Ain't Bike Racin' Fun?

A long time ago, back around the Nixon administration, I was ending my swimming career and getting into this bizarre euro bike racing thing. Most people thought I was a little weird. They were right. Anyway, I remember thinking that I was only going to do this as long as it was still fun. Then, some time around the mid-80's a venerable local cyclist named Jim Bergin, who was actually older than me if you can believe that, exclaimed one day after a training race, in his finest faux-redneck accent "ain't bike racin' fun?" That line's always stuck with me for some reason, maybe because it is.

So Sunday we walked across the street from the Alexandria Holiday Inn to the Racing Rapides Criterium. After the Cat. 5s, Women and Juniors had finished they lined us old guys up for 40 minutes on a good, fast criterium course. The circuit was a long one -- a bit over a mile, I think -- and included eight turns and two long 4-block straights on mostly smooth asphalt through the old downtown riverfront area of Alexandria. It wasn't long before Colorado rider Scott Hendricks, still smarting from his mis-timed finish the day before, attacked hard. Next thing I knew I was in a 3-man break with Scott and Rich Raspet. The trio worked together well, building up a lead of a minute or so, before the sheep's clothing started to wear thin. First, I noticed Rich was taking slower and shorter pulls. Meanwhile, Scott started trying to pit Rich and me against each other reminding each that the other could win the overall (on points) but that he couldn't. Soon, Scott started skipping pulls, so I knew what was coming next. Sure enough, he attacked -- numerous times. We were able to keep him in check, though. His last try came on the bell lap and so we came around the final corner, a good 4 blocks of headwind from the finish, with him in front and me behind Rich. He jumped fairly early, right after clearing the turn, and Rich hesitated a bit, opening a fairly large gap. I sat there for a second (too long) and finally came around Rich but never could get within a couple of bike lengths of Scott. Still, I ended up winning the omnium and Mark D. won the pack sprint which put him into 4th in the omnium. It was fun.

Next I watched the 35+ criterium which looked to be really fast and aggressive. Then, with just three laps or so remaining, Jaro rolled the dice trying to close a gap on a corner and came up with snake eyes, going down hard and making a big split in the field. The guys in front made it to the finish together. In back, Eddie C had gotten tangled up in the crash and had to go in for a wheel change after the free laps had ended. Hate it when that happens. It seemed to me that Keith had spent most of the race on the front chasing things down, but he still put in a good sprint to take 5th in the stage and 4th overall.

Now, as the temperatures and dehydration status climbed, it was time to shift up a couple of cogs and enter the Cat. 1,2,3 criterium. It's particularly fun sometimes to enter a second criterium like that, especially when your game plan involves a lot of sitting on the back, ignoring the breaks, and swooping through the corners in the draft. I was a little worried about this one, though, because the field was fairly small -- I think only 18 -- and the draft would probably be in short supply. From the start things heated up and I found myself pulling back a few breaks before reality set in and I decided I'd better seek more shelter if I was going to survive a whole hour at a good 2 mph faster than the masters race had been. After a flurry of attacks, a break of six or seven formed and started to roll away. I did some work to try and keep them within range, but few were willing to help so I set up my tent at the back for some recovery time. The LaSport guys were pretty busy, launching occasional attacks, and although we were shedding riders off the back, nobody else got away. When they started putting up the lap cards at 4 to go, the pace went up a notch and I couldn't resist working my way up closer to the front. I guess I came around the last turn about three or four back and ended up getting 2nd in the field sprint which, as it turned out, was good for 7th.

As I was putting the bike in Mark's truck the an awesome thunderstorm suddenly whipped through, blowing over the officials' table and everything on it, including computer and printer. I had just enough time to jump into the car before the rain got bad and since it was already getting late and I had a 3.5 hour drive home, I headed for the highway before the results were posted. By the time I had stopped off at my father's house and dropped Mark's truck off at his house, it was around 9:00 when I finally got into the shower and washed off a good day's worth of salt and sweat.