April 6, 2013, Tolero Criterium #2
Oro Valley, AZ   30 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

This was supposed to be a sequel to last week's race on the same course, but unfortunately the turnout was smaller. So they combined the two riders from the 35-39/40-45/45-49+ race with ours and we started at the later time of 8:20 am. This gave me an extra 40 minutes to check the bike out after converting it from a fixed gear from the previous nights race. The weather was wonderful, sunny, calm, in the low 70s.

At the start, I clipped in quickly, so I thought I'd get the ball rolling and get us up to a decent pace. I gave it about 85%, but at the end of the first lap I had about 12 lengths on the rest of the pack. So I thought I'd continue on for a while and was still leading at the end of lap two, but I had started to ease up and wait to join the pack. My abilities are quick acceleration and a good sprint, so time trailing alone for half an hour was not my best tactic and too much work as well.

Dwight passed me just before the top of the hill and then gave it a good effort to see if he could get a gap on me while I may be a bit tired. I quickly rolled up to his wheel and followed him for the remainder of the lap as the pack regrouped. Then Scott Baker took a turn attacking at the front and I quickly jumped up to his wheel. I could see a pattern that was not unexpected where the three strongest Tucson riders would be rotating attacks on me in hopes of getting away. Jay Guyot was the other member of this group and he too would give an attack. This was all good, as that is what they need to do to try to beat me fair and square.

There would be five prime sprint laps and I would chase down anyone that screamed off the front, just to keep them in check. On the fourth prime sprint, Dwight took off on the back stretch, I got on his wheel immediately and after the final turn I passed him just because I could. The primes were again for water bottles and I didn't bother to accept it this time as I already have more water bottles than I can use. On the fifth prime, Joe Puchi went real hard up the hill to take the sprint, getting a several length gap, but I didn't chase him down, assuming we would soon absorb him back, which turned out to be the case.

I was watching the clock and since we were doing laps in about 1:15, I was soon expecting to see the 5 to go board come out. The officials missed that, but started the count down with 4 to go out of the 24 laps that we would eventually complete. As we approached three to go, Dwight gave an attack at the bottom portion of the course and I latched onto him quickly. On the next lap as we got two to go, Scott gave an attack up the hill and I followed him around the first turn and by the time we completed the sharp turn at the NW corner of the course, we had a sizable gap, but he just eased up and we were all together again as we came to the final corner approaching one to go.

I was in about fourth position with one to go and had planned a surprise for the rest. About half way from the line and the first turn, I gave my jump and was first around the first corner. This meant that the riders trying to sit on my wheel for the finish had several riders in their way to get around while taking the first corner and then the chicanes at the top of the course. I screamed through those, took the sharp NW corner very tight and sprinted down the hill. As I approached the final corner, I looked back and saw I had a sizable gap of about 8 lengths and took the final corner carefully. Having the win in hand, I started to ease up, but the hill was steep enough that it drastically slowed my progress and I had to put in a little bit of a surge in the last 50 meters to ensure that I wasn't caught, staying ahead of Jay by a couple lengths at the line.

So a good race where I paid attention and my competitors did what they could to try to foil me with tactics and aggression. The cash win paid for the entry and the gas, so another free race. This time I declined the water bottle for being first in the 55-59 category. The best placed 35-49 rider, Steven Geerligs, was third overall in the group.

Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)		 HR avg
(BPM)		 HR max
(BPM)
8:20 am 12.4 11 29:36 73, Calm 25.1 35.1 162 182

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