Racing Rapides Report

Finish climb - the white flag is the 200-Meter mark.

I've always liked the Racing Rapides race.  It's usually well organized, has good challenging courses, and doesn't require a cross-country road trip.  This year I rode up with Keith A., leaving on Friday evening after work. This year's race featured new road and time trial courses, and although getting there required a 40 minute drive from Alexandria, it was well worth it.  Our masters road race was a single 63-mile loop with around 2,000 feet of climbing.

The road race started out at a pretty easy pace and within ten miles I knew we'd eventually get caught by the much larger Cat. 4 race that was starting a mere 5 minutes behind us.  I'd already decided to use this race to get in some good training and in the first half of the race found myself off the front in a small break of four or five riders.  It seemed that a lot of riders were being cautious, perhaps in anticipation of the somewhat more hilly final fifteen miles.  Anyway, that break didn't last too long, but a few miles later Mitch rolled off the front.  Since we were both registered in the 55+ race, which was combined with the 40+ race, I thought they might let us go, so I bridged up to him and we started working together pretty well.  I guess we were out there for fifteen miles or so.  I don't think we ever got more than 1:30 on the group, but for a while I was thinking we might actually get away with it.  I told Mitch that if we could just keep our average in the 23-24 mph range, we would probably be able to build up enough of a cushion to make it to the finish line.  Since neither of us were likely to be posting any spectacular time trial times that afternoon, it would be great if we could pick up 30 seconds or so on the rest of the field.  Unfortunately, Mitch started to struggle on the climbs.  At one point I went up a long climb at what I thought was a nice steady speed, only to look back and see Mitch way, way behind me.  I sat up and soft-pedaled, but soon the lead moto for the Cat. 4s came up to warn me that they were about to overtake us. The masters field was right behind them, so that was that.  There was one particularly long climb about eight miles from the finish, and although I was fully expecting an attack there, all those miles in the wind had taken a bit of a toll on my legs and I couldn't quite stick with the lead group of five when the attack came.  Halfway up the hill, as the gap was starting to open, I looked over at Mark and yelled, "Go!"  I knew this break was not going to come back.  Mark made it up to the break, but a mile later I saw him coming back.  He'd gotten gapped off on the next climb.  We ended up in the relatively small second group, coming up to the base of the final climb to the finish a good two minutes behind the break.  For some reason someone jumped at the bottom of the climb, which was probably 800 meters before the finish, so we all had to go.  Halfway up I saw Mark suddenly stop pedaling and though he'd dropped his chain.  As it turned out he'd actually broken it and ended up walking across the finish line four minutes later.  I ended up finishing the road race first in the 55+ age group, but was still a little disappointed about missing that break.

We hung around the cars for a few hours, waiting for the 3 pm start of the 3-mile time trial which started at the finish line and went 3 miles in the opposite direction. That meant that it started out with a long fast downhill, followed by a long uphill and then another pretty good climb before the finish.  That kind of time trial is actually relatively good for me since it tends to require a little more than simple raw speed, which in my case is usually in short supply.  I ended up doing a 7:30 which, despite being a full minute slower than some of the day's fastest times, still landed me only two seconds out of first place on GC in the geriatric category.  That evening a few of us got together for dinner at a Japanese steak house, which was pretty good.

The Sunday morning criterium is on one of my favorite courses.  It's one of those nice inner-city courses with lots of turns, a few potholes and manhole covers, and a little bit of faux-pavé.  As expected, the race was a bit defensive, but once again Mitch took an early flyer off the front.  Since he was in the 55+ race with me, most of the 40+ riders weren't too interested in chasing him down, so after a lap I went to the front and started closing the gap.  My teammate Keith then came through to close the deal.  There was a hot spot time bonus for the 55+ riders at the half-way point and I needed to go for it in order to have any chance of moving up on GC.  Mark had told me earlier that he'd give me a leadout.  Halfway through the bell lap for the hot spot Mitch came up and took a long fast pull with me on his wheel, then Mark picked me up and pulled me nearly all the way to the finish line, so I got the bonus pretty easily thanks to good teamwork. 

With maybe five laps to go one of the 40+ riders attacked and got away solo.  I guess he was fairly far down on GC so the lead riders didn't really go after him.  Even so, I was surprised that the others would just let him ride away like that. He ended up staying away all the way to the finish.  On the last lap Keith went to the front to keep things fast and the sprint for second was fairly uneventful as I followed wheels most of the way to the finish.  I guess I was around 6th or so overall, but since I was the first 55+ rider that moved me into 1st on GC.  I was really nice to have a couple of teammates looking out for me in the criterium!  Overall, the club had some decent results with ten riders scattered across the various classes and categories.