A Sunday on the Rivet

The criterium course in Biloxi was a pretty good one with a variety of road surfaces, a few good technical corners and a long, wide straight stretch on the back. Parking was in a nice big parking lot adjacent to the start/finish. I just put a bunch of photos from the crit up on the NOBC website.

Going into the Master's criterium I was down in 5th or 6th place, thanks to my lackluster time trial the day before, and George Heagerty had moved up into 1st. It was already hot when our 9:30 a.m. race started and as expected the pace was fast and the attacks came early and often. I guess it was about mid-way through the 45-minute race that someone attacked and I saw Eddie Corcoran (NBO) respond. I was pretty far back at the time and figured that the pack would go after it, but for some reason there was a long hesitation at the front. I clearly remember thinking "there goes the race." I had spoken with Eddie yesterday and I knew he was kicking himself for having missed the break in the road race, so I knew that he would work hard if he got into a break today. The duo quickly got a 20 or 25-second gap and the pack was still disorganized. Heagerty and his teammate Tom had probably already figured out that if those two took 1st and 2nd, George would still likely get the omnium win. A few laps later, Tom did put in a long fast pull, as did Mike Lew and I, pulling the pack up to within a mere 10 seconds of the break, but the rest of the pack just wouldn't close the deal. A few of my teammates told me later that they never even realized that those guys were off the front until it was way too late. So soon enough we were reduced to racing for 3rd as the final laps approached. Just before the bell lap, Tom Bain went to the front with George Heagerty firmly glued to his wheel and proceeded to pull the whole last lap. On the bell lap, I thought Mike Lew and I were well-positioned up in the front five or so, but as the leaders rounded the turn at end of the long back stretch, coming into a series of six turns before the finish, someone inexplicably eased up and we were streamed by the pack and stuck way too far back. I jumped after the next couple of turns and moved up to maybe 10th before the final turn when the sprint really started. Coming through the sharp left-hander about 100 meters before the finish, the two guys in front of me swung a little too wide and bounced off of each other, forcing me to change my game plan at the last second. I ended up finishing 5th in the field sprint - 7th overall counting the two guys in the break - which was rather disappointing for me, to be sure. I was happy to hear that Eddie had won the 2-up sprint for the win, even though it meant that he moved ahead of me in the omnium. The result was that I moved down to 6th place in the omnium.

It was a fun race, though, and after I cooled down a bit I headed back to the car, put the bike on the roof and went off to take a few pictures of the Cat. 5 race in which we had a number of riders. That race looked pretty fast, but I don't know for sure how the finish or the omnium placings ultimately came out.

An hour or so later, as the Cat. 4 race was getting ready to start, I heard that the promoters were allowing the masters riders to enter the Cat. 1,2,3 criterium at no extra charge. Well, despite my overheated and dehydrated condition (or perhaps because of it), I couldn't resist a free race entry and went over and picked up a number so that I could at least give Realdo a little assistance early in the race. So the bike came down from the roof again, I refilled my bottle of HammerGel, and tried to stay in the shade as much as I could. Charlie Davis, who had also ridden the masters races, had also entered this criterium, as had Rick Selby, so at least Reo wouldn't be entirely unsupported. That is, until we started to fade later in the race.

The 1,2,3 race finally got started about an hour late, and it was HOT in more ways than one. As usual, Kenny B. attacked the first lap, but the pack was on him like white on rice today. Shortly after he was brought back, another Herring rider went, which was no surprise either, but the pack reacted quickly again. There followed a series of attacks, none of which survived, but it was keeping the pace very fast and a number of riders got popped off the pack during the first 15 minutes of the hour-long race. This whole time I was trying to stay near, or at, the front, covering as many of the attacks as I could. The group was consistently doing 28-30 mph down the straight back side of the course - into the wind! I knew I wouldn't be able to do this all day, of course, and after a while it looked to me like the Herring guys had decided to put all their chips on the pack sprint table where the odds of success were looking a little better, so I dropped back a little bit to seek some shelter. Then, about mid-way through, someone attacked hard on the back straight and two Herring guys (Kenny and Frank) went along with Realdo. I looked at that 4-man break start to roll away and breathed a sigh of relief. I figured that if that break survived, Reo would at least keep his 3rd place in the omnium standings, maybe even move up one spot. I was pretty much done for the day anyway. Sure enough, the pace almost immediately eased up in the pack and I retreated farther to the back to try and recover.

The only job I had remaining was to see if I could snag a place in the top 10 or so in order to deprive other riders of omnium points that might allow them to get ahead of Reo in the overall. For quite a few laps I sat on the very end of the pack behind G.W., taking lessons in conservation of momentum. There's a right and a wrong way of sitting at the back of a criterium pack, and G.W. definitely knew the right way. Ease up just a bit coming into the turns so that you don't need to touch the brake and also don't need to get out of the saddle to re-accelerate on the way out. Very smooth.

Coming into the bell lap the pack was not showing much life and in order to get a spot nearer the front I went past the line and took the first spot. I ended up pulling almost the entire last lap, but it was worth it to keep a good position. I knew something would happen in the last three turns before the finish, and I eased up just a touch on the third-to-last one. Sure enough, I heard someone jump behind me. I immediately reacted and slotted into third position going through the last turn. As we came through that turn at full throttle the guy in front of me hit his shifter to drop down another cog and dropped his chain. For a while he was all over the road, but luckily I was able to go around him easily on the inside and ended up 2nd in the pack sprint, which was 6th counting the 4-man break. Realdo had taken 3rd in the breakaway, so his 3rd place in the omnium was safe. I have to say that I really, really enjoyed the Cat. 1,2,3 criterium, although I am at a complete loss to explain why I often feel better in the second criterium when I do two on the same day. Shortly after the finish, after downing half a gallon of assorted liquids, I realized I had made a crucial mistake. I had completely forgotten to spray on my sunscreen. My badly aging northern european skin was rapidly turning hot pink and I was somewhat uncomfortable most of the night because of it.

As a result of the late start and having to wait for the final omnium results to be posted, I ended up completely missing my dad's birthday party. I'm pretty sure the 1,2,3 crit was more fun, though!

I think it was around 9 pm that night before I finally got re-hydrated, and this sunburn is still bugging me!