Where's my Bike?

Saturday morning I was up early, ready for the drive up to Natchez, MS for the LAMBRA Road Championships. I was going up to help out a little bit with the officiating, but mostly just to be there, even though I wasn't riding. Oh, and I also had to bring the medals for the winners. I put a few things into the car before heading off to pick up Ed N., but the car seemed particularly empty. It's not often that I take a road trip without the bike, and to be going to a race without the bike was just downright odd. We arrived well before the first races started, and it was already getting pretty hot. For purely historical reasons, this race starts kind of late on Saturday with the juniors, followed by the Cat. 5s, and finally the Masters at 2 p.m. It's a bit of cruel and unusual punishment to make the old guys start at the hottest part of the day. Maybe we should rethink that for next year. Anyway, the Cat. 5 race had a smallish but typical turnout, and the club had Ed, Daniel and Dave entered. Ed's been riding well lately and I was thinking that he had a good chance for a win, so I was a little surprised when they came by with three or four laps to go and a solo rider from Baton Rouge was way off the front. I watched as the group made the steep little climb past the finish line and up onto the dam. I could sense that Ed was feeling frustrated. Well, with a couple of laps to go another break went off from the pack that included Ed, Ali, and a few others, and then apparently Ed took off from that break in pursuit of the leader. With one lap to go I happened to be at the top of the climb up to the dam and saw the leader come by. Then, just 20 seconds later, I saw Ed storming up the climb in hot pursuit. I had no doubt whatsoever that he would make the catch within the next mile. I later learned that he'd been chasing alone for about five miles. Well, to make a long story short, he caught, they worked together for the rest of the lap, and Ed won the sprint easily to take the Cat. 5 championship.

The next race was the combined Master 30+, 35+, 45+ race. This was a decent-sized field with a good amount of horsepower in it, so I was quite surprised to see a 4-man break go clear early in the first lap. That break included Dan Bennett (in town from NM), Russ Walker, Woody Boudreaux, and Jason Miller. A strong quartet, to be sure, but back in the pack were a lot of strong riders. I guess since three of the bigger teams were represented, there weren't many riders left to chase. Anyway, over the ensuing laps, Jason's seatpost came loose, dropping all the way down to the top tube and he had to stop for a fix. That put him back in the main pack that by now was a couple of minutes down. Shortly thereafter Russ just plain rode away from the other two riders and went on to win solo by a huge margin. Behind him, Dan and Woody stayed together with Dan taking the sprint.

We didn't leave until everything was over, so it turned into a pretty long day. By the time I got home I was looking forward to a long ride on Sunday.

I ended up doing 40+ miles on Sunday up on the levee, spending much of the return trip with John who was recovering from a sinus infection and had been off the bike for most of the week. That worked out fine, since I'm not really ready for prime time. I was still being really careful when I'd pass other riders or walkers, especially if there was a dog involved! I think I will go ahead and count that ride as actual training. Of course, I'm now starting over in "base training" mode, and hope to be spending a decent number of miles in the saddle over the next couple of weeks, albeit at a fairly slow and deliberate pace. Once the collarbone and shoulder joint stop aching I may even think about spending some time in the gym to try and build up a few muscles above the waist.