Racing Rapides

I rushed home from work on Friday, loaded up the car, picked up Brandon, and headed for Alexandria for the weekend's Racing Rapides Omnium. Saturday morning was a short but intense 3-mile Time Trial on an interesting course that included a couple of little climbs. As usual, I was having a little motivational trouble for this event. I probably held back a bit too much in the first half of the TT and my subpar average speed of around 26 mph was good for only 8th place in the 45+ race. The Road Races started a couple of hours later and after a little nap in the car I was feeling a bit better. The combined 35+/45+ race started out really fast with a steady stream of attacks and counter-attacks. The course itself had only a couple of significant hills, so the breaks were having a hard time getting any traction. When yet another solo attack went off the front, I guess most of the riders didn't worry too much about it. When a second rider bridged up to it, though, I started to get a little concerned. Then, when the pack just completely failed to respond as they started working together, I thought, "why are they letting them go?" The break started opening the gap at an alarming speed and still the pack seemed reluctant to do anything about it. One of the guys in that break had just won the Time Trial. Eventually, after the break was maybe half a minute up the road, a few of us tried to get a chase organized. We probably needed five or six guys to commit to some paceline work in order to reel this one back, but we never got it. We'd get three guys to take pulls and then the chase would crumble. The break was soon out of sight.

Around that time we started to catch the Cat. 1/2/3 pack that had started five minutes before us. As we passed the one pothole on the course we saw Mark G. and another rider standing on the side of the road getting wheel changes. A little while later we passed Brandon, who had suffered the same fate. With the break out of sight the pace settled down a bit for the last lap and riders started thinking about the upcoming sprint for 3rd place. Of course, since we had both the 35+ and 45+ races, and the break had contained one rider from each, we were essentially all racing for 2nd place in one or the other race. With a few miles to go, things started getting crowded up near the front. All those riders who had been sitting on the back all day were fighting for position on the narrow roads and it took a lot of work and concentration just to stay up near the front. I was holding my own in this battle and as we passed the 1 km to go sign I was pretty well positioned. Then we rounded a curve with maybe 300 meters to the line and up ahead there was a logging truck going about 10 mph in the right lane. We were probably going around 30. There was, of course, a bit of confusion and shuffling as the pack, now pretty much in full sprint mode, squeezed into the left lane and sprinted around the truck. Just as we cleared it I saw daylight to the right and shot through finishing 2nd or 3rd, which turned out to be 2nd in the 45+ race. Brandon and I walked over to the finish line in time to see Stephen M. win the Cat. 4 Road Race.

Sunday featured a criterium in downtown Alexandria. I'd ridden this long and technical criterium a couple of years earlier. The combined 35+/45 plus race took off like it had been shot from a cannon and I quickly decided on a defensive strategy for this one, as if I had a choice. We probably dropped a whole bunch of riders in those first few laps. Woody B. was on hand for this race and he was active at the front the whole time while I was more or less inactive a bit farther back. This was a 40 minute criterium and I remember looking down at my computer the first time there was a little lull in the pace. It read 22 minutes, and that was about the first time the pace had dropped down to a relatively leisurely 25 mph. Despite the fast initial pace, as the laps counted down toward the sprint a lot of riders started to crowd the front trying to get good positions for the inevitable sprint. With two tight turns in close succession before the last drag race to the finish line, it would be important to be one of the first riders through. Before the third-to-last turn on the last lap there was a big surge and we flew into the turn with probably five riders abreast. I got bumped and reshuffled a bit but everyone stayed upright. Jaro attacked the second-to-last turn, opening a gap and sailing through the last two turns before lighting the afterburners and taking the long sprint easily. I was right on Jorge M's wheel through the last turn, but he cut the apex so close that I went through it on the sidewalk. I guess I hesitated a bit when that happened and it opened a little gap that I could never close. I think I finished maybe 7th or so, but it turned out to have been 2nd in the 45+, so I ended up moving up to 2nd in the overall.

The next race was the Cat. 4 criterium, in which Stephen won the big pack sprint, also nailing the overall for the weekend.

I decided to go ahead and enter the upcoming Cat. 1,2,3 race since I was going to be there anyway. As I expected, this race started out really fast too and within a few laps I was pretty much just hanging on near the back in the Accordion section along with a few other riders. Every time there was an attack, which seemed to be coming at the rate of about two per lap, I'd have to make a really big effort just to stay in contact. A crash on the back side put a little split in the pack and a few of us had to really drop the hammer to get back onto the tail end of the group. Then, maybe 45 minutes into the 60-minute race, another surge opened a big gap. Brooks was in front of me and he was starting to struggle. The guy in front of him was also losing ground on the tail end of the pack. I yelled at him, "get that wheel!" and he made a big effort to close it. Three of us went around the next turn, still with a pretty big gap ahead of us and he motioned for me to come through. I yelled at the other rider who was still with us, "Come on, they're going to slow down soon, " put my head down, dropped it down one more cog and put in a big effort straight into the headwind. It wasn't enough and I started to crack. The other rider wasn't able to stay with me and I was alone and off the back. My speed dropped down to 24 mph and I figured I was done. Then I went around the next corner and saw the pack mushroom out all across the road. A lull! I stood up and sprinted and by the next turn I was back in the draft. Luckily the pace stayed relatively slow for a little while longer, so I was able to hang on. That was a close one. As we got down to the final laps, I was a little surprised that the pace didn't stay really fast. I think one reason was that there weren't any big teams there. Anyway, with a bit over two laps to go things bunched up and I took the opportunity to move up near the front. The next couple of laps were kind of a blur as I tried to keep my position near the front. Although I kind of blew up in the final drag race to the line, I still managed 8th place. Woody got 5th after working his butt off the whole race, which was pretty impressive. Brandon took home the 10th place prize. We were both pretty well cooked after that one.

On the way home I stopped at the first fast food place I saw on I-49, ripped open one of the prize envelopes, and got one of those huge Cokes and a hamburger.