Mardi Gras Days

While the past week has been just another seven days in February for most of the country, down here in New Orleans it was the final countdown to Mardi Gras.  I'd been keeping a pretty low profile for most of it, but Saturday night was the big Endymion parade and since there's a little party at Tulane's Psychiatry Department office, which is in the Tidewater Building, which is right on the parade route down on Canal Street, that one was on my calendar.  The weather had been miserable, causing a lot of the parades to re-schedule until Monday. I'd even skipped Saturday's Giro Ride (which may or may not have actually happened) because it was raining.  A couple of hours later, however, the rain had stopped and the radar looked at least temporarily promising. I felt quite lucky to have been able to get in 34 miles on the rain bike because most of the rest of the day was very wet.  Endymion delayed its start to try and skirt the last of the rain, and so by the time it arrived downtown the rain was long gone, the crowds were thin, and the throws were plenty.  It's always a lot of fun to catch tons of beads.  The fact that they'll mostly end up in the landfill eventually does little to diminish their immediate perceived value.  So thanks to the late parade I didn't get home until pretty late, at which point I had to make a crucial decision.  Should I get up at 3 am and drive the 4.5 hours up to Monroe for the TT and Criterium where the morning temperature was going to be in the low 40s?  "Oh, what the hell......"

OFFICIATING MODE

The drive to Monroe was less than relaxing.  The whole way was in a light misty drizzle with gusty winds, but thanks to a cup of McDonalds coffee I made it there with the LAMBRA clock in time for the Time Trial.  I'd stopped for gas about mid-way and when the cold north wind and mist hit me in the face I'd decided to skip the time trial and help with officiating instead.  It was a decision I did not regret. I was assigned Starter duties, which entailed about 75 minutes of counting down riders at one-minute intervals.  Although I was absolutely freezing cold, I was still quite content not to be riding into that headwind wearing a skinsuit.  The TT went well and so I headed straight over to the criterium course.

HANGING ONTO THE BREAK

The Crit course was a pretty simple circuit -- basically a rectangle with two sweeping curves and two fairly easy corners.  I was still quite chilled from the morning TT when I lined up for the masters race.  As my first race of the year, I wasn't very motivated so I decided I'd hang out mid-pack for the first part until I got nicely warmed up.  Unfortunately a number of the other riders didn't share my approach and the attacks started immediately.  I doubt we'd finished two laps before a two-rider break was off the front.  Half of the loop was straight into a strong headwind and the pack was not chasing at all.  It didn't help that the riders in the break had teammates in the pack either.  Soon another rider attacked to bridge.  I was right there and normally would have gone with him, but I was still feeling lazy and didn't.  Big mistake.  That rider made contact pretty quickly and soon another rider went and bridged up too. 

REX CAPTAIN

I finally awoke and went to the front and worked for a number of laps on the off-chance that one or two of the breakaway riders would crack, but there were only a couple others in the pack willing to do any work, so it all became more of a training ride for me.  On the last couple of laps the teammate of one of the riders who'd been sitting in because he had another teammate in the break was sent to the front to attack a few times and string things out a bit.  Naturally his teammate then attacked with half a lap to go and naturally nobody cared, so I guess we were sprinting for 6th place or something like that.  Hard to get fired up about that.  After that race I stood around and chatted for a while, which was another mistake because I got really, really chilled.  Lining up for the Cat. 1/2/3 race about an hour later I was actually shivering. 

ROYAL RUN CROWD

The 1/2/3 race had a fairly small field, but nonetheless we started out like we'd been fired out of a cannon.  Well, actually *they* started out that way.  I'd completely flubbed clipping in and had to chase all the way to the first corner, finally getting in behind a big rider at the end of the field.  We went around the first two turns as riders at the front were attacking.  The guy in front of me was having a lot of trouble just staying in the draft but I was hoping he'd close up the little gap he'd created when we hit the headwind stretch.  No such luck.  By the time I finally went around him the gap was a good ten seconds, the headwind about 15 mph, and my chances slim to none unless the pack eased up, which it didn't. I saw 31 mph for a moment into the headwind but was still not closing the gap. I chased a couple more laps hoping for a lull that never came and then eased up a bit so the two riders behind me could catch and we could work together.  Soon it was just Ed Kendrick and me and there was no way we were going to catch, so it was looking like another training ride. 

Then, a number of laps later, I heard Jered's voice coming up from behind saying, "Come on, Randy."  He was in a three-rider break with Andrew Chocha (US Military) and Wylie Bagley (S3).  By then I'd recovered from my earlier efforts and it was easy to latch onto the break.  Now that I was lapped by a breakaway, I was not allowed to lead the break, but at least I was getting a little better workout at a much faster pace. A little while later I heard Wylie tell the other guys, "I won't sprint," which is criterium rider language for, "Please don't attack and drop me because I'm toast and just hoping to hang on to the finish."  So basically there were just Jered and Andrew doing any work with Wylie and me sitting on.  It was actually a blast and I was really wishing I could have taken a few pulls.  We caught a couple of other dropped riders who also tagged on, but never did lap the remnant of the main field, which would have been nice because that would have un-lapped me.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun even though my placing totally sucked.  The ride back home was pretty long but generally a lot easier because it was clear and dry.  I arrived back home around 10:30, and since the Chief Referee had emailed me the results en-route, and I'd had a cup of coffee, I sat down at the computer around 11:00 and was up till after midnight getting the results posted and uploaded to USA Cycling.

The next morning, Monday, I got in a quick ride on the levee and by early evening was en route to another parade on St. Charles Avenue.  By the time I got home from that one I was badly in need of sleep, especially since Tuesday was Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras morning I got in a quick little ride on the levee and then went over to Audubon Park to see the start of the Royal Run, a little-known kick-off event for the King and Queen of Mardi Gras.  By 9 am or so I was off to St. Charles Avenue with friends to watch Rex near 2nd Street.  A little while after Rex ended we headed off on foot for our annual trek down to the French Quarter, stopping at Ralph & Kacoo's for something to eat before spending an hour or so wandering up and down Bourbon and Royal with the camera. 

It seemed fairly restrained this year, but of course it was still early afternoon. Although Kenny, Candy, Mignon and Mark were all in the vicinity, we never managed to meet up.  Even text messages are a little sketchy on Mardi Gras day since there are probably a few thousand extra people in the area, most of whom are trying to do things like send photos.  Around the time we were heading back uptown I finally noticed an email from Kenny saying that they were *still* outside of Pat O's.  I must have walked right past them at least once!  Anyway, it was a long walk back to Napoleon Avenue where we happily took the streetcar the rest of the way home.