Pepper Placings

Tim and I left NOLA around 9:30 to head up to the Pepper Place Criterium in Birmingham AL. The 5-hour drive up there was uneventful except for the steady stream of power company trucks and industrial generators heading south for Houston and Galveston. I had been up kind of late Friday night watching the progress of Hurricane Ike. It wasn't looking too good for Houston or Galveston when I finally hit the sack around midnight. We arrived right on schedule and snuck into a nice parking space near the finish line.

The races were running a bit late, and when we finally lined up they told us that our 45 minute race was being shortened to 35 minutes. Of course, that only meant that things would happen faster. Since I was not feeling too chipper, I had already mentally taken myself out of the mix and gone to "Plan B." In my case, "Plan B" means sitting in, not worrying too much about small breakaways, and hoping for a pack sprint. Not really a good way to start a race, but hey, it happens sometimes.

So the masters race was fairly fast and aggressive, and for much of it I was keeping myself in the action despite the gastric reflux issues I was having. Tim was really riding this one just as a warmup for the bigger Pro/1/2/3 race scheduled almost five hours later, so for the first half of the race I didn't see much of him. At around the half-way point I found myself kind of boxed in as an attack went down the right side. I looked at the riders and knew this one could be the whole race, and when I saw Tim out of the corner of my eye I said "Go, go, go!"

He went. I didn't.

That turned out to be the big split with a 10-rider break rolling off the front. I guess there must have been some blocking going on at the front of the pack because it opened up pretty quickly. Not long after that, GW took off, pretty much just riding away from the group without much of a challenge. So basically, that was that. Thanks to my gastric distress inspired wheelsucking, my legs felt pretty good at the end and I put in a respectable sprint for a not so respectable placing. Too bad it was for 12th or 13th place rather than first. Anyway, Tim got 2nd place, which was great, while I was 7th in the Master 45+ age group (and I think 14th overall). Ordinarily I would have been pretty unhappy with that, but under the circumstances, I was rather pleasantly surprised.

So we had a few hours to kill before the 8:45 pm start of the Pro/1/2/3 race. I was not planning on riding that one for a couple of reasons (like fitness and my stomach). Somehow, though, I found myself back at the registration table shortly before they closed it down for the night. I just couldn't seem to convince myself that I'd be happier sitting on the sidelines than racing, even though my chances of survival were pretty low. I went back to the car and pinned the fresh number onto my still-wet jersey and headed out in the dark for a little warmup. Once the Women finished, I got in one or two laps on the course before Floyd Landis showed up and they started the Beach Cruiser ride as all of the Pro/1/2/3 riders crowded up to the start line trying to get a good spot. Me? I was happy to avoid the crunch and take my chances in the back row since I wasn't planning on being much of a factor in this one.

I was quite surprised that this 50-minute race didn't seem nearly as fast as it did last year when pretty much the whole field was strung out single-file almost the entire time. I think that this year there were more strong teams up at the front keeping things together. Right off the bat I saw Tim take off solo and wondered what he was thinking. One thing I could tell for sure was that he was feeling good, so I figured he was trying to pull a coupe of guys out of the pack to establish a break. It worked, actually, and he did a lap or two with the guy (Matt) who would ultimately win, but they were eventually reeled back in. He was in a few other breaks, but there always seemed to be enough horsepower back in the pack to reel them back in, but not quite enough to mount a successful counter-attack.

I was spending most of my time at the back along with legend GW Wenzel. I swear, both of us could teach courses in how to ride at the back of a criterium. At first, I was sitting on GW's wheel and truly enjoying the ride. He knew just how hard to go and just how soon to ease up going into the corners so that we were avoiding the dreaded accordion effect and getting smoothly sucked along in the draft while expending minimal effort. It was kind of interesting to be at the back in this race. Since it was dark and there was a following motorcycle, you always knew when you were at the end of the line when you started seeing the headlight of the moto shining on the riders in front of you. I started thinking, "maybe I can survive this race after all." As the race went on I was gradually moving up into the thick of the pack in order to minimize the chances of getting gapped off. Even so, I was surprised by how often the pace would slow and the whole group would bunch up. Each time that happened I took the opportunity to move up a few places.

Then, not too long before the finish, a small 3-man group (Matt Winstead, Cleve Blackwell, and our very own USAC Regional Coordinator Stuart Lamp) somehow went off the front. I didn't exactly see it happen from my vantage point in the caboose. Then I saw Tim dropping back for a rest. Just about that time GW, who had been sucking wheels at the back with me, went flying down the right side and took off, opening a huge gap. Unlike his result in the Masters race, this time he got chased down. Now things were starting to get interesting as riders were getting nervous about the upcoming field sprint and started taking flyers off the front. With a couple of laps to go Tim made his last attempt to get away, but it didn't last long. A couple of guys went clear, another rider bridged up, some or all of those were caught on the last lap, and so with a lap or so to go I knew I'd probably be sprinting for maybe 5th. Even so, I was finally getting into the race and starting to feel good. Even though all of the top placings were already gone, the last lap was fast and exciting. Damn, but I love the last lap of criteriums. So I put in a decent sprint, and even though I started pretty far back, I ended up placing 12th overall which was a whole lot better than I'd been expecting. The bottom line for the day, for me, was $70 in winnings and $60 in entry fees, and to me, that's a successful road trip! The results got done really quickly and since they were being posted in a nice little coffee shop, I picked up a cup for the drive home. After a stop at a particularly slow fast-food place we were on the road back to NOLA, ultimately arriving back home some time around 4 a.m., having watched four full movies on Tim's little DVD player.

Drove up to Baton Rouge on Sunday to patch up the leaking roof at The Wife's mother's house. I was surprised to see, along the way, that the LaPlace exits off of I-10 were still closed and everything down there, including the road we use for our Time Trial, were fully under water.