Better Late than Never

Last weekend was the annual Racing Rapides stage race up in Alexandria, Louisiana.  I have always liked this race.  For one thing, it's relatively close, which around here means just a 3-hour drive.  For another, the road race course is always interesting without being too brutal and the criterium course through the old downtown area is excellent.  This year the race coincided with the last weekend of Jazzfest, and I ended up driving up alone after work on Friday.  Fortunately a couple of other teammates were also going and we would at least be sharing a hotel room.

CAT. 123 FIELD, TURN 1

One thing that has set this race apart for the last couple of years is the road race.  It is held over a single lap (for most classes) of a 64 mile loop with enough hills to keep things interesting.  I was riding as a 55+ in the combined 40+/55+ race which should have had a much bigger turnout than the 16-rider field that lined up that morning.  Although it was the first week of May, a cold front had dropped the morning temperature down to 41F, but since it was supposed to warm up into the 70s, we were mostly freezing our asses off for the start.  Looking around at the start line I could see 5 riders from the Acadiana club so it was pretty clear what was going to happen.  Sure enough, they started the solo attacks right away. I had pretty much gotten my fill of that the weekend before in Mississippi and decided early on to stay near the front and keep the gaps under control. Back in the pack was my teammate Mark McMurry who I knew would do well if it came down to a pack sprint, assuming he didn't break a chain on the uphill finish like last year.

So I did a fair amount of work for the first half of the race but eventually needed to drop back and seek a little shelter.  Naturally another break went off the front at that point.  That gap got really big and I was thinking we might end up racing for third place when Donald Davis went to the front, put his big forearms down on the bars, and calmly towed me and the rest of the field for -- I kid you not -- ten miles, methodically reeling in the break with only occasional help by riders like Scott Gurganus who would come share the work for a minute or two.  After the catch was made another group of two went away but didn't get too far.  As the pack got close to them I rode across the gap, and for some reason the pack must have eased up.  So now I'm in an unintentional late 3-rider break with only about four miles to the finish.  What to do?  We were working together nicely but our speed in the mid to upper 20s was obviously very unlikely to keep us clear to the finish. With two or three miles to go we lost one rider on a hill, but by then the die had been cast.  Had the pack waited too long?  The last mile and a half before the finish was a long straight downhill followed by a steep 300m climb to the finish line.  We passed the 1 km to go sign and flew down the hill but the pack that had been lurking 20 seconds behind was already in hot pursuit. Just as we hit the finish climb I heard the swoosh, swoosh, swoosh of wheels coming past on the left.  It was Mark going for a (very) early sprint.  I stood up and went as hard as I could expecting a long string of riders behind him, but instead there was a clear gap.  I sprinted up the hill as Mark started to fade and Donald came flying past with a couple of riders on his wheel.  A few more riders appeared alongside me as we gutted out the final 100 meters somewhere adrift of 5th place.  I think I was around 7th overall and 2nd among the 55+ riders.  Although that late breakaway came up about 300 meters short, it had been a fun and interesting race. What I didn't realize until after the race was over was that there had been a bad 4-rider crash as the pack was flying down the downhill just before the finish.  David Hesser, who had been in our 3-man break earlier and was then caught by the pack went down hard, as did Tim Dorion. Chuck remembered having his front tire glance off of Tim's head. Tim got the worst of it by far, however.  From what I heard he had a significant concussion and his helmet or glasses tore into his forehead, covering him with blood. He also had some serious knee injury, apparently.  He left in an ambulance and I don't think he was out of surgery until after dinner that night.

The afternoon time trial that started at the RR finish line and went backwards on the course for 3 miles was hard, and perhaps I rode it a little too conservatively, but at least I finished without sore legs and dropped down only one place on GC.  That one place put me something like 20+ seconds out of 2nd and 1st, but on the plus side I had a sizable gap on 4th place.  There was only one thing to do for the criterium on Sunday.

Sunday morning was again chilly and I arrived at the criterium course early to set up the big blue NOBC tent that we never actually used since standing in the sun was preferable for most of the day.  As I'd expected, the 50 minute Masters race started out fast with a lot of attacks during the first 20 minutes.  When there was finally a lull I looked around to see that I was the only 55+ rider still in the front group which meant that there was a good chance I could move up to 1st on GC just by not getting dropped.  There was a hot spot at around 25 minutes and having survived that I settled back into the group.  The pace by then had mellowed a little bit so it was pretty easy to move around and take a pull now and then. Mark flatted, and then crashed trying to ride back to the pit on a flat front, but was back in the race on the next lap with only minor injuries. There were I guess six or seven laps to go when the pace eased and I figured I would put my head down and get the speed back up along the 5-block long finish stretch.  I immediately rode away from the rest of the field since they had little motivation to chase the only 55+ rider so close to the finish.  I really had nothing to lose at that point, so I just kept on going.  It was at least safer than sitting at the back of the group, and besides, I needed the exercise.  Along the way I lapped one or both of the other 55+ riders and finished about 30 seconds ahead of the field.  That was fun even though it was a gift.  In the pack sprint Mark came in 2nd to Donald, moving  him up to 3rd on GC (his time trials are improving!!).  So it was a fun weekend for me, although I wish there had been a larger field. The promoters did a great job this year, so perhaps it was just a date that had a lot of conflicts, coming around exam week for college students, jazzfest for the New Orleanians, etc.

This week it was back to the usual routine, although I had to miss the Wednesday training race in order to do some badly needed exterior window painting on the house.  Such is life.