MSGP Wrapup

The weather was still a big question mark when when awoke Sunday morning. I sat for a while in the hotel lobby sipping bad coffee, updating the blog, and staring at The Weather Channel. Despite the cloudy sky, the radar didn't look all that bad. I myself was feeling a bit better than the day before, and Steve was feeling a lot worse. He was rapidly coming down with something like what I was recovering from. We were down to just three riders for the Cat. 4 Mississippi Gran Prix "Circuiterium," and it was clear that one of them was questionable. Sure enough, Steve didn't last long before realizing he was too sick to race. I don't think he made more than a couple of laps before pulling out and heading for his car. Pat and Rolan hung in for most of the very fast race, but although Rolan came close, neither was able to stay with the lead group.

The very next race was the masters race. I was still feeling kind of chilled, and we were getting occasional sprinkles of rain, but as I rode my warmup laps I was glad to see that the road was essentially dry. The race was fairly fast, but not terribly aggressive. With the top two places already decided thanks the the 4+ minute gap from the road race, the only battles to be fought were for the scraps. Jay and Ed were active at the front for most of the race, but a serious break never really materialized. Soon after the mid-point of the 60-minute race I noticed my front tire going soft. I rode another lap and decided it wasn't a good time to experiment, so I pulled into the pit for a wheel change. With no teammates and questionable health, I was in full defensive mode trying to conserve, maintain a good position, and hoping for a big sprint finish. With five laps to go it was clear I'd get my wish. I was a little surprised how many riders were fighting for the front during the last few laps, but I threw myself into the mix regardless. With two laps to go I was sitting on Jorge Merle's wheel when I heard him tell his teammate, "I can't believe this. I have a flat." Not that he slowed down, you understand. There were no free laps left, so he was taking the turns rather wide and it took me a little while to get safely past him.

With half a lap to go we flew around the second-to-last turn, the sketchiest one on the course, leading into a long sweeping downhill. I was sitting on Ed Novak's wheel about six from the front hoping that he would guide me to a decent placing. The downhill section was, for me, the hardest part of the course. The bigger guys just seemed to get sucked down the thing while I'd have to shift down and really hammer just to keep in the draft. Near the bottom of the downhill I saw Ed start to fade as a gap opened in front of him. I started yelling at him, "go, go, go!" Putting me out in the wind with 300 meters to go is like tossing a tissue paper out a car window at 70 mph and expecting it to keep up with the car, so I knew that if he slowed too much we'd either get streamed or my 200 meter sprint would end 100 meters before the line. He dug a little deeper but when we hit the sharp uphill leading to the finish he lost a little momentum and I went around him in a full sprint for the line. I ended up 6th (Ed was 7th) and was really happy about that, considering. Hardly coughed up any blood at all! Funny thing was that Jim Brock was 5th. In the prior day's road race we'd finished 5th and 6th. The week before I'd sprinted with him in another road race and criterium and again we'd finished 5th and 7th in the criterium and 11th and 12th in the road race. Over the years, that has happened a lot. Halfway through our cool-down lap it started to rain! Good timing.

Next up were the Cat. 1/2/3s and although their race started out at a relatively civilized pace, thanks no doubt to the wet streets, it just kept speeding up from then on. They ended up dropping over half of the field, most of which was composed of Cat. 1 and 2 riders. The Herring guys were trying to have some effect, but the San Jose and Metro VW guys were all over the front all the time. With four to go, Matt Davis attacked solo at the perfect time and opened a pretty good gap. The guys at the front of the pack looked at each other for half a lap or so, but finally they chased him down. It was a good try, though, because he wasn't a threat for the GC, so they might have let him go. On the last lap, or maybe the second-to-last, there was a crash that took Tim Regan down. Although he landed mostly on the dirt, he must have hit pretty hard because after getting a ride down to the finish line in a golf cart he wasn't too sure what had happened. In fact he wasn't too sure what planet he was on.

So it was a good weekend of racing, and although I might not have been able to be more of a factor in the races, I did the best I could under the circumstances, playing to my strengths, staying out of trouble, and chosing my battles cautiously. I went out this morning and found the bike path to be practically deserted. It was just as well. I put in an easy hour's spin and headed home so I could bring the car in to the body shop. The neighbor's little collision with the side of my parked Volvo will cost a couple grand to fix. We've been in that body shop so much in the last couple of years that we know the routine by heart. I think they'll probably put on their christmas card list this year.....