Fun Weekend

Well, we had a blast at the Mississippi Gran Prix! The Club had 23 riders at the race ('thou some didn't race the second day) including a large contingent of very competitive Cat. 5 riders. The weather was cool and dry, much like the prior weekend, except for the criterium on Friday night for the Cat. 1,2,3 riders. Only Realdo raced in that one, which was restricted to the Cat. 1,2,3 guys, and he said that the streets were wet and there were some crashes. One casualty was local rider Ben S., who crashed twice. The second time got him a concussion, dislocated shoulder and ambulance ride, but he seems to be OK now except for the fact that he's missing about an acre of skin. Richard B. had his big motor home trailer thing at the races, which made for a great home base for everyone.

Otherwise, everyone had a lot of fun. The masters races were pretty animated, with a lot of action from Mobile Velo, NOBC, Alabama Masters and LaS'port. At one point in the Road Race we got all the NOBC guys on the front and did a great team effort reeling in a solo break that was looking particularly dangerous. After that, I got in a 6-person break that worked pretty well together until the 5-k to go mark where there was a nice little hill. The group split in half at that point, so the three of us in front motored until the hill at the finish when Will from AL jumped early. I held him about half-way up the hill, but blew up in the last 100M and was lucky to stay ahead of Larry! That evening the TT was really painful. It was windy and hilly and I went out a bit too fast because I underestimated the hills (I hadn't seen the course before I rode it - big mistake) and turned in a rather dismal 4mi TT time of 9:11. Apparently I wasn't the only one having trouble, though, because it was still good for 4th in the masters race.

Sunday's Circuit Race was held on some great smooth roads in a local community college. I was only about 6 seconds up on the 3rd place guy on GC going into it, so it was a real battle. There were bonus points on the line for both a hot spot and for the finish, and the other Mobile Velo guys were attacking relentlessly. Luckily, the two Alabama Masters riders were shooting for the stage prizes, so I got a little help from them. Plus, of course, all of my teammates in the race helped by chasing down breaks and riding tempo at the front to keep me out of the wind a bit. I had Charlie, Jay, Mark, Steve and Peter in the race with me. Charlie and Steve were both in the top 10 too. Although I just missed out on the bonus at the hot spot, so did Larry, so it kind of all came down to the finish where I got the little 4th place bonus and ended up retaining 2nd place by eight seconds. Everyone rode great and it was a lot of fun having a challenging course, strong teammates and some good competition. The Cat. 5 race was particularly interesting since we had seven riders in that one and they did a super job of team riding to get four riders into the top 10 on GC. For some of the Cat. 5s, it was their first real experience having a real team effort and I think everyone learned a lot. This event turned into a great opportunity for a lot of the club riders to get to know each other and to pick up a lot of those little racing tips from the guys who have been around the block a few times already.

The Cat. 1,2,3 races were fast and competitive. The Herring guys had some real competition for a change, although they still easily outnumbered any of the other teams. Realdo rode well, finishing 5th in the road race, and even though he had a rather dismal Time Trial time, he rode smartly in the circuit race and moved up to 8th on GC, taking 4th place in the stage as well. Hopefully I can find some time to do a decent write-up on the races, or at least the Masters race, soon. I also have a bunch of photos that I'll try and get up on the NOBC website at some point. I also still need to format the results to submit to the USAC results and rankings database and then work out the LCCS points for the event too.

So I went out this morning and got in a nice easy 24 miles of spinning with John R. and a few of the other usual levee riders. The weather isn't looking to be too good for the next day or two, but I'm anxious to ride anyway. My legs felt much better this week than last and I'm hungry for another race, but I probably need a weekend at home to catch up on some of those things that I have to do to support my habit - like work, for example.