April 26, 2014, Tolero Criterium #2, 60+
Oro Valley, AZ   30 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ

An early morning criterium on a popular half mile technical course just North of Tucson meant hitting the road at 5:00 am with my buddy Wayne. There were wind advisories for the afternoon and the wind was already over 10 mph in the morning. This time they put the 50-59 riders into one race and 60+ in another, both starting together, but racing for different prizes. Much less confusing than the race three weeks ago at the same venue. We had a total of 9 at the start line, with 5 of them in the 60+ race.

My favorite racing bike was still in the shop getting repaired, so I'd be riding my spare bike this weekend. It's not as quick handling due to a shallower head angle and longer top tube that puts my weight farther back. Also the chain stays are longer, so the rear wheel feels a bit more like it could slip out. Since the pedals are lower to the ground, I'd have to be careful in the corners to not scrape a pedal. The double chain rings mean I would be in a ring that's either too big or too small for most of the race; I ended up using the small ring for the entire day of racing, since the sprint is uphill. But it was a good experiment to feel the deficiencies of a road bike compared to my crit bike.

The race started off a bit mellow, but it soon became apparent that the Team Pay 'n Take boys were going to try to control the race. There were 3 of them, plus a rider on the O'Brien's team that were working together to throw consecutive attacks. One of the Pay 'n Take riders was in my age class, so I pretty much just chased all the attacks down to make sure I didn't miss any.

We had 3 prime sprints and on the first one I took off just before the last corner and the O'Brien's rider was able to pass me before the line; I wasn't going 100% as the primes are generally not of high value, but he still showed that he had a powerful sprint. Fortunately he was in the 50-59 race, so would not affect my overall standings at the end of the race.

On the second prime I sat on the O'Brien's rider and he again showed good form and took the prime. When we came to the third prime, a rider took off early going down the back stretch and I jumped on his wheel. We got a good gap on the O'Brien's rider and I passed the rider after the corner to take the third prime.

There were more attacks, but I just kept everyone in check. It would be nice to beat the O'Brien's rider and I knew he would be going for the win. He took the lead at the top of the course after the first corner and I was on his wheel. I decided to attack just before the NW corner and try to gap him around the sharp off-bank turn. I didn't get enough of a gap before the turn and then I couldn't trust my bike enough to really take the turn as tightly as I wanted to. I had to wait a bit to straighten out to start pedaling again, into the headwind, and the gap was insufficient to prevent getting caught before the bottom of the hill. I led through the final turn and had to ease up a bit there as well and this gave plenty of opportunity for him to pass me before the line. However, I still took the 60+ race for a nice prize of a chocolate gluten-free cake.
Summary
Start
Time		 Distance
(Miles)		 Starters Duration Weather
(Deg F, mph)		 Speed avg
(MPH)		 Speed Max
(MPH)
7:39 am 11.9 5 30:54 62, S @ 12 23.1 34.6

Results

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