La Vuelta, La Melta

Stephen Mire and I headed west to Lafayette late Friday for a weekend of racing in Acadiana. Although the annual La Vuelta de Acadiana stage race added Friday night criteriums for the Cat. 1/2/3 and Open Women's fields, for the rest of us it's a typical 3-stage weekend stage race. En route we met up with Mignon, who, since she couldn't make the required Friday night criterim for the Women's race with Viv and Judith, was registered in the regular Cat. 4 race with Stephen and Pat.

So Saturday morning we set out to find the road race, stopping at the local Starbucks first, and subsequently missing a turn. We went about ten miles in the wrong direction before realizing our mistake (sugar cane fields pretty much all look alike no matter which road you're on) and arrived just as registration was about to close. It was already getting pretty warm by the time we started our respective 65-mile road races that would take us four times around the dead-flat course. With only a light wind and a hot spot at the end of Lap 1, I knew it would be hard for anything to get away for very long. I was riding the Master 35+ race along with six of the MSM team, Woody, who was riding the Master's race because he couldn't make the Friday night criterium for the Cat. 1/2/3 race. Although it was a smallish field, it contained a lot of horsepower. As we got nearer to the hot spot at the end of the first lap, things started to get more and more nervous. On this course you can see the finish line from about a kilometer away, and as often happens on that sort of course, the sprint started early. Also, as often happens, most of those who started it faded well before the 200 meter mark. As the right side of the group started to get streamed by the left side, I saw that Woody was kind of boxed in over there and tried to get him on my wheel as I went past. I'm not sure he did, but he ended taking the second place points. I think I was about fourth, for which I got zero points. The next couple of laps were interesting, but largely controlled by the MSM guys who outnumbered everyone else. At one point I launched a little attack when we caught another rider who had been off the front and found myself out there all alone. The pack didn't seem too anxious about chasing, so I decided to roll it and see if maybe someone would try to bridge. A small break would have been my best option on that course, so I figured it was worth a try. Well, I stayed out there for a long, long time, but the pack was just holding the gap and letting me work, so with a bit more than a lap left to go, I eased up. As we went through the feed zone on the last lap someone attacked, which is pretty bad form, and so no effort was spared to chase that one down. After that I think everyone was resigned to a pack sprint. I started that one a bit too far back and thought I had a good wheel on the left just when everything seemed to go through on the right. So the best I could do was 5th, which got me a $20 stage bonus and no points. The Masters field finished just a couple of minutes behind the Cat. 4s who had started with a ten minute gap.

Meanwhile in the Cat. 4 race, all three of our riders finished with the main pack with Stephen taking 3rd in the pack sprint despite major cramping in both legs, and Mignon finishing an impressive 15th. Mignon reluctantly headed home after the road race while Stephen and I went back to our severely under-air-conditioned hotel room with nonfunctional internet to hang out until the afternoon Time Trial.

It was sweltering by the time the TT started, but at least there was a bit of a tailwind for the one-way 3.8 mi. course. The first time I looked down at the computer I was going around 29 mph. I spent most of the TT in the 53 x 14, which was probably at least one cog too low, considering the tailwind. I was looking at 28-30 on the computer until the 1 km sign, at which point I had to ease up for a little while before making a final push for the finish. Despite an average speed of well over 27 mph, my time was good for only 10th place, which pretty much put the 6-deep GC prizelist out of reach. Stephen, meanwhile, was still not recovered from the leg cramps he got in the road race and his TT time showed it.

Sunday's criterium was fun, even though the fast non-technical course and long finish straight weren't really my cup of tea. As we waited at the line for the 10 am start, we were already dripping sweat. Unlike the relatively negative racing of the road race, the criterium was quite fast and active with a number of strong attacks. Since I figured the GC was out of reach for me, I was mostly just sitting in hoping to get lucky in the pack sprint. Even so, I did go up to the front a few times to help chase down some dangerous attacks. There was a hot spot at the halfway point of the criterium, and although I didn't think I could get one of the two places that were worth bonuses, I also wanted to be prepared in case someone used the sprint to launch an attack. As we approached the last turn before the hot spot the pack started to bunch up, and then in the middle of the turn one rider slid out, taking another rider with him. I was caught on the outside of that and had to hop the curb and take an extended detour in the grass, followed by an all-out chase to regain the group. I was still feeling pretty good as the last few laps counted down to the bell, so I thought I'd take a shot at the sprint. I was in a pretty good spot on the last lap, but before the last turn I got streamed by a few riders and had to start the sprint from pretty far back. Once again I ended up 5th. I was a little disappointed with my racing last weekend, but not so much that it wasn't fun anyway. Stephen took another 3rd in the Criterium, so if he'd done a decent time trial he probably would have made the top two or three on GC. Pat was happy to finally finish a stage race without incident! Earlier in the day Vivian and Judith had finished 7th and 10th respectively, while a new club member, Robert, took 2nd in the Junior Criterim (and 1st on GC).

We stuck around to watch the Cat. 1/2/3 battle between Matt Davis and Eric Murphy, which was pretty interesting. A 2-man break spent most of the race off the front, only to get caught with two laps to go. A crash right in front of the start/finish took Stanley Prutz out of the race, leaving him with a few square feet of road rash and a broken frame. He'd already had a tire blow out and his front derailleur break off in previous stages. In the final sprint, Chris Lowry took first place, leaving Matt and Eric to battle for the 2nd and 3rd place bonuses. I saw the video image from that finish and it was really almost too close to call. They gave 2nd place to Matt, but Eric still took the GC win by a slim 2 second. I took a few photos of the Women, Cat. 4s and Cat. 1/2/3s from the criterium.