Rankin Crit

Sunday morning we headed back to the Jackson area for the criterium. It was a fast and fairly non-technical course with turns in both directions and a nice road surface. When I saw the long, straight and wide run-in from the last turn to the finish, though, I knew I would have trouble. I've never been too good at those kinds of drag races. We arrived at the course early enough to see the end of the Juniors race where Andrew finished, I think, 4th. The Masters race was pretty aggressive today, although the people being aggressive weren't the ones from yesterday. I spent a lot of time and energy chasing down breaks, and it was clear that there were a few fresh legs in the pack today. It seemed like there was an attack every couple of laps, and for the most part that kept the speeds fairly high. My legs were not too happy, still suffering the effects from Saturday's long effort, and I probably would have been well-advised to sit in at the back, but that wouldn't have been much fun. Near the end of the race there was one solo attack that nearly got away, but it was finally pulled back, largely by James M from Tupelo. Then David H, who had won the Road Race, came to the front. I was hoping that he would ramp up the pace an keep it from turning into a huge pack match sprint, but David is clearly uncomfortable on the turns and it didn't work out that way. The last couple of laps had a lot of new faces showing up fighting for position. I was able to hold onto a spot around 5th wheel as we rounded the final turn, but considering the condition of my legs, I knew I couldn't get out into the wind too early. From the final turn to the finish was a good three and a half blocks and I figured I probably had no more than two blocks worth of sprint in my legs. As I expected, though, the sprint started as soon as the leaders straightened out after the turn. I was holding my own and about ready to jump when a bunch of four or five, including Jaro, came flying by on the left. I ended up 5th, which was a little disappointing, but Jaro won! Yesterday's double winner finished out of the points, so GC got pretty shuffled around. Jaro came out in 2nd overall and I was 4th, so that was not too shabby at all, I think. David H. who had absolutely clobbered all of us on Saturday, winning both the Time Trial and Road Race, dropped all the way down to 16th or something on GC after the Criterium. These points-based stage races are really funny that way.

The Cat. 4 race that followed ours had Jason and Brooks A. in it. Like ours, it finally came down to a big bunch sprint. Jason had been maintaining good position near the front throughout the race, but Brooks was struggling and eventually came off the back toward the end. Coming into the final turn there was a crash, but luckily Jason was one wheel ahead of it and able to finish 4th. I think he ended up in 2nd overall, so that was a great result for the weekend. Edward K., who, as it turned out, had won the Road Race yesterday in a close sprint and had also won the TT for the Masters 50+ Cat. 5 race won the overall for that class (they didn't have a criterium for that group).

So the NOBC team had a pretty good showing up in Jackson. I found that my sprinting was clearly lacking, which shouldn't be much of a surprise considering the lack of racing I've done so far this year. I could really use a local training race series!