I'd been looking forward to Sunday's criterium in Pensacola. It looked like the kind of course that I like -- fairly technical with turns in both directions and not too long of a drag race from the last turn to the finish. After checking out the standings from Saturday's racing I figured I didn't have much to lose, either. I was down around 13th place thanks to my time trial time and would need around eight seconds to move up one more spot. Considering the horsepower in the 34-rider field, I was expecting a fast and aggressive 50-minute criterium.
Warming up with Dave we discussed the possibilities. Dave said he'd try and cover things early in the race. We were both expecting a fast start and lots of attacks, and unless a good breakaway opportunity presented itself, our best shot for this race would likely to be to hope for a fast hard race finishing with a pack sprint. This was a course where positioning during the final laps would be crucial to a good placing in the sprint.The Master 35+ race started pretty much on time at 10:20 am, and as expected, the first four or five laps were fast as the field kind of sorted itself out and the early breakaway attempts went off and were pulled back. After a while, though, things settled down a little bit. There were still a number of really serious breakaways, but this field was not giving them a whole lot of rope. There were a couple of times when I really had to go flat out to close a gap that I thought might be "it." 
One of those times was the hot spot sprint where it looked like the guys who had sprinted hard for it might just decide to consolidate their advantage and try to stay away. Anyway, with five or six laps left the pace started to fluctuate more and there were a few times where the pack was spread out all over the road as nobody wanted to be on the front. Finally, with about three to go things got serious again. It was a constant battle just to maintain access to the front and, frankly, I was loving it. With two laps to go Debbie Milne, who had been riding really well, suddenly flew off the front. I thought maybe she had decided to go for the classic last minute break while the front was all clogged up with sprinters. As I later learned, she had thought it was the bell lap and once she discovered it wasn't, she shut down and came back to the pack, which by then was pretty strung out. The last lap started out as last laps usually start out -- fast. Riders were taking more chances than usual in the turns. Behind me, I heard Donald scrape a pedal on the first turn. I was too far back. Out of the saddle I inched up a couple of places between the next two turns. Then, coming into the 3rd-to-last turn I saw the inside line open up and went for it, flying through smoothly on the right. As I stood to accelerate I saw someone skip a pedal hard just ahead and to the left. His bike went all sideways (he rolled a tire) and as the riders behind him hit the brakes I accelerated to catch the wheel of the one rider who had been ahead of the crash. I caught his draft on the short block between the last two turns, but waited a bit too long to start my sprint so I couldn't come around him before the line. By then, of course, other riders had caught up too, so I was lucky to hold onto 2nd place. Even so, it was kind of a nice gift to get for my last race of the season.
One of those times was the hot spot sprint where it looked like the guys who had sprinted hard for it might just decide to consolidate their advantage and try to stay away. Anyway, with five or six laps left the pace started to fluctuate more and there were a few times where the pack was spread out all over the road as nobody wanted to be on the front. Finally, with about three to go things got serious again. It was a constant battle just to maintain access to the front and, frankly, I was loving it. With two laps to go Debbie Milne, who had been riding really well, suddenly flew off the front. I thought maybe she had decided to go for the classic last minute break while the front was all clogged up with sprinters. As I later learned, she had thought it was the bell lap and once she discovered it wasn't, she shut down and came back to the pack, which by then was pretty strung out. The last lap started out as last laps usually start out -- fast. Riders were taking more chances than usual in the turns. Behind me, I heard Donald scrape a pedal on the first turn. I was too far back. Out of the saddle I inched up a couple of places between the next two turns. Then, coming into the 3rd-to-last turn I saw the inside line open up and went for it, flying through smoothly on the right. As I stood to accelerate I saw someone skip a pedal hard just ahead and to the left. His bike went all sideways (he rolled a tire) and as the riders behind him hit the brakes I accelerated to catch the wheel of the one rider who had been ahead of the crash. I caught his draft on the short block between the last two turns, but waited a bit too long to start my sprint so I couldn't come around him before the line. By then, of course, other riders had caught up too, so I was lucky to hold onto 2nd place. Even so, it was kind of a nice gift to get for my last race of the season.
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