Out west – days 19, 20, 21 – Tulsa Tough Race Report

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Watching the Friday night fireworks as the pacecar zooms by near the end of the race

Friday, Blue Dome Criterium, 38th
This was a great kick-off race for the weekend of racing at Tulsa Tough. I didn’t know how my legs would feel after a 750 mile drive on the heels of two days of HC climbing in Los Alamos. But it turns out they felt really great. I didn’t anticipate how early our Pro/1 field would try to line up for the start immediately following the 1/2 race — so I ended up starting near the very back of the field. The figure-eight course was super fast, but not very hard. You could always carry your speed through each corner – and because the race never really slowed down much it was hard to pass anyone since there would always be a corner coming up. Eventually I figured out that the short stretch of road between turns 4 and 5 was the spot to pass – but as I found out on the next to last lap, it put you in a bad spot for turn #6. I was moving up really well from near the back of the field to the top 30 or so when I got cut off on turn #6 having to slam on the brakes to avoid colliding with the rider coming from outside to inside on that corner. I lost 10 spots immediately and a lot of momentum going into the final lap. The last lap was so fast that there wasn’t much passing. I ended up getting 38th. The best part of the race, though, was the fireworks (literally) from a nearby baseball game that started with 15 minutes left in our race lasting until the next to last lap. It was a really psychedelic experience as the fireworks were in plain view in front of us on two stretches of the course. Plus they were so loud that you didn’t hear the normal sounds of a bike race. I was disappointed with my result, but the race was very fast and fun, and I knew my legs felt great for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, Brady Village Criterium, 25th
Josiah and Analise both raced the kids race with Josiah cruising to a 2nd place finish in the 6 and under category. The video below is of Josiah getting 2nd in the kids race. Analise had a rough start, but finished strong in the 7 and older category.


Josiah shows off his 2nd place medal, and Analise shows off her ribbon

Our race was an L-shaped course starting out very flat with two quick lefts. Then after a long straightaway, the course had its only righthand turn followed by a long uphill. This hill was lined with tons of people from nearby restaurants and bars. Then we turned left to continue up a frontage road next to an interstate overpass. People climbed way up on the concrete to watch the race and scream/cheer for us. Then we turned left to fly down the hill into the final turn. Even with a very strong headwind, the hill was steep enough that we went screaming through the last turn fast every lap. I started towards the middle of the field and fought hard to stay there eventually moving up to 25th by the end.

Sunday, Cry-baby Hill Criterium, 32nd
This was the marquee event of the weekend and has to rank as one of the coolest criterium experiences ever. The long 10% hill on the course was lined with so many people packed in so tightly that it felt like what I would imagine riding a grand tour climb through throngs of people would be like. On some laps, you could only fit two or three riders at a time together through the people spraying water with garden hoses, super-soakers, and water bottles. I started at the back again after getting lost on my warm-up. I only had a few minutes to find water, find and kiss Kristine, and make it to the start line. Then there was a somewhat lengthy call-up so I actually had a little more time than I anticipated. In any case, I was at the very back.

The course started out flat along the Arkansas River before narrowing from four lanes to a one lane off-ramp at the base of Cry Baby Hill. The average gradient for the climb is about 10% with half the climb on the off-ramp, and the other half once you make the righthand turn onto W 13th St. This is where it got really crowded with so many people yelling and screaming and many of them dressed up in different costumes. Super-soakers, water bottles, garden hoses were all used to douse us with water, which was really important because the race temp was well into the 90s. Imagine an Athens Twilight crowd on a narrow road without any barriers separating the crowd from the racers – it was absolutely awesome.

Once you crested the climb, you went down a short steep hill to a cross steep with a hump across the middle. On the first lap when we were flying, I caught air on the hump accidentally. Then the road kicked back up again for the turn onto S Galveston Ave which took you down a steep hill into a 110 degree turn back onto the start/finish stretch. This is when you were hit with a huge tailwind, which meant that the corner wasn’t too bad because the tailwind made it possible to get back up to speed quickly/easily rather than trying to risk carrying a crazy amount of speed through the corner.

Josiah making the most of a small sand pit next to turn 3 (don’t worry, this was a very slow uphill corner)
Kristine got this video of the downhill corner of the first lap of our race (Pro/1) –

I felt really good on the hill and passed people every lap. I would continue to pass people on the downhill into the 110 degree turn. I would then hold my position well until just before the turn to go up the hill, where I would usually get passed by several people every lap. Rinse and repeat and this meant that I very, very slowly worked my way from the back of the field to the front. Just before two laps to go, I surged one more time and moved into the top 20 – but then on the flat stretch leading into the hill, there was a big swarm of people up either side and I lost a lot of positions. I started passing people again on the climb, but the damage was done as I was maybe 40 riders back by this point. I continued passing riders everywhere I could, but I only ended up 32nd. Still, this was an Athens Twilight style race that you were happy to finish. Next year, I will be more aggressive on the flat stretch going into the hill so that I don’t lose so many positions each lap.

Coming out of turn 3

Here is all my power and heartrate data from the three races:

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium – Pedal Force / Pedal Velocity

Tulsa Tough Friday – Blue Dome Criterium – Power Map

Tulsa Tough Saturday – Brady Village Criterium – Power Map

Tulsa Tough Sunday – Cry Baby Hill Criterium – Power Map

LAP DATA / SPLITS

DAY 1, FRIDAY BLUE DOME CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	01:37	304	901	155	25.5
2	01:23	255	897	164	28.3
3	01:21	309	923	167	29.5
4	01:20	302	911	171	29.4
5	01:19	311	959	173	30.3
6	01:16	292	888	174	31.1
7	01:20	266	883	171	30.2
8	01:20	266	835	169	29.9
9	01:18	304	914	171	30.7
10	01:21	290	705	172	29.2
11	01:24	263	952	169	28.2
12	01:27	267	857	168	27.6
13	01:24	280	792	168	28.7
14	01:20	286	752	167	30
15	01:27	232	728	161	27.8
16	01:21	283	775	161	29.9
17	01:26	256	898	164	28
18	01:22	274	769	165	29.4
19	01:22	298	919	166	29.5
20	01:20	261	939	165	30
21	01:21	247	675	164	29.8
22	01:22	284	878	163	29.5
23	01:21	280	744	168	29.1
24	01:23	233	708	163	28.9
25	01:19	292	844	164	30.1
26	01:21	248	779	166	29.3
27	01:20	307	880	168	29.6
28	01:22	253	963	167	28.8
29	01:23	275	862	167	29
30	01:19	283	744	169	29.9
31	01:21	275	841	171	29.4
32	01:24	261	936	167	28.2
33	01:20	291	841	170	29.6
34	01:21	276	843	172	29
35	01:21	318	959	177	29.4
36	01:21	293	973	176	29.6
37	01:19	284	981	179	30.7
38	01:18	294	870	180	30.8
39	01:19	304	907	185	30.2
40	01:19	328	940	184	30.1
41	01:18	356	976	187	30.9
42	01:14	363	765	190	32.2
DAY 2, SATURDAY BRADY VILLAGE CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	01:57	295	880	151	26.1
2	01:42	287	839	166	29.1
3	01:43	270	888	168	28.3
4	01:40	246	958	164	29.4
5	01:44	262	821	165	28.2
6	01:41	279	894	170	28.9
7	01:41	257	913	170	29.5
8	01:37	300	909	170	30.3
9	01:46	262	814	172	27.9
10	01:42	279	990	170	29.3
11	01:38	296	998	178	29.7
12	01:39	263	976	175	30.1
13	01:41	270	949	173	29.4
14	01:41	275	941	173	29.5
15	01:42	242	773	174	29.1
16	01:42	245	768	165	29.3
17	01:42	263	853	170	28.8
18	01:43	275	876	173	28.7
19	01:45	268	796	171	27.9
20	01:44	278	937	171	28.3
21	01:42	235	826	169	29
22	01:43	254	890	170	29
23	01:45	266	735	169	28.5
24	01:43	259	767	171	28.6
25	01:40	260	781	172	29.7
26	01:43	275	805	172	28.8
27	01:43	261	716	170	29
28	01:44	250	729	170	28.5
29	01:47	237	892	173	27.7
30	01:46	263	912	171	27.9
31	01:44	244	737	171	28.6
32	01:46	256	754	172	28.3
33	01:47	278	868	173	27.4
34	01:46	247	773	173	27.9
35	01:42	270	862	172	29.2
36	01:41	266	864	176	29.4
37	01:40	284	888	178	29.8
38	01:46	273	884	175	28.1
39	01:43	263	821	175	28.7
40	01:43	291	882	180	29.2
41	01:44	281	860	181	28.6
42	01:41	287	880	181	29.3
43	01:44	248	901	181	28.2
44	01:43	272	806	181	28.4
45	01:47	274	954	183	27.7
46	01:42	297	927	189	28.9
47	01:37	379	990	193	30.3
DAY 3, SUNDAY CRY BABY HILL CRITERIUM
Lap	Time	Avg Pow	Max Pow	HR	MPH
1	02:09	310	847	152	23.7
2	01:53	279	826	163	26.1
3	01:56	259	909	163	25.5
4	01:52	267	819	165	26.7
5	01:54	280	907	166	25.8
6	01:57	279	928	173	25.3
7	02:06	222	803	165	23.4
8	01:56	262	784	165	25.1
9	01:56	265	960	167	25.4
10	01:50	318	1042	176	26.9
11	01:53	314	928	180	25.7
12	02:05	261	818	170	24
13	01:55	263	879	173	25.3
14	02:03	218	755	170	24
15	02:04	233	891	167	24
16	02:00	249	705	168	24.9
17	01:57	252	926	170	25.5
18	02:01	250	873	171	24.7
19	01:58	227	783	171	25.3
20	02:03	226	805	166	24
21	02:03	223	679	168	24.4
22	02:04	246	758	166	23.8
23	01:57	266	816	173	25
24	02:05	238	877	165	23.8
25	01:56	257	815	173	25.6
26	02:04	225	870	167	23.8
27	02:04	243	729	168	24
28	01:58	264	785	174	24.6
29	02:09	221	760	167	22.8
30	02:01	248	801	169	24.3
31	02:03	237	739	171	24
32	02:04	252	768	170	23.7
33	02:01	247	912	173	24.1
34	01:57	279	855	174	25.4
35	02:00	259	879	174	24.3
36	01:56	273	931	178	25.6
37	01:43	373	1041	188	28.3

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