West Feliciana

OK, this might be a little sloppy. Things have been busy around here lately, but considering the fact that the situation shows little sign of improvement any time soon, I'll download my recollections from last weekend's West Feliciana Classic anyway.

I was up early on Saturday waiting for Dave to swing by an pick me up for the drive up to St. Francisville for the 2nd annual West Feliciana Classic. We all knew it was going to be a hot weekend, but at least the temperatures for the morning time trial were relatively pleasant. This TT is held on a small winding road with lots of trees and a couple of significant climbs. It's a really nice TT course, but opportunities to get a good warmup are minimal. I started out 30 seconds behind my teammate Dave Schreffler, and within the first minute I knew I hadn't gotten a good enough warmup. Gasping for breath, I plugged on, finally settling down a bit after a little coasting on the downhills. I already knew my time would be weak. It was. My 6:46 for the 5 km course was good for only 9th in the small 15-rider Master 40+ field. Dave didn't fare any better, posting a time about ten seconds slower. Keith Duet was also there, but I don't think he really made much of an effort for the TT.

The criterium was held that afternoon on a really fun and very challenging little course in St. Francisville. There was a flat three-block finish straight, then a left turn, followed immediately by two tight right-handers and a steep drop down the hill and around a smooth sweeping right-hand bend that brought our speed well up over 40 mph. After a little flat there was a sharp right-hand turn over a bridge (if you fell here you'd go flying off the side of the bridge under the skimpy guardrail and fall about fifteen feet into the creek). Then there was a short but very steep climb back up to the final right-hander. I climbed this hill in the big ring every lap, but probably should have risked the front-chainring shifts and used the 39 more. I don't think we'd gone more than a couple of laps before Jason and Dave got off the front. They weren't really killing it or anything, so the gap didn't grow very quickly at all. I immediately backed off, as did the Jason's teammates, which didn't leave too many guys to mount a chase. In fact, I think the hill had a lot of them on the ropes and they didn't dare make the effort to chase. There were, however, a number of surges and a couple of attacks on the hill that brought us to within maybe ten seconds, and I thought for sure we'd just roll up to them, but for some reason Donald Davis and the others didn't close the deal and after that the gap really opened up for good. After the hot spot, someone attacked the hill hard and a gap opened with me on the wrong side of it. I didn't think we'd be able to close it, but when we came screaming down that long downhill, I saw the three riders ahead of us spread out across the road and knew it would be my only chance, so I buried myself and made the bridge just in time to sprint up the hill again. Soon it was down to just four of us in the second group - Shan Smith, Jerry Simon, Donald Davis, and me. I don't think we went up that damned hill more than three times when there wasn't an attack. As we got down to the final laps I was really starting to struggle on the hill, mainly because Jerry was attacking it relentlessly. On the last lap there was another hard attack that I just couldn't answer so I rolled across the line last in our group of four, 6th overall. Meanwhile, my teammate Dave won the sprint for first, so at least half of the master plan had gone well!

I had been looking forward to Sunday's road race. The course is hilly and fun, and I've raced on most of the roads in the past. Since the event was an Omnium, there were five riders all clustered within just a few points of each other, so I knew there would be a battle. Unfortunately, this soldier never really got to participate. What I hadn't been expecting were the early attacks. There was one initial attack within the first mile or two that was closed down quickly, then just a little while later another one split the pack while I was twiddling my thumbs at the back. By the time I realized that all of the horsepower was in the front group it was practically too late to do anything about it. Also, since it was so early in the race, and Dave was up there in a 5 or 6-man group without a teammate I *really* wanted to be there. Still, I didn't want to pull the rest of my group up there, so along with Keith I just tried to set tempo so that the gap wouldn't grow too large just in case something happened that might give me a chance to make the bridge. Well, that didn't last too long, and by the time we were halfway around the course the gap was up to over a minute and I decided I'd use the rest of the race to get in some training.

Then we missed a turn. Completely. The "corner monitor" was apparently sitting in a truck in the shade with one of those shade things blocking the windshield. I was at the back when we went past the intersection and looked over thinking, "isn't that Jones Vaughn Creek Road?" I hadn't seen a course map, so I wasn't sure if there was perhaps some other way to make the loop, but I didn't think there was. I asked a couple of the other guys if they knew the course. They didn't. We eased up and did some mileage math and after a mile or two decided to turn around. Indeed we'd missed the turn. We knew that because when we went by the truck at the corner and called in to person sitting inside it she told us so. So anyway, when we came to that intersection on the next lap (I think they were 20-something miles each), after having picked up another rider or two, I decided I'd push it up a couple of the hills. I knew that particular road pretty well and knew that there were a few steep but short hills early on, and then it kind of smoothed out. Plus, it was a winding road where it was relatively easy to get out of sight. So once a gap opened I just kept going. I doubt there was any significant effort to chase since we were already racing for 6th place which wouldn't have much of an effect on the omnium results anyway. Even so, I figured it was a good training effort, so I motored the best I could over the remaining 7 or 8 or 10 miles and was pretty well toasted by the time I finally crossed the finish line. I was glad to find out that Dave had won the sprint, jumping early when Jerry was unexpectedly stricken with one of those "whole body cramps" you get when you try to attack hard on an uphill at the end of a long hot race.

In the end I was 8th overall, tied on points with Charlie but losing out on the tie because of his better TT placing. This particular race has come a long way since last year, and if they hold it again next year I expect it will be even better. The courses, especially that criterium, are really good and their ability to provide lots of refreshments, and even sandwiches, was quite welcome.