Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Friday morning I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get myself up to Alexandria for the weekend's Racing Rapides Omnium. There was always Plan B which involved leaving The Wife without a car for the weekend, and since she had an event for work that she had to attend on Saturday night, that option was not going to be all that popular. As it turned out, Mark D., who had also been trying to hitch a ride up there, ended up having to drive up himself. Mark has family there and since his wife was going to drive up on Saturday, that meant he'd have two cars there, so he offered to give me a ride and a place to stay Friday night and then I could drive one of the cars back to NO after the races on Sunday. Then, Keith said he had a hotel room in Alex, for Saturday night, so somehow this all worked out and didn't even involve a night of sleeping on the floor! Awesome, eh?
Anyway, Saturday morning we headed over to the 3-mile Time Trial, which was the first event of the 3-event omnium. It was a nice one-way route through rolling hills for which I found myself particularly unmotivated. I had just bolted on a new set of aero bars and hadn't even ridden with them yet, so there was no time to make adjustments. Not to worry, though, because I really wasn't "up" for the time trial. I had even left my TT helmet at home through some kind of subconscious non-accident. Well, I wasn't ten pedal strokes into that Time Trial before I knew it was going to be an ugly one. I just never felt like I could get on top of the gear the whole time, so it felt hard and slow the whole time. It was also a course that really called for shifters on the aero bars, which I didn't have, so I was overgeared by the time I got to the top of every little hill. Surprisingly, I ended up 5th in the 45+, which was a lot better than I'd expected but a lot slower than some of the other guys. Since it was an omnium and it was using the standard stage race points schedule, the TT wasn't worth very many points and the difference between 1st and 5th wasn't too great. If it'd been a regular time-based stage race, I would have been pretty far down on GC.
After the TT, we hung around for a few hours in the shade until it was time for the road race. For this event, the 35+ and 45+ would be racing together but for separate points, which always makes the dynamic unpredictible. The pack, by and large, seemed to be very defensive. Tim Perry launched a number of solo attacks throughout the race, though, which kept me and Mark D. pretty busy since the rest of the group seemed content to let him roll off the front. Considering that he's an excellent time trialist, that seemed like a poor strategy to me, so Mark and I ended up chasing him down a number of times. Tim definitely gets the award for "Most Calories Expended." He had already won the Time Trial. The race had some pretty fast parts and some rather slow parts, and was a pretty decent race on a nice course. Although it was only 45 miles, the pack started shedding riders off the back by the end of the second of three laps. There were only a couple of longish hills on the circuit and although I was expecting a severe attack there, one never really materialized. Instead, it was more like a surge that fizzled at the top. The bottom line was that most of the group stayed together, although there were certainly a number of riders who never put their noses out into the wind.
Over the last few miles, things started to get more crowded up near the front. I was keeping track of Rich Raspet, who is a good sprinter I've raced with for a long time, and Eddie Corcoran who I was expecting to make a last-kilometer surge at supersonic speeds. With about a kilo to go Tim took one last shot at a solo attack, but the pack was no longer willing to give him much rope and he was pulled back quickly. The good thing about it, though, was that it strung things out pretty well and I was able to move up into a better position near the front. About 400 meters from the finish was a right-hand turn and we blasted through it fast with me around 5th wheel. Right after the turn someone ahead of me jumped and opened a little gap a couple of bikes up. Luckily, I made it back to shelter right around the time that the two guys in front were realizing they had jumped too early. I think I was already in the 12 at that point and when we hit the 200 meter sign I jumped, passing a couple of guys and leading the sprint until I Jason Miller came flying past me. So I ended up 2nd, but 1st in the 45+ race, with Keith Duet a couple of bikes behind me. Mark Delaney came in just behind the group, having sacrificed himself with a hard attack near the end of the race that helped string things out. All-in-all I thought the race was a little bit on the unaggressive side but nevertheless the most fun I've had in a couple of weeks. Keith, racing in the 35+ age group, ended up 4th overall so far, with me and Mark 1st and 9th.
In the Cat. 5 race, Mike B got 3rd in the TT but only 16th in the RR, while Quentin took 8th and 6th and Mike 6th and 26th.
Tomorrow will be a criterium conveniently located across the street from our hotel. The 35+ and 45+ races will be separate, so that should change things a bit. There will also be a few fresh legs there that didn't race the road race. Should be fun.
I got a copy of the first day's results from the CR and put them on the LAMBRA website at:
http://www.lambra.org/results/2007/rapides_sat.htm
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