March 8, 2015, Hungry Dog 55+
Phoenix, AZ 30 minutes
Report from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
This course is only 0.48 miles around, totally flat, and has fairly gentle turns.
We rode counter-clockwise this year (this is a course that had been used in the past, going in different directions in different years).
It was a beautiful day, upper 60s, sunny, and calm.
My main contender would again be Paul Curley from Massachusettes and I watched him like a hawk for the entire race.
We had chatted while at the start line and he asked me who to worry about and I had mentioned that the two Landis riders could be aggressive and sometimes pulled off a fair sprint.
One interesting facet of this race is that they combined us with Masters Women 40+ race and a few of them showed that they were pretty strong while mixing it in with us.
The first couple of laps allowed us to get in some warmup, averaging 23.0 and 22.6 mph, even though Paul kicked off the beginning of the race with a fast lead.
After 3 laps they gave us the bell of the first prime sprint and I sat near the front as we came to the final corner.
The pack wasn't going all that fast (27 mph), so I did a kick to 31.3 mph and took the prime by several lengths and settled back into the pack.
There were a few good attacks, fortunately usually by one of the Landis riders, so Paul was quick to chase with me right on his wheel.
This went of for several laps, but no major breaks were established.
A second prime was announced and my team mate Don Martin was making a serious go of it, so I sat back to watch and he just got sniped at the line.
They also had primes just for the women, so we got to see some of them battle it out at the front as well.
They gave us the lap board with 6 to go and the speed dropped even more, averaging 21.5, 20.7, and 20.8 for the next 3 laps;
great for my preparation for a sprint, but also it would mean that everyone else is rested to do some attacking in the last few laps.
Sure enough, with 3 to go, some attacks came and we averaged 25.3 and 25.8 on the next two laps, coming into the final lap;
everything stayed together and the pace wasn't so extreme as to wear me out.
I was on Paul's wheel with one to go and he was sitting back in about 4th.
The pack was content to stick together with no attacks happening in the final lap.
Since we were not going really fast on the section heading South towards the last corner, I was concerned about someone coming from behind and boxing me in.
Paul had his head turned and was right on top of any move I would make,
but I felt I had to go a little earlier than ideal to avoid a crowd and jumped before the halfway point of that section, about 150 meters before the corner while in my 50x15.
I saw Paul immediately jump after me and switched up to a 50x14 as I carefully set up the final corner, which has some backwards banked gutters on the inside.
I didn't keep to the inside of the course as well as I should have and this gave Paul the opportunity to come up on my wheel in the final 220 meters from the corner to the line.
At 75 meters to go I saw him coming and gave it everything I could, but he come up to me on the inside and was even with me at the line,
but I threw my bike right at the end and beat him by a couple of inches.
My team mate Wayne Lewis had followed my wheel with one to go and was able to be in the action at the front, taking the podium spot of third.
A Landis rider, Andrew Hosterman, took the final prize position of 4th and was the first rider aged under 60.
Wayne and Lionel on the podium
Summary
Start
Time |
Distance
(Miles) |
Starters |
Duration |
Weather
(Deg F, mph) |
Speed avg
(MPH) |
Speed Max
(MPH) |
| 8:40 am |
10.9 |
12 |
27:18 |
68, calm |
24.0 |
33.5 |
Results
Racing page Bike page
