Warr Acres Bike Bandit: 2026

As with any race reports, and this blog in general, I'm running behind once again. I didn't even post a follow up to my first race back in 2024 or anything from 2025! I think I'm going to try to get more organized, not only for anyone who may be interested, but maily for my own personal referance as the older you get, things become less sharp in the memory aspect, and things have been coming fast and wild this year so far!

Anyway, I'll make some kind of post about how I got to this point in the last few years, but the point of this post is Ft. Collins 2026. Saturday would be the CSU oval criterium and Sunday was the Cobb Lake road race. These would be my first race of the season. Some important factors to consider: I just turned 60. yep, I said it. It happens, and it happens to be true. Anyway, races in the masters catagory (the one I race in nowadays) seem to be all over the place. Last year it was in ten year age incraments (40+ category or 50+ category, then 60+ open and 70+ open).

This year it's changed a little. I don't believe there is a Rocky Mountain Road Cup, rankings statewide for each age group to no Rocky Moumtain Road Cup this year. I was looking forward to it since I would be turning 60, but I guess it's not all bad. Some of the races this year are the same format as last year, but nothing in the masters category over 50. Others are 55+ and 65+, but I'll get to that later. This particular weekend, the criterium would be a 40+ 1-2-3 and 50+ 1-2-3 (combined, but scored seperately). The 1-2-3 is category as in race level - Cat 1 being the highest level of an amateur cyclist, like a black belt in karate, 2's are almost the same, and category 3's anr generally very strong, and smart as well.

Anyway, onto the CSU Oval Criterium! It was tough! My nerves were shot leading up to this day. I'm sure my partner Tina would agree. I did a handful of races last year, but the first one is always a cause of much anxiousness for me. Once the race actually starts though, it's not a big deal.I knew the criterium would be tough, but going into it, I figured if I could hang and not get dropped, I'd be going pretty good fitness wise.

The weather was cool but sunny. I got a pretty short warm up, and actually got a couple of laps on the course. It was pretty technical with lots of corners, very narrow sections, and the iconic oval on the end. I had a pretty lousy starting position due to getting that one last warm up lap, but after I got a few laps at speed, it wasn't too difficult to move up. We would be racing for 50 minutes, so I was looking at my timer now and again. Somewhere around 40 minutes in, I knew the 5 laps to go sign would be coming soon. Several guys tried to get away, but at this point, we were all still together. I was in a good position, probably 6th or 7th coming out of the oval, when a guy attacked, another guy went with him, so I was in the perfect position to go as well, so I made a go of it.

We had a gap, but I was on my limit. The second guy counter attacked and I just didn't have anything to go with him. The first guy sat up, so I found myself winded and in no man's land. I was trying to keepmy momentum, but got swarmed by the main group and came very close to getting dropped. I hung in barely, and the next time through the start/finish line, we had 5 laps to go. It took me a couple of laps to recover, butafter that I was able to move back up into the top 10 oe so. I was trying to move up into a better position with 2 to go when I got caught up with another rider, had to unclip while trying not to crash and basically lost all my spots I had moved up. By this point, it was going super fast and I was only able to move up a couple more spots and finished 19th. I felt like I could have done better, but I was pretty satisfied overall. I'd rather take some chances and gamble on getting into a break and winning or getting a podium spot than racing super conservative and getting 15th or something.