No Man's Land

The combined Masters 30+, 35+, 45+ LAMBRA district championships road race started at 2 p.m. today in Natchez. The temperature at start time was around 92F, and as I waited on the line listening to the official give us the usual info I could feel a bead of sweat dripping down my face. The heat, however, didn't keep the race from getting fast right away. The first three or four laps of the short but hilly course were very fast. A couple of guys were off the front right away, and Realdo was out there for a while alone. Although they all eventually came back into the pack, it wasn't long before a solid little break got off the front. I tried to make the bridge up to it, but it was just too fast too long and I ended up stuck in "no man's land" and finally had to sit up and wait for the group. The break was flying and I, apparently, was not. So back in the pack there was some occasional action over the next lap or so, and I was expecting, or perhaps dreading, a strong attack from one of the Herring guys to try and bridge up. Finally, near the end of one of the laps, Realdo launched, taking a couple of guys with him. I went way over the redline trying to close the gap and made contact with the last guy just as we hit a short, steep climb up to a long, flat dam. The guy in front of me struggled and a gap opened. I couldn't go around until we made the hairpin turn at the top, and by the time I did the gap had grown and I was now trying to chase again, even though I was already on the rivet. This time, though, it was into a headwind on an unprotected road atop a dam. Well, I didn't last long and once again I was in "no man's land" and had to wait for the rest of the group.

The 6-rider break, consisting of four 35+, one 30+ and one 45+ riders, had some serious horsepower in it and I was angry with myself for not being able to hang with it or bridge up to it, or whatever. The pack didn't seem to have a whole lot of interest in mounting a serious chase, and I watched as the race rode off into the distance. The rest of our 45 mile race slowed down a bit, except for some hard efforts on the "big" climb each lap. With, I think, two laps to go we came over the top of the big hill rather splintered and when a small group formed off the front I got out my whip to try and get a break established, but even though we were going pretty good, we were still caught within a couple of miles.

So now it was looking like a pack sprint for the remaining spots. Near the end of the last lap Brett attacked and for a minute I thought he might get away because he was really flying, but he was finally caught. Things stayed fairly fast, though, and with a kilometer to go I was in a fairly good spot near the front. I guess I was third or fourth wheel coming around the hairpin turn onto the dam with maybe 400 meters to the line and when I finally sprinted at 200 meters I was surprised nobody came past me. So I think I ended up 7th overall, 2nd in the 45+ with Max finishing 12th.

Afterward I joined the Herring guys at a local Italian place called "Little Dego," where the waitress was a genuine Chalmetian and the pasta was good.

Tomorrow I'll start the 70-something mile Cat. 1,2,3 race. Whether I'll finish or not, though, is anybody's guess.

In the Cat. 5 race, that finished just before we started, Quentin was 4th and Jorge was 6th, so that was pretty good. Vivian was 2nd in the masters women, and Ed K was 15th.