By Curtis Luckett
The Palmer Sand Springs Criterium was Sunday. This is a great event that is able to deliver fun, action-packed racing on a very spectator friendly course. In the past the course was known for it’s less than ideal pavement quality and a 150° corner. This year the course seemed in noticeably better shape than the years past, but just as demanding.
We kind of eased our way into the race, averaging about 22 mph the first lap. However as we hit the climb for the second time things kicked off in earnest. Over the next few laps things were heated with Tulsa Wheelmen, Soundpony and Evoke racing all being very aggressive. A rather large group formed, that included Gerald Drummond and had representation from all the Oklahoma teams. However, the mix wasn’t quite right and nobody wanted to fully commit.
Gerald sensed the disinclination and attacked out of that group right as the field was reabsorbing them. Only Dylan Postier (Evoke Racing) followed, making it a two-man move. Interestingly, the next few laps were very subdued as Soundpony controlled the main pack…but at a very moderate pace. Meanwhile upfront Gerald and Dylan were fully invested in their escape, opening up the gap. Tulsa Wheelmen tried to send a rider up to the two leaders before the ever-growing gap got too big, but he came down on the infamous 150° corner (see video). For the next few laps both Soundpony and Tulsa Wheelmen tried sending riders across, but to no avail. Eventually the gap grew to a stout 45 seconds.
Video Credit Greg Heistand
At this point things began to get serious and the chase, led by the Tulsa Wheelmen, got really hard. With only 30 minutes left in the race they knew the chase would need to be extremely fast to bring back Dylan and Gerald. The problem was that the course was too unforgiving for guys to do big turns at the front and slot back in and recover. The gap began to come down, but the teams chasing began shedding their own riders at a high rate. The gap hovered around 25-30 seconds for a while, then tumbled further to about 15 seconds with 15 minutes to go. At that point both Soundpony and Tulsa Wheelmen decided that they had nobody else to chase and each team sent a guy in pursuit of the original breakaway. With a half-lap to go Jake Lasely (Soundpony) dislodged Jason Wadell (Tulsa Wheelmen) and jolted by both Dylan and Gerald. Jake Lasely ended up taking the win, with Dylan and Gerald rounding out the podium.
My Stats (71kg)
Time: 66 min
Normalized Power: 306w
Average Power: 275w
Speed: 25.1mph
Total energy: 1095kj
Climbing: ~1800ft
Photo credit Team Tom’s Bicycles
Photo credit Team Tom’s Bicycles
That left a mark.