I'm a Pepper

An easy 5- hour drive got Tim and me to Birmingham, AL for the Pepper Place Criterium on Saturday. For a first-year event, these folks had the area pretty well set up, although for some reason they'd set up the judges tent on the left side of the finish straight, across the road and half a block away from the registration and results desk. Tim spotted a good parking spot that offered a bit of shade and I sauntered off to register for the 4 pm Master's race. I had just replaced my badly worn out chain and cassette the night before and as I warmed up I couldn't get over how much smoother everything felt. The Masters race had a good-sized field for the 45-minute event and I pulled up to the starting line alongside Woody, the only other New Orleans rider there. The race started out pretty fast with a number of attacks, helped along considerably by the extraordinarily liberal sprinkling of $100 and $75 primes being announced every few laps. We weren't very far into the race when one of the prime sprints caused a bit of a gap to open up between the sprinters and the pack, and from my ever-vigilant perspective back in the group it looked like they might make a run for it. I took off in pursuit, diving through turn #1 and bouncing through #2, and as I closed in on them I could see they had already eased up. Not wanting to have wasted the effort completely, I rolled past and kept the speed up, joined by only one rider. The pack seemed reluctant to chase and within a couple of laps we had a little group of four and a growing gap. When the announcer rang the bell for a $100 prime, Jim Brock took a quick survey and we decided to split the prime and keep working together. Our break started working together pretty well and the gap continued to grow. Then, for some reason, one of the riders in our break suddenly sat up and waved us by. I never knew exactly what had happened there, but I guess he was suddenly feeling bad. Anyway, at that point it was just Jim Brock (Alabama Masters, Birmingham), Darrell O'quin (BooKoo, Birmingham) and me. When we got down to the last few laps I could tell Jim was starting to shorten his pulls in anticipation of the sprint. Personally, I was just happy that I wouldn't be able to do worse than third. On the last lap Darrell did most of the pulling with Jim on his wheel casting frequent glances over his shoulder at me (as if there was any chance I was going for an early sprint!). The finish straight was a four lane wide, 300 meter long drag race that Jim won handily with me and second and Darrell in third. Since Darrell was the youngster in the group, he won the 35+ race.

The next one was F A S T. The Pro/1/2/3 race didn't start until 8 pm and with a field of maybe 40 or 45 riders, a prizelist of over $1,200, and a bucket load of serious cash primes, I was already braced some brutal punishment as I rolled up to the line. The officials announced a special $460 prime that had been collected in memory of a young cyclist, and we were off into the darkness like we'd been shot out of a cannon. On hand, among others, were Tim and Scott from Herring, Eric Murphy and his teammate, a few of the Myogenesis guys from GA, etc. My strategy was focused entirely on survival for this one. Within 45 seconds we'd rounded turn #2 and when I glanced down at the computer it read 32 mph., which is pretty much where it stayed for the first five or six laps. On the second lap they rang the bell for a $100 prime. Way, way up ahead, I saw Tim take that one. A lap or two later they rang the bell again for the $460 prime. Tim and Scott were up there going for it and I think it was Scott who won it. Cha-ching! Another prime a couple of laps later and a group of 5 was suddenly off the front. Meanwhile, I was way back near the end of a two block long line of riders and just completely and totally on the rivet. At every corner I'd have to brake, round the corner, and stand up and literally sprint. The accordion effect was in full force and I knew if I stayed there too much longer I'd get whipped off the pack for sure. Finally there was a little lull as it became apparent that the break was not going to be caught and I took the opportunity to move up near the front on the long back straight. Finally I could swing through the turns more smoothly without having to sprint after each one. We were still going plenty fast (our average speed for the hour-long race was a bit under 28 mph) and I could recover a little bit. My focus now was on staying up in the front ten or twelve riders, and it was by no means an easy task. There were a number of attacks and little breakaways the whole time and despite my best efforts, every now and then I'd get streamed by a bunch of riders and go from the front dozen to back dozen. Then I'd have to fight my way back up near the front. Around mid-way through the race Scott crashed between turns three and four, but he was back in the pack after taking his free lap. Finally I saw the 3-to-go card go up. For about a lap I was in a great spot about six riders from the front, then with with a lap and a half to go we were swarmed and I spent half of the bell lap trying to get back up near the front along with about twenty other desperate riders. In the pack sprint that, for me, topped out at around 36 mph, I ended up a bit ahead of mid-pack even though I had deployed the dreaded 12-tooth cog, which got me the last paying place, 20th. Tim's 5-rider break had a couple of Pro riders in it and Tim was rather frustrated when, on the last lap, they let Jon, the Myogenesis rider, roll off the front forcing him to chase. Tim ended up 4th, which was pretty excellent by my standards, but he was a little disappointed because his legs had been feeling really good and he thought he would have done better if they hadn't eased up during the last few laps to keep from lapping the pack.

As I was cooling down I rolled past the start-finish and spotted Gina V, who had ridden in the Cat. 1,2 women's race (which had only 10 riders despite a $1,200 prizelist and probably another thousand in primes). Somehow I'd missed seeing her in that little field as we were warming up for the Pro/1/2/3 race. I think Debbie Milne probably took most of the prizes home all by herself. So anyway it was nice to catch up with Gina since I hadn't seen her since before Katrina when she moved to Atlanta. Sounds like they are working her pretty hard at Grady Memorial, but you know she's really enjoying it and somehow at the same time still racing.

Results took a long time and we didn't roll out of B'ham until nearly 11 pm, which meant a long but smooth drive back to NOLA, arriving around 4:30 am. It was a fun race and I was really glad that Tim had called me and offered the ride. I think Tim and Scott probably took around $900 home from that one, and I was pretty happy with a bit over $200 to cover that new cassette and chain and a tank of gas!

Oh, and the reason the title of today's blog is "I'm a Pepper?" Well, Pepper Place is a city development project centered around the old Dr. Pepper bottling plant near downtown Birmingham.