Disconnection

The home phone, and of course DSL, mysteriously went dead Thursday and here we are on Monday and I am still disconnected. A technician finally showed up on Saturday, verified that there wasn't a problem at the house, and then disappeared. So now they're saying it *might* be fixed from the central office some time today. Not holding my breath though.

Friday I hit the "SEND" button at around 4:45 for the $7M proposal and headed off to a nice dinner and a bit too much vino at a nice little place in the French Quarter. Went for a short spin on the levee Saturday morning before getting picked up by Mark D. to make the 3-hour drive up to Meridian, MS for the Meridian/Cuba Challenge Omnium. This was a nice 2-day event with city Crit on Saturday and a "hilly" road race on Sunday.

The masters didn't start until 5 p.m., but it was still plenty hot. It was a very aggressive race on a nice course through the old downtown area. I really liked the fast downhill leg that shot you through a wide right-hander onto the long finish straight. Halfway down the finish straight, which was alongside the local prison, you could here the prisoners banging on the windows as you went by. We watched the Cat. 4 race where Jason M. was looking great and poised for a top-3 result with a lap to go. We watched the sprint in anticipation and, surprise!, no Jason. He had gone down in a crash on the last lap, but had landed relatively softly in the dirt and was thankfully uninjured.

In the masters race, I did a ton of work chasing down breaks in the early part of the race, then there was a counterattack after we had reeled one of them. Well, one of those guys got away. He was slowly gaining ground on the pack and had just gotten far enough ahead that he was around the next corner when we finally saw his jersey coming back. Most of us thought he had been caught, but it turned out that it was actually one of his teammates who we were lapping! (I'll have to remember that little trick!) So anyway, he snuck away while the rest of the pack started to set up for a sprint. With a bit over a lap to go, David H. attacked and got clear while all the sprinters, including me, were looking at each other hoping someone else would start the chase. Now, I should have known that David would go for a flyer at the end, and so I should have been ready to go with him. What was I thinking? Flying down the last downhill and into the final turn at 30+ mph I was maybe 5th or 6th wheel, which was a couple of wheels too far back for sure. As soon as we straightened out everyone jumped for the line. As Jaro, who was a few bikes ahead of me, jumped, his right foot unclipped. Somehow he got it clipped back in, jumped again, unclipped again, re-clipped again, and still finished 2nd in the pack sprint. He said he thought he would have been able to catch David, who was still dangling just off the front, if he hadn't unclipped, but anyway David made it to the line first for the win, so Jaro was 3rd and I was 4th (which was 3rd in the 45+). It was a fun criterium.

The Cat. 1,2,3 race had a good field and was pretty aggressive. Eric M. showed up for this one and was kept busy the whole race up at the front since he had no teammates with him. Near the end of the race, the pack split in two. Debbie Milne (Tupelo), who had won the women's race earlier in the day, was in the second group and attacked hard down the home stretch in an all-out attempt to bridge the gap. She was flying and the crowd really got into it when they realized who it was. I mean, this 98-pound woman shot out of the pack like a rocket and everyone on the sidelines jumped up to cheer her on. She lasted a couple of laps without making contact and was finally caught by the second group. Up in front, it came down to a sprint and Eric nipped Frank B and Tim R at the line for the win. It was a pretty good race to watch.

Sunday's road races were surprisingly hard and predictably hot. The masters were doing only 46 miles and although the road was almost all rolling hills with a fairly rough surface, I was surprised how much it took out of me and, as far as I could tell, most everyone else. Right from the start it got really fast and we probably spent the first half hour at 25+ mph. Finally Keith D. and another rider got a gap and things kind of settled down for a while. Eventually they were reeled in while we were still on the first lap and by then a lot of riders had figured out they couldn't keep hammering in the heat and hills and expect to survive to the finish, so the pace slowed down. Then old Miroslav from Alabama Masters attacked and started rolling away pretty fast without much of a response by the pack. Keith went again with another rider and that duo hovered up ahead for a long, long time as Miroslav rolled out of sight. David H. then went to the front again and just stayed there like a diesel truck towing the pack for five or six miles until the duo was caught. I swear, David spent at least 70% of the entire race on the front. Meanwhile, riders were just dropping off the back by attrition due to the heat and hills. By the time Keith was caught Miroslav had over a minute and with only ten miles or so to go the race for first was over. Apparently there were some in the pack who, again, thought that everyone had been caught at this point. Mark launched a few attacks along the way and between Keith and Mark they succeeded in making some of the Alabama guys (who outnumbered all of us) work a bit. Jaro and I were trying to save a little for the sprint, and although I hadn't been feeling too sharp from the start I figured if I could just get to the 1K mark I'd try and pull something out of my hat.

About a kilo from the finish there was a little uphill as the road went over the interstate, and that was followed by a longer, but not too steep, climb that topped out right about at the 200M mark. After quite a bit of jockeying around for position, the sprint started in earnest as soon as we hit that last climb and I was surprised that I didn't see Jaro in front of me. Then I heard him passing everyone in the gravel on the right edge of the road. He'd gotten boxed in a bit, but that wasn't enough to slow him down too much. The last 200 meters was just a flat-out 4-abreast drag race for the line and the best I could do was 4th, which was 5th overall since Miroslav had finished solo ahead of the pack. Although it was good enough for 3rd in the 45+, I still dropped down to 4th on the overall, so that was a little disappointing.

The Cat. 1,2,3 race had a 2-man break with Frank Moak and John McLauchlan (Memphis) putting a couple of minutes on the pack. It looked like John just blew Frank away in the final sprint up the hill. When what was left of the pack finally arrived, Tim R. won the pack sprint with Eric M. bringing up the rear. Still, when the points were totaled up, Eric ended up tied with Frank B., and since the tie was broken in his favor, he made off with the overall.