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Saturday

Charlie and I headed over to the old capital of Louisiana, Mobile, AL Saturday morning for the Breakers Criterium. This year the event was being held in downtown Mobile on a course adjacent to a nice little park. The course was a long block-wide rectangle that featured some challenging pavement and a roofing crew with a big vat of smoking asphalt. Since it was a very late-season race, it wasn't too surprising that the turnout was fairly low, and when I signed up for the Masters 35+ race an hour and a half before the start, I was the second name on the list. We ended up with about ten riders by the time we started, though, so that was OK.

Although the temperature was practically perfect and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the wind on this inner-city course was strong and gusty, making an otherwise straightforward course a lot harder. Despite the small group, the race turned out to be fairly fast - at least it felt that way to me. There was a lot of action in the early going, and after a couple of primes Charlie and another rider opened a big gap. I took a deep breath and took off in pursuit. It took me a whole lap, completely flat-out, to close it, and by the time I could focus again I saw that the pack had split, leaving us with a five-rider break about half-way through the 45 minute race. GW was there, along with one of the Jeep guys and the guy with the disk wheel. The last few laps didn't exactly go according to my plan, however. With about three laps to go they disk wheel rider launched a strong attack, flying down the leeward edge of the road. I was on the rivet again, chasing in the gutter trying to catch a bit of draft in the crosswind. Soon after I caught GW launched a perfectly timed attack and got cleanly away with just over a lap left. So now we were sprinting for 2nd place and I thought I was in a good spot, but things got kind of squirrely as we went past the asphalt truck and I ended up 4th.

I hadn't been planning on doing back-to-back races, but after doing a cool-down lap I figured I'd take a shot at it since the 2nd race was only $10. I added my name to the bottom of the list, and went straight to the starting line. My heart rate still hadn't settled back down from the sprint. GW, and the disk wheel guy (I know he's been racing a long time, but I can't remember his name) were also riding back-to-back races. This race started out in a much more civilized manner, but once again the group split following a prime sprint and we ended up with a group of four off the front. Since everyone in this group, except perhaps one, had just finished the 35+ race, the pace stayed fairly steady until we neared the end. There was a prime with just a few laps to go and the disk wheel guy went for it and never looked back. I was certain he'd blow up, but he didn't, so once again I found myself sprinting for 2nd. This time my line through the last two turns was cleaner and I finished 2nd, so that was a nice way to end my 2007 season.

Sunday

My legs were a little stiff as I headed out into a stiff north wind Sunday morning. I figured the Giro ride would be fairly small today thanks to the wind, and I was right. There were nonetheless three or four of the Riders Who Must Be First pushing the pace even before we were halfway down Lakeshore Drive, and I found myself halfway between them and the rest of the group when I tried to up the group's pace a bit. I was soon joined by Chad. Neither of us was interested in closing that gap, and then, as we climbed the Seabrook bridge we saw the drawbridge gate come down right in front of them. Karma? So everyone had a chance to catch up as we waited for a nice sailboat to cruise from Lake Pontchartrain into the Industrial Canal, probably headed for the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet to avoid the choppy waters of the lake. It wasn't long after we were on our way again that the same group was off the front again. There was no attempt to chase and they disappeared down Hayne Blvd. The rest of the day's ride was a battle with the wind and a rather dysfunctional paceline. The pace stayed mostly reasonable, though, so it was a pretty nice October ride under clear blue skies - pretty much the definition of a Fall training ride.