Race Report Day

The morning levee rides start about 200 yards from a cluster of batture houses that I've always found facinating. When I was younger, there were a lot more of these houses -- back then they were little more than shacks -- built on pilings between the levee and the river. Originally, these houses were built by poor squatters since the batture land isn't officially part of the city. When the river gets very high, which happens every few years, some of them are partially flooded. Over the years, most of them have disappeared, but there is this one cluster that has stuck and somehow now has acquired electricity and an arrangement with the Corps of Engineers that has allowed them to stay in their tenuous locations. Most of the houses have been fairly well fixed up now, and one is currently undergoing a big expansion. The one in the photo is fairly typical of the batture houses. Just below the sign for the UPS delivery man, you might be able to make out the goat standing on the walkway which is itself lined with various vegetable plants. You can see right through the windows to the river behind.

We had a nice Monday morning recovery ride today that included an appearance of Ben Schuler! Along the way I got a race report from Courtney who had done the bike leg of the Gulf Coast triathlon in Panama City along with Vivian who did the swim as part of a relay team. Although Courtney took about fifteen minutes out of the next fastest relay team woman, the winning team had a really fast runner and they were able to manage only 2nd. When I got to work I had a few reports from the Giro d' Rankin weekend up in Jackson. The Cat. 5 guys did great, except for Patrick who crashed in the Road Race, but did send the photo over there of Rolan and Quentin on the line for the Criterium. Quentin missed his TT start by about 30 seconds but still finished 4th, while Rolan won the TT. Quentin tried his had at a solo in the Road Race, but got chased down shortly before the finish and finished 8th, but with a good finish in the criterium he ended up 5th in the Omnium. Rolan got 3rd in the Omnium, finishing 5th in the road race and 3rd in the criterium. Sounds like the 5s learned some good stuff this time and got in some solid experience too. The masters had a fast road race that resulted in a break that included Keith. Then in the criterium there were a lot of early attacks and then a counter-attack following a prime that separated Keith, Eddie, Jaro, John Mclachlan, Donald Davis and Mike Hurley. They almost lapped the field by the finish where Keith finished 6th and ended up 7th overall. Jaro won the crit and Mclachlan won the overall. I'm not sure how the other NOBC folks ended up as I haven't seen the results yet.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun.