some escapees within reach. As soon as I would swing over, the entire pack would swing over with me and even if I slowed way down, like to 15 mph, they would also. Thus I usually hung towards the back of the pack as everyone was apparently wanting to follow me. This also meant that even if I tried a solo attack (not my strength), they would most likely band together to reel me in. So the pace would often get intolerably slow as we neared the last few laps.

My best chance for a win was to go for the sprint and it sure looked like it would have to be a bunch sprint, since I could get no one to break away with me. By the time we came to the final laps, the wind had changed direction such that it was blowing straight into our faces as we approached the final turn. This was unfortunate, because I had wanted to do my sprint start on that section, lead through the turn and hope to hold them off on the long finish. After leading the turn after a good jump to set a gap, I planned to keep to the right to keep anyone from using the leeward side of me to try to pass.

As we came into the last lap, I was towards the very back, not wanting to be in the lead where everyone would be sitting on my wheel. I had considered taking a flyer on the backstretch, but it would have been difficult to hold the pace for 1000 meters. I moved up to sitting onto Steve's wheel as we approached the penultimate corner, sitting about mid-pack, but this still felt a bit too far back with the twists in the road coming up. As we hit the stretch before the final corner, Steve gave a jump and I went into a panic mode (not typical for me); mistake #1. I jumped past Steve, but this did not give me enough time to pass everyone before the final turn. Thus I had to brake (mistake #2) hard just before the turn to avoid being run into by the riders ahead and nullified all the advantage of my jump. I then had to claw my way back up to speed and in the process one of the riders on my left made a sudden move to the right, causing me to veer sharply. I plied on the speed and was soon in the lead, but it was a long way to the finish and the distractions had caused me to forget to keep to the right; mistake #3. Thus I soon realized that Steve was trying to come up on my right side, so I notched the gear up and picked up the pace, and put my head down for a full effort. As I was keeping a peripheral on Steve, I also noticed that another rider, Bill, was on my left. I gave it everything I had to keep them at bay and crossed the orange and red line ahead of them, seeing the orange barrels pass on the side of the road. As I coasted in relief that I had made the race, I looked up and saw that the actual finish line was still another 20 meters ahead; mistake #4. By this time Steve and Bill were off for the top two positions and I felt like an idiot, looking back to see what I had thought was the finish, settling for third and giving the race away.


What I thought was the finish.


"What was that?"

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Climbing
(Feet)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)
1:33 pm 13.5 12 35:32 75, light NE 0 22.8 35.5

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