Stars, Stripes and Fireworks

It was hot and sunny on Friday afternoon when I headed North on I-55 with Sam and Rich and LAMBRA's "Great White Box." We were aiming for the Plein Air Classic, two races near Oxford, MS, home of Ole Miss. I knew the turnout for this one would be a bit on the light side because of the July 4th holiday and the location, but the fact is that if you want to race bikes around here you can't let those little six-hour drives get in your way too often. Saturday's race was a circuit race on a fairly short triangular circuit with a finish line located in a new residential/retail development.

By the time we arrived at the race location on Saturday morning my stomach was already feeling kind of unsettled. It may have been the hotel "continental breakfast" bacon at did it. Who knows? Anyway, it wasn't all that bad. The Master's race had a small field, and by the time our race started at 10 am it was already getting pretty warm. There were a few attacks on the first lap, and so I was focused on staying up near the front without doing too much work. There were three guys who were pushing the pace, but somehow it never occurred to me that there might already be a gap behind us. Apparently the sharp turns and accordion effect were taking their toll. I think we were just starting our third lap when I finally looked back and was shocked to find that we had a huge gap on the field. "So that's why the other guys were looking at me like that," I thought. I'd been pretty much sitting on their wheels, thinking that the whole pack was sitting on mine. Once I saw we had a break, of course, I got to work, and after a couple more laps we had extended it out to at least a minute. Our four-man break worked together well until the last couple of laps when the attacks started. Nothing got away, though, and at least three of us came flying into the final two turns pretty fast, with me foolishly in third wheel. On the last sharp right-hand turn, just 150 meters from the finish, Greg Casals (ACCM) drifted a bit too wide and hesitated, at which point I jumped hard to the inside. With 50 meters to go my wheel nudged ahead of Scott Gurganus' for a moment, but he put in a last minute surge and won handily.

After a late lunch/dinner at Rooster's in Oxford we hung around the luxurious Super8 hotel swatting cockroaches until after dark when we decided to ride down to campus to see the big fireworks show. It was a pretty good one. The ride back was particularly fun because toward the end we were screaming downhill on this narrow road in the pitch dark without headlights, just barely able to make out the faint image of the white line thanks to the light from the fireflies in the bushes.

Sunday morning it was pouring down rain and so Rich made a quick decision to skip the 8 am combined Cat. 5/Women 3-4/Junior race and wait until the regular Cat. 5 race an hour or so later. That worked out well because by then the worst of the rain had passed and the roads were already starting to dry out. By the time the 10 am masters race started, at around 10:30 because of the earlier rain delay, it was pretty dry and conveniently overcast. Our race was really animated by the Memphis guys. John McLauchlin must have attacked six or seven times and spent quite a bit of time off the front while a few of us chased. The strategy certainly made me do more work than I'd wanted, although it kind of played into the hands of a few of the other riders who hadn't scored points in the circuit race. The finish line was at the bottom of a long gradual downhill on a wide road. When I have nightmares about criterium finishes, this is exactly what they look like! It was a drag race that took us up to around 41 mph, and I totally blew it, finishing 6th and dropping from 2nd to 4th in the omnium. Under conditions like that, the minute I come out from the draft it's like hitting a wall! A few riders with superior momentum easily passed me just before the finish.

After that disappointing finish I decided to go ahead and ride the Cat. 1/2/3 race about an hour later. This one started out pretty fast with a number of attacks. In the pack were Woody, who had just come back from Nationals where he'd crashed (Kenny also crashed and broke his frame), Debbie Milne in her Stars and Stripes jersey, Frank Moak and Clark Butcher, and a number of guys who had ridden the masters race with me earlier. My plan was to hang out near the back and see if I could keep from getting dropped, but I quickly noticed that Woody was stationed on the front and was having to cover all of the attacks practically by himself, so I went up there for a while to give him what little help I could. When a 4-rider group that included Frank and Clark, along with Eric Murphy and Brian Toone, took off, I rolled to the front and looked back under my arm for Woody. I wasn't sure if he wanted to let this combination go or not. With Brian and Eric in there, there was certainly no guarantee of a Herring Gas win. He looked at me with that, "No, no. Don't chase!" look, so I backed it down just enough to keep the gap growing without encouraging an immediate attack. Over the course of the next few laps a few riders tried to bridge, but they were chased down quickly and the gap continued to grow. We lost Sam during one of those, but soon afterward the pack gave up the chase and the pace settled down. I dropped back to my more familiar position near the back.

As we got down to the last few laps, things started getting a little jumpier, and I went into the final turn maybe five riders from the front. Of course, we were only sprinting for 5th place. This time the sprint went about the same for me, which is to say I was spun out in my 53x12 well before the finish. I well-timed bike throw netted me 8th place by the width of a tire and I was pretty happy with that, considering. Overall, it was a fun weekend and the prizes were good enough to cover my hotel cost, so what more can you ask? The Oxford guys did a great job with this race, so all it really needs is a little better turnout from the clubs "down south."