Transitioning - Last Local Road Race Weekend

Thursday morning on the lake heading back east from the casino

It looked pretty good on paper. The LAMBRA Criterium Championship in Baton Rouge on Saturday, followed by the LAMBRA Age-Graded Road Championship (plus a few other non-championship age groups) on Sunday in St. Francisville. As the weekend approached, however, the weather forecast was looking bad - 80% chance of rain both days. I figured I'd be racing in the rain. On Wednesday or Thursday the criterium promoter, Dustin, called to talk about cancelling the criterium. There were two corners on the course around the state capitol building that were known to be slick - really slick - when wet. Instead, we decided to use a shortened course that avoided those corners. That took the lap distance down to around six-tenths of a mile and left us with a relatively non-technical criterium, but at this late date in the season re-scheduling was not really a viable option. So when Danielle and I left for Baton Rouge early Saturday morning I was happy to find a relatively clear morning sky. The Masters and Women were two of the first three races on the schedule and so hope for a dry criterium was building. As we neared Baton Rouge the sky became more overcast but was still looking OK. We set up the big NOBC tent, planted the flag, and I pinned on my number for the Master's race.

Rain starting to fall in the Women's race

The 40+/55+ race had a smallish field of 13 or so. No doubt many riders had written the race off because of the weather forecast. We were only a few laps into the race when the field split with a break of five riders up the road. Mark was in there, and I felt he had a good chance for the win on this course, so I didn't take the brief opportunity I had to make the bridge up to them.

With three laps to go I could see the break closing in on us from behind, but then there was a surge and on the next lap they gave us the bell. One rider attacked with me right on his wheel, but  halfway through the lap he hesitated and two riders started coming around on the left. I latched onto the second wheel just moments before the sprint started and it was looking pretty good until I inexplicably drifted a little wide on the curve just before the finish line and lost just enough momentum that I couldn't get past one of them in time. That placed me 7th overall, 2nd in the 55+. Mark attacked the break early on the last lap and almost made it to the line, taking 2nd overall and 1st in the 55+.

Final laps in the deluge

The Juniors raced next, and then as the Women started to warm up the rain started to come down. At first it was fairly light, but unfortunately our alternate course featured the exact same slick old concrete in turn #1 that had caused us to re-route the race in the first place. When one of the women went down there during warmup I knew it wasn't going to be good and warned Danielle to be extra careful there. The women's race started and by about the second lap they were all riding alone, which was probably a good thing. I went over to turn 1 to take some photos and realized that there was some nice concrete on the outside of the turn, so I yelled at our riders to stay wide on turn 1, which I guess helped. With three laps to go the sky just opened up and a serious thunderstorm started, so they shortened the race a bit and got them all safely finished - Danielle finished 3rd. Moments later the rain and wind got even worse. The tent next to us actually broke and the expensive LAMBRA finish line camera was sent crashing to the concrete. A little later they decided to cancel the remaining races as there was no sign the weather would improve any time soon. The LAMBRA camera luckily survived but the big expensive tripod was seriously damaged, the printer got soaked with rain, and the ethernet cable to the camera got broken. We waited a while for the rain to ease up a bit and threw all the wet stuff into the car and headed back to New Orleans. Oh well......

So by Sunday the weather was looking a whole lot better. I picked up Brian B and we made the two-hour drive up to St. Francisville. Turnout for the age-graded road races was pretty good. Brian would be riding the 40+ race and I'd be in the 55+/60+ race. Our little 44 mile race had, somewhat surprisingly, 17 riders, I think. Mark had an outside chance of moving into the lead in the 55+ LCCS points standings, but it would only be possible if Stan somehow placed well below him in the race, which was pretty unlikely. In fact, Stan was well aware of the situation and as far as I could tell was not going to be giving Mark any rope. The race started out fast. There was a little bridge a mile or so from the start that had some of those lengthwise seams on it. The officials warned us about them at the start. Well, we're flying down the downhill toward that bridge at 35 mph with me about 4th or 5th wheel when one of the guys ahead of me rides straight into the crack, wobbles enough that I'm ready for a big crash, then luckily pops out. We cross the bridge and then I hear a crash behind me. I didn't need to look to know what had happened. That one resulted in a concussion and broken collarbone.

There wasn't any time to worry about the crash, however, because Mark was attacking pretty much every hill on the first of the two laps. That made for a pretty punchy first lap with an average speed of around 24 mph that included a number of really fast sections. Most of the field survived, but by the time we started the second lap it was clear that the surges had done some damage. I guess we were five miles or so into the second lap when Butch pushed it a bit going up one of the hills with me on his wheel. It wasn't an attack, really, and as we came over the top he pulled over and gave me the elbow. I didn't think there was any reason to pull through, assuming that the whole group was on my wheel, so I just followed his wheel. Then he looked back, looked over at me and said, "Randy, they're lettin' us go." I glanced back to find an inexplicably large gap and as I pulled through I said to Butch, "Why are they doing that?" Anyway, I figured this might put some pressure on the riders who had been sitting in while Mark had been attacking so the two of us started rotating at a moderate speed on the assumption we'd be pulled back within a mile or so. Well, a few miles later the gap was still holding steady and I was starting to wonder what was going on back there. As it turns out, Mike Lew had been attacking the field repeatedly. Finally, he broke free and a little while later I hear a wheel coming up from behind pretty fast. It was just Mike, and the rest of the field was still a good thirty seconds back. Butch and I had been about ready to pack it in, but when Mike rolled up going three mph faster he said, "Come on, boys!" so we latched on. Well, that was about the last we saw of the field. I learned later that Mark had cramped up pretty badly and dropped off the back. Meanwhile, the three of us were just doing this nice team time trial. Now, had I been feeling a little more aggressive I should have started attacking the hills over the final seven miles, but frankly I was having a hard time getting motivated about that. Unless we were caught, which was looking more and more unlikely, Mike would win the 40+ race and Butch and I would be sprinting it out for 1st and 2nd in the 60+ race. With three miles to go Butch started taking easier and easier pulls, and then, after Mike had taken his pull and swung off, Butch didn't come through. Mike looked over for a moment and then just went back to the front and pulled the last three miles of the race with Butch on his wheel and me on Butch's. When Butch jumped at the 200 meter mark I did too but then I went to shift to a bigger gear and it dropped all the way down to the 11.  We weren't going nearly fast enough for an 11, but it was too late to do anything about it. My cadence dropped momentarily to about 70 and I stood on the pedals trying to get them going again, but the finish was coming up fast and I never got past Butch's handlebars before the line. A little later Brian sprinted out of the lead break in the 40+ race to take a well-deserved 3rd as Ed Novak eeked out the win amidst loud animal noises by about a thousanth of a second.