Over in Lafayette

Ed and I rushed off for Lafayette, LA after work Friday for the Vuelta de Acadiana stage race. This morning's road races were on a flat 16-mile course through the sugar cane fields. The master's race was pretty civilized until the 1st lap hot spot. The sprint for that one topped out at a bit over 38 mph, and soon afterward the attacks started. Most of them didn't look too threatening, and although I was mostly trying to stay out of trouble I did end up in the wind a few times. Then, about halfway through the second of three laps, a little surge opened a gap, ahead of which were seven or eight riders. I was, of course, on the wrong side of that gap. I looked up the road and could see that the group had a lot of the stronger riders in it, and although the gap was growing the riders at the front of my group didn't look like they were going to do anything about it. As soon as I got an opening I took off in pursuit and made the bridge pretty quickly, bringing one rider with me. We made contact just as the group was getting organized, and for the next lap or so we had a fairly smooth paceline going. Then, with about half a lap to go the coordination started to falter as riders began to worry about the sprint. I wasn't worried, though, because I pretty much knew I wouldn't have much of a sprint today. I ended up coming in 8th of the 9 riders in the break, but the good news was that we had put something in the neighborhood of three minutes on the rest of the field. In the Cat. 5 race, Ed had a pretty good race, picking up some hot spot points but missing out on the finish bonus. Patrick got caught up in a crash, but finished and didn't look too terribly scraped up. Ed K. finished with the group in the Cat. 4s, and Vivian missed the break but won the hot spot bonus and was 2nd in the pack sprint.

The afternoon 3.8 mi. time trial was really hot and quite windy. I was a little undermotivated but did a respectable time that moved me to 7th on GC, however temporarily, but a slim 3 seconds over 8th and 9th. I guess I should have pushed a little harder. Meanwhile, Ed N. did a great time. The next fastest time in the Cat. 5s was 44 seconds slower. Too bad the Cat. 5s was being scored as an omnium instead of as a stage race. He still ended up in 1st on GC with an 11 point lead.

Tomorrow's criterium will probably be pretty lively. I will likely drop down a place or two unless my sprint miraculously reappears, but that's OK. I'm pretty happy with my results today, considering.