Just Across the Border

The 5 pm start time of the Masters criterium of the Meridian-Cuba Challenge Omnium up in Meridian was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Dave and I didn't need to leave until the luxurious hour of 11 am. On the other hand, it was going to be pretty warm up there in the middle of Mississippi. I'd ridden the Meridian criterium course a few times before. It has a nice mix of features -- some nice tight corners, some rough road surfaces, a nice little climb, and a fast downhill turn leading into the long and wide finish straight. On the drive up I could tell that Dave was psyched for this one. I was feeling a little uncertain about my prospects, however. Looking around at the other masters riders in attendance, I figured it would be a good race. The Gulf Coast team, based in Biloxi, had six riders on the start list, and Alabama Masters had Jim Brock, Andy Maddux and Miroslav Novak on hand. Also in the mix were Mitch Evans from Baton Rouge and Lonnie Kennedy from Mesa Cycles up in St. Louis (he has family down here). I figured it would be an aggressive race. As we warmed up I told Dave that Lonnie was an experienced breakaway artist and pointed out some of the other riders who I thought would animate the race.

The race started spot on time and the attacks started soon thereafter. I felt like I was on the ropes almost from the start, but didn't dare drop too far back from the front. After a few solo attacks were pulled back I found myself in a somewhat promising one of four or five riders. It was still very early and I was not much help and after a lap or two we were brought back. Shortly after that Tony Scott from Peachtree and Tim Carbonneau from Gulf Coast took off. The timing was good and the response from the tired pack was weak. A few more laps and the break was out of sight and the pace eased up a little bit, but there were still some attacks. I had already burned a lot of matches but I really didn't want to be sprinting for fourth place so I was still doing my best to help pull those back. Just after I'd put in a big effort doing that, Lonnie attacked hard on the technical part of the circuit. Since he was racing in the 55+ category in this combined 40+/55+ race, there wasn't much of an effort to go after him, although I would have been nice if Dave or I had been able to tag along. We were probably four or five laps from the finish when the lead break lapped the field, but since they didn't try to blow through to the front I doubt most of the riders realized it. With a couple of laps to go I started working hard to maintain a spot near the front, and with one to go looked around to find Dave. I caught a glimpse of him behind me, so I figured I'd go earlier than usual for the sprint and hope he was still on my wheel by then. There didn't seem to be any sort of big team leadout on the last lap, so things got a little tight coming down the hill into the last turn and I was a few spots farther back than I wanted to be. Just before the turn a couple of guys came screaming through on the inside and I changed my line just a bit to catch a little bit of that draft. I was probably already in a 53x14, but as soon as we straightened out I was out of the saddle and looking for more gears. I was still way too far back, but the run-in to the finish is a long wide slightly uphill drag so two or three of the guys in front of me started to fade. I got lined up a few bike lengths behind the wheel that was moving forward the fastest and ended up coming in second in the pack sprint with Dave right behind me in third. Since two 40+ riders had been in the break, that meant we were 4th and 5th. I was a little angry with myself for missing the crucial break, but on the other hand I was glad to have finally put in a decent sprint after so many disappointing efforts this year.

After a nice dinner at the local Olive Garden with Vivian and Elise, it was back to the Super8 to start worrying about Sunday's road race. The road race that starts in Cuba, Alabama, is a pretty tough one with lots of hills and long sections of hot chip-seal that make your bike feel like it's suddenly ten pounds heavier and you're riding through wet sand. Almost from the start of the road race I knew I was in trouble. My legs were loading up way too quickly on every little climb and I was seriously wondering if I'd be able to keep from getting from dropped on the big climb about ten or eleven miles in. Just after we started we figured out that two of the riders who had finished ahead of us weren't riding the road race, so suddenly Dave an I were in 2nd and 3rd for the Omnium. On the other hand, Donald Davis was on hand, and although he wouldn't be eligible for the Omnium since he hadn't ridden the criterium, it was soon obvious that he was not planning on taking any prisoners in the road race. As I'd expected, there was a big surge up the "big" climb, but somehow I remained more or less in contact. Right after that, though, a break went off the front with Donald, Dave and a few others. The pack wasn't quite ready to concede defeat yet, so after a long chase it was pulled back by the time we were about halfway around the course (we were doing two laps of a long loop). By then I was camped out near the back of the group wondering why my legs were feeling so lousy. A little while later I saw Donald ride off the front again, and a little while after that I saw that another rider had bridged up to him. I wasn't sure who it was and although I did a little work to try and keep the gap from getting too big, I wasn't getting much help. I really should have figured it out. One of the riders who was working hard trying to mount a chase at the front was in the 55+ race, but Lonnie, who was leading the 55+ race, wasn't up there. Anyway, the break was soon a minute or so up the road. Around that time we started to figure out who exactly was up the road and I realized that none of the 40+ riders were chasing because the other rider in the break was Miroslav who was in the 55+ race. Since Donald wasn't in the Omnium, the Gulf Coast guys, who I guess were focused on protecting their teammate's lead in the omnium, weren't interested in chasing the break at all. That's about when Lonnie discovered that one of the riders up the road was in the 55+ race. He made an effort to get a chase going, but it was way too late and there weren't enough surviving 55+ riders left to do it. After that, the pace in the pack really slowed down. It was getting hotter and hotter and I could tell that some of the riders were starting to struggle. On the other hand, my legs were actually starting to feel a little better. I was still reluctant to put my nose into the wind, however. Ten miles from the finish it was starting to look like a pack finish for 2nd place, and although I did a bit of work to chase down some brief attacks, for the most part Dave and I were just watching and waiting as the pace occasionally dropped down into the mid-teens. I think that the Gulf Coast guys would have done better to have gotten together and really pushed the pace at this point, because they might well have dropped a number of riders, including me. Instead, the pace remained slow enough that I was actually feeling better than I had on the first lap.

After we made the final turn, three miles before the finish, things started to pick up as riders began thinking about the impending uphill sprint finish. About a mile before the finish the course goes over a little rise as it crossed the interstate, and at that point Mitch Evans launched a well-timed attack. Dave was right there and went with him. The rest of the pack looked around at each other to see who would start the chase. They got a good gap as the sprinters watched each other and I thought they would make it to the finish. Dave was figuring that he could make it ahead of the group, but even if he didn't, he knew I'd be surfing wheels back in the pack and would be ready to put in a good sprint. Our sprint really didn't start in earnest until just before the climb, maybe 400 meters before the finish. My suddenly recovered legs felt good and I went hard for it from the start, passing a few riders on the steepest part of the climb, one of whom was Mitch. As the road levelled out a bit at the 200M flag I dumped it into the 12 and crossed the line in 3rd place, a few seconds behind Dave who had held on for 2nd (remember that Donald had been in that 2-man break most of the day and had finished minutes earlier). So as it turned out, Dave won the omnium and I was 2nd, so thanks to some good luck and satisfying sprints we felt like we had a pretty decent weekend. Elise took some great photos of the masters race, one of which is above.