Long Week, Long Time

Miss me?  It was a pretty long week.  Complications and deadlines at work, along with family arriving for a nephew's wedding, conspired to keep me off the bike entirely for two or three days. Although I had to skip this weekend's races up in St. Francisville, at least I was able to make both the Saturday and Sunday Giro Rides. 

So to back up a bit to the prior weekend up in Alexandria for the Racing Rapides stage race.....

I ended up driving up to this one alone, leaving home around 5 am.  The race had a pretty good turnout, and since I am currently running quite low on self-confidence I registered in the 55+ race.  We'd be racing with the 40+ group anyway, so I figured at least it would give me a better shot at winning my entry fee back. Waiting for the start of the Masters race felt like an alumni reunion.  On hand were Mike Lew, John Egan, John Dias, and Jorge Merle, and if you know Mike, there was no shortage of old racing stories. 

The road race was on a long 20 mile loop with one or two moderately significant climbs.  Right from the start a break went off the front, and by the start of the second lap of three Donald Davis and Scott Gurganus had a pretty big gap.  A while later I was surprised to see Scott coming back to the pack.  There was never much of an organized chase, and considering who it was, I figured Donald had a pretty good shot at staying out there. It would certainly help that he had a number of teammates in the pack.  At one point, I think the gap went up to a minute and a half, and once he was out of sight, he was out of mind.  The last lap got a bit more active, though, and although I didn't know it, the gap was slowly coming down.  I'd been staying out of the wind for the most part and so I was feeling pretty decent as we came into the final five miles or so when the pace really started to ramp up.  Apparently the guys at the front could see Donald somewhere up the road.  There wasn't quite enough time, though, and the pack would end up finishing a bit more than 20 seconds down.  The pack started getting pretty nervous over the last few miles as riders crowded the front on the narrow winding road.  The Florida team started to organize a leadout, but then the guy in front, along with a few others, inexplicably took an unscheduled right turn off of the course at an intersection.  I don't know how they could have thought there was a right turn on the course, but everyone kind of sat up for a moment for a collective "WTF?"  Anyway, that kind of reshuffled things a couple of miles before the finish.  From there on, it was a battle for position and a sprint that started about half a kilometer out.  I ended up around 6th despite having to back off a couple of times to get around people, so I was pretty happy, and a little surprised, with that.

The afternoon's Time Trial felt really difficult, starting out with a little tailwind, and then turning suddenly right into a strong headwind that dropped my speed from 28-29 mph right down to 22-23 mph.  It took forever to get rolling again, even after the road turned back away from the wind.  I was surprised that my time didn't suck quite as badly as I'd though (it still sucked, though).  Donald, despite his long solo effort just hours earlier, put in one the fastest time trial with a 7:06.  For comparison, my time was 35 long seconds slower, which is an eternity for a 3 mi. time trial.

That night I stayed at Ed Kendrick's house in nearby Pineville, where they'd made some nice lasagna, for dinner.  Sunday's criterium in old Alexandria was fun as usual.  I was hanging around mid-pack watching the show when we came to the mid-race hot spot. Criterium host spots are always rather dangerous in that they provide good opportunities for breakaways, so I went pretty hard for it just in case.  After we crossed the line the leaders eased up, and I was about to let myself drop back when Ed Novak counter-attacked just after turn #1.  I was right behind Donald and sensed a moment of hesitation, instinctively yelling, "Go!  He went, and after a bit of a chase we made it across the gap.  I would have expected the break of seven riders to start working together pretty quickly, but in fact it took a number of laps before things stabilized.  I was a little surprised that we weren't caught in the interim.  Eventually, though, things started to come together and the break started making time on the remnants of the pack.  I was feeling a little confused since I was the only 55+ rider in the break.  My legs were feeling surprisingly good, but I kept wavering between wanting to push the pace and wanting to sit at the back and enjoy the ride.  Very conflicted.  Although there were a couple of attacks toward the end, the break was still together with a couple of laps to go when the pace suddenly eased.  Riders were starting to get nervous about the inevitable sprint.  I figured I may as well go to the front, since I didn't really have anything to lose, so I pulled for about a lap and a half.  I dropped back to nearly the back of the break as we came around the last couple of turns and pretty much just watched the sprint from behind.  I was glad to have won back my entry fee and then some.  I ended up sticking around until the bitter end so I could bring the results file back with me.  It took quie a long time to get the Cat. 1/2/3 results posted.

This weekend was another double-Giro weekend for me.  I was quite sleep-deprived by the time Saturday morning rolled around, but by then I was really looking forward to the Giro.  With my daughter and four dogs in the house, plus a rehearsal dinner party, Saturday's Giro was a nice break!  I ended up riding pretty hard.

Saturday evening was the wedding at City Park.  As we arrived we saw all of the nice little white chairs all lined up, and empty.  Everyone was instead standing in the shade, waiting until the last possible moment before sitting down in the 5:30 pm sun.  I guess the temperature was in the mid-80s.  Fortunately the ceremony itself was fairly brief, after which we headed over to the reception, also mostly outside in City Park.  By then the sun was getting low enough to provide more shade, and as the champagne glasses were filled and the sun went down, the dancing started.  It was nice.

So this morning was a smaller repeat of the Saturday Giro.  Some riders were up in St. Francisville for the West Feliciana Gran Prix, and another small group was doing a long ride on the northshore, but that didn't really make the Giro a whole lot slower. I spent a long time around mid-pack on the way out, staying off to the side where I could get a little extra exercise without actually moving up to the front. Anyway, it was a good Giro and I got a pretty good workout, arriving back home tired, hungry, and with salt caked on my face.