So Saturday was our La./Ms. district criterium championships. It's not really a very big event, but there was a decent turnout for most of the races this year. Realdo and I had planned on arriving about 45 minutes before my 45+ race, but after missing the Denham Springs exit and having to loop back around, things got a little tighter time-wise. I rushed off and registered for both the masters 45+ race and the masters 35+ race, despite the fact that they were back-to-back, while Realdo got my bike sorted out. I figured I'd see how I felt after the second race before deciding whether to give the Cat. 1,2,3 race a shot. Three back-to-back races in the midsummer heat sounded a little crazy, even to me.After rushing around in the blazing sun to get registered and all, I was still able to do a couple of laps of the course before the start. It was a pretty nice course with a few good turns and one long straight section that included the start/finish. From the start there three turns in quick succession, followed by a longish straight ending with an off-camber right turn that featured a big and unavoidable crack in the asphalt. Then a very slightly uphill bumpy section, two nice right-handers, and a sprint of maybe 150 meters to the finish.
The half-hour masters 45+ race was quite small, though, and after the first few laps I figured I'd put all my eggs in the sprint basket for this one and try to save a little something for the 35+ race to follow. In the end, I got a good position going into the final corner and jumped hard as soon as I came through, crossing the line first. I did one cool-down lap, dripping sweat the whole time, and then hustled back to the car to pin on my Cat.1/2/3 number and refill my bottles for the 35+ race that was due to start in less than 15 minutes. One more lap and I'm on the line in the blazing sun waiting for the start, still sweating profusely.
The 35+ field was larger, and this time I had a few teammates. This race was pretty fast and active, and there were a number of early attacks that kept the speeds high. About midway through the 45-minute race Reo attacked forcing a couple of the other teams to chase. Right after the group came back together, he launched again and this time the front of the group hesitated. For the next few laps, Reo hovered up the road with a tenuous 10-15 seconds. There were four or five riders up at the front who did not want to let it go and they worked hard to chase him down. I quickly inserted myself up there and started blocking, trying to stay glued to the first or second rider most of the time and generally disrupting the chase effort by soft-pedaling through the turns and whenever the lead rider would try to pull off. As a result, the pace would drop to about 20 mph every now and then, and Reo's lead slowly grew. By the time he had 30 seconds or so the chase effort had mostly fizzled and I dropped back a bit to seek some recovery.
I knew we should be getting close to the finish, but I hadn't seen any lap cards yet - they were supposed to start counting down laps with 5 to go. So we come through the start/finish and they're announcing a prime, which I'm not interested in. The official is holding up two fingers, but without a megaphone or anything I can't really hear what he's saying. I catch the word "prime," though, and figure it must be a $20 prime. Well, the next time through there's a little surge at the front for the prime and then is eases up. I don't hear a bell. It turned out, though, that this was actually our bell lap. Thing is, I never heard a bell and I never saw a lap card. If someone rang a bell, it must have been a very quiet one. So I'm blissfully lounging near the back getting ready for a big effort in the last couple of laps when the pace starts to pick up coming into the last turn. I'm confused. Is it another prime? An attack? Well, it turns out it was the finish! A number of the riders near the back of the group never knew we were on the bell lap. For some reason, it appears the official had dispensed with holding up the lap cards (which he used for the preceding 45+ race) and was using his fingers to show how many laps to go. Naturally, those of us who weren't right on the front never saw any of that. I have to say I was rather disappointed because I had been looking forward to the sprint. I ended up coming in 7th, I think, but at least Reo got the win and my teammate Jaro took 3rd or 4th, so although it wasn't a complete disaster, it could have been better.
I was pretty toasted by the heat at the end of the 35+ race, so I decided to skip the Cat. 1/2/3 race. I think that if there had been another race in-between the 35+ and Cat.1,2,3 race, I might have ridden, but I was way too hot and bothered at the time to turn around and start what I knew would be another fast race. Reo, on the other hand, was soon back on the starting line, along with Charlie Davis.
The 1,2,3 group had a good-sized field. Much better than last year. The pace looked very fast and early in the race Herring's Troy Porter got off the front solo, quickly amassing a lead of at least 30 seconds. It was looking like the race was in the bag for him until he failed to show up on one lap. It turned out that one of his stem bolts had broken on the back stretch! So right away there was a flurry of attacks and things looked like they got quite fast. At one point, Reo had no choice but to put in a full lap effort in order to close a gap to a small group containing all of the heavy hitters, pulling the rest of the group across in the process. Eventually, though, two riders got clear and ended up making it all the way to the finish where Frank Moak pipped his breakaway partner on the line. Reo ended up around 8th, but only after getting the original results, which had him about dead last, corrected. I don't think Reo ever got his prize for 8th - they had already given it to the wrong person based on the preliminary results. I think I drank five cans of coke, along with four or five water bottles, and didn't need to pee until about 6:30 p.m. A little vacation for the kidneys!
The women, Cat. 4s and Cat. 5s all raced earlier in the day, and Jason, Shawn and Steve took 1st, 4th and 5th in the Cat. 5 race while Courtney and Amy took 1st and 2nd in the Women's race. Not bad, considering a number of riders didn't make it to the race this weekend.
Sunday was a long hot Giro ride. Reo is trying to get in some extra mileage in preparation for the upcoming Tour of Guyana. Despite the relatively small Giro ride group, the pace was pretty fast for most of the ride. There were a couple stops - one for a flat and one for a broken spoke - that provided some brief relief. On the way back down Hayne Blvd., we ended up with a little group of three or four. Looking back as we came over the bridge, the rest of the group wasn't even in sight. We hit the marina after the ride and downed four bottles of Gatorade by the time we got home.
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