The MSGP

The Mississippi Gran Prix is a regionally significant stage race held in Brookhaven, Mississippi.  Now in its 11th year, it is really the offspring of the Natchez Classic stage race that had been held for about the same number of years in nearby Natchez.  The godfather of the race is Frank Moak, commander and chief of the Herring Gas team. This year's race featured a new road race course and nearly flawless race results.

So I rushed around late Friday afternoon in order to get myself and some of the LAMBRA race officiating equipment up to Brookhaven in time for the Cat. 1/2/3 criterium (Video!) that evening.  By the time I got through the New Orleans rush-hour traffic I was running a little late and as I sat waiting at the train crossing in Brookhaven I got a text from the Chief Referee, Ricky, asking me what my ETA would be.  The crit is fun to watch and usually quite animated since everyone is fresh and there's a pretty hefty stage prizelist in addition to the overall GC prizelist. Only the Cat. 1/2/3s have the Friday night criterium.  For the rest of us, the race starts on Saturday with the road race.  Local rider Jacob Schoen and new NOBC rider Mat Street were staying with me at the local Day's Inn which, despite being rated better than a couple of the neighboring hotels, was definitely nothing to write home about.  The Herring team, however, was staying right on the Criterium course at a new and freshly remodeled luxury bed and breakfast place.

The Master's field was a little on the small side with about 30 riders and the road course looked to be manageable with mostly low rolling stuff punctuated by about five miles of more significant hills mid-way around the long 20-something mile loop.  Midsouth had all of their riders on hand for this one.  The NOBC had Mark McMurry, Steve J., Rolan J., and John Egan.  In the field were strong riders like Donald Davis, Hunter East, Glenn Richard and others from area teams.  The road race started out at a pretty moderate pace for the first of the two laps required to make our 54 mile race, but somewhere along the line a group of three rolled off the front.  At the time I was too far back in the pack to do much about that, and since three teams were represented in it there was barely any response at the front.  I looked up the road and thought to myself, "Really?  None of these other guys are going to react to a break with Hunter East, Glenn Richard, and Jason Miller??"  Sometimes I just can't figure out what riders are thinking.  Anyway, it was a couple of miles before I worked my way up to the front and decided to see if I could get anything going amidst the blocking.  It was, however, too little, too late and I eventually gave up, rather frustrated at both my ineffective fitness level and the group's apparent willingness to settle for racing for fourth place.  Since there were still a few strong riders in the pack, however, I figured there would be some fireworks when we hit the hilly section on the second lap, so I set my sights on that.  Well, wouldn't you know it?  As we flew down the first big downhill before the first big climb I nailed some rock or something with my front wheel and a moment later heard the dreaded pssssst, psssst, psssst. Worst possible time to flat.  Well, I got a pretty fast wheel change, but I figured my race was essentially over.  (I would later discover a completely loose spoke and healthy wobble in my rear wheel.)  After a little while I could see the group follow car about a minute up the road and was surprised that I seemed to be actually gaining ground on it.  I soon caught VJ and Eddie and thought that if we worked together right away before there was an attack we might catch and salvage pack time.  Unfortunately they were both pretty cooked and when I wiggled my elbow at the top of one of the climbs nobody was there.  I figured it was as good a day for a time trial as any and just motored on, still surprised that the group up ahead wasn't pulling away.  Little did I know at the time that there had been an attack shortly after I'd flatted that had split the pack and the group I was chasing was already a good two minutes behind the other group, which itself was two minutes behind the break, unless you counted Hunter who would finish another minute and a half ahead of the two other riders who had been in the original break. I was essentially seven minutes back, and it's probably a good thing I didn't know it at the time. Anyway, six or seven kilometers before the finish I looked back and saw the entire Cat. 3/4 field that had started out with 60 riders closing in on me.  When the lead motor came by I motioned to him and let him know that the Masters group was right up the road and that they would probably all come together right at the finish (they did, much to the consternation of the officials).  I eased up as the Cat. 3/4s passed and sat a few bikelengths off the back of them for the last few miles, picking up Lenny who had flatted out of the Masters group too.  I ended up only about 20 seconds behind that second Masters group, but since there had been ten riders ahead of them and they numbered nine or ten themselves, I was already out of GC contention, way, way down in 21st place. There had been a fair amount of carnage in the other races.  Jacob had crashed and done in his mom's Zip 404 in the Cat. 4/5 race and NOBC rider Chris M. had crashed and DNF'd in that race as well. One of the women had gone to the hospital with a broken arm or wrist and a number of others had crashed as well. 

The evening time trial was a short 2.8 mile affair on a rolling course with a significant tailwind of which I apparently totally failed to take advantage. Although I'd intentionally started out well below maximum, I thought I was going pretty hard en route to my time of 6:39.  That turned out to be a damned slow time that ranked only 21st in the Masters and the less I say about that the better.  The fastest time in our field was Ed Novak's 5:44, practically a minute faster in only 2.8 miles. That was pretty demoralizing even though the TT was pretty pointless for me from the outset since my GC hopes had already gone down the tubes.  I decided there and then that I'd race the next morning's circuit race more seriously and if I blew up at then end, well, so be it.

Sunday morning was windy and a little overcast as we lined up for the 4-lap, 26 mile circuit race.  The course (http://app.strava.com/rides/6791898) featured one big climb up to the finish, one or two much smaller ones, and was otherwise pretty flat.  Considering that the Midsouth guys, and likely Hunter East who was leading, would probably be riding defensively, the chances of a break getting off the front on this course seemed pretty low.  If one did manage to go, however, I was determined to be in it.  Other than the big climb at the finish, which we would be doing only three times, the only other place likely to allow for a breakaway was a rather brief section of really bad asphalt where there was a really strong crosswind.  The first lap started really fast as we flew down the longest descent on the course going from zero to 42 mph in about a minute, but with a hot spot bonus in store at the end of the second lap I wasn't too surprised that things weren't very aggressive.  We went up the big climb at the end of lap one without a big attack.  Then, on the crosswind section of that lap someone at the front really put the hammer down and strung things out pretty badly.  Mark, who was in full-on sprinter mode for this race, nearly got shelled along there as he took a little ride in the dirt.  I guess a few were dropped along that stretch, but then it eased up as riders started thinking about the hot spot.  For me, the hot spot presented only the danger of getting dropped since I was so far down on GC anyway, so I was just trying to maintain a decent position near the front of the group.  Naturally there was a sprint to the top that opened up some gaps, and the leaders kept the pressure on coming over the top and into the long downhill on the other side.  The rest of us had to really hammer down the hill at about 37 mph in order to close the gap, but once we did things slowed down again. With one lap to go we climbed the big hill relatively slowly and it was looking like it was going to come down to a pack sprint.  With a mile or so to go riders started crowding the front of the pack and maintaining a good position required a lot of focus. I noticed Mark kind of stuck in the middle when things kind of opened up along the right side, so I tapped him on the hip and when I saw him start to move over onto my wheel I went all the way up to the front of the group without looking back again.  I later found out that someone had pushed him out of position.  Fortunately, being an experienced sprinter, he found his way toward the front anyway.  For some reason the front of the group slacked off just before the 200M mark, but then the sprint up the hill started in earnest and immediately a big gap opened between the front six and rest of us.  I cursed myself for hesitating so long and hammered up the hill finishing 7th with Steve and Rolan right behind me.  Mark had exploded up the hill and taken 3rd, ending up 7th on GC.  Anyway, I was reasonably satisfied with my finish, considering the circumstances.  I should note that I'm including as a "circumstance" the fact that I suck at time trials.  Anyway, results are on the LAMBRA website.  I'd put up some photos, but my camera spend the weekend sitting on my dresser plugged into the charger all weekend.  At least I didn't leave my Shimano Di2 battery plugged in at my hotel room causing me to miss the road race like one rider did.