Rocky Mount

The Rocky Mount Stage Race up in Shreveport, LA, has always been a fun race despite the 5-hour drive from New Orleans. I went up last weekend with Ben Spain and Quentin Boose, trading the New Orleans rain for the Shreveport heat. We made pretty good time on the drive and even though we'd left after work, we arrived around 10:30 or so at the Bossier City Quality Inn that was apparently running rather short on quality. Our non-smoking room came equipped with an ash tray and matches, and there was so much smoke in the hallway you had to hold your breath. The room itself was OK, so we just hit the sack without raising a fuss.

Antique NOBC Skinsuit!

This year the first stage was a 3-mile TT that turned out to be 2.6 miles of tailwind. After hunting around for the actual parking/registration location, which was 2.6 miles away from the half-hour delayed start, I rode down to the starting line and milled around without getting much of a warm-up because there just didn't seem to be any place good to do that. I was already having motivational problems with the TT anyway. I'd left my contacts at the hotel, so was wearing my prescription Oakleys that I don't really like. I had to remove the visor on my TT helmet, and even then the glasses were being pushed into my nose and head by the tight-fitting helmet, so I wasn't really a very happy camper to begin with. Predictably, my TT sucked pretty badly. I can't say that I put much into it, but I was planning to just make a push for the final mile. Well, the course was so short that I was quite surprised when I looked up and saw the finish about 300 meters away. Oh well!

Criterium sprint for 2nd place

Interestingly, the second stage was the criterium, which was held in the older part of downtown Shreveport on a very short course. There was a nice little climb up to the finish, however, and riding around the course during warmup I knew I was going to like it. On the downside, the turnout for the 55+ race was kind of pitiful. Also, three of the six people in the race were essentially teammates and one of the others was Tim Perry who had won the TT. That resulted in (a) me doing a lot of work and (b) Tim Perry, who had already won the Arkansas, Florida, and Louisiana TT championships, along with a bronze at nationals, attacking and nearly lapping the field by himself. I tried to go with him when he attacked, and managed to catch his wheel for a while. Then he looked back, saw me, and accelerated. I was already on the rivet, so of course I blew  up.  On the plus side, the Criterium course suited me well and I won a $50 prime, the hot spot bonus, and the sprint for 2nd place. I was still in 4th place on GC, but at least that cut the 15 second gap to 3rd down by a few seconds.

Road Race finish

The Road Race was three laps on a fairly hilly course. For this one they merged us with the Women's field, which was actually kind of nice. I was feeling OK, but knew the handwriting was on the wall as to what Tim would do. The women were riding well and as soon as we started the second lap, on a big long downhill, Louise Smyth attacked the downhill. Of course the guys didn't respond, and I think the women had already been expecting that and weren't in the least bit interested in chasing for forty miles, so Louise kind of gradually rolled off into the distance as the rest of the field rode paceline like it was a training ride. The only remaining question was when and where Tim would attack us, and really the question wasn't where, so much as on which of the two remaining laps.  There was one pretty decent hill maybe halfway around the course and it was the obvious place for him to go, which he did on the second lap. He attacked when I was on the front and although I made a token effort to chase, I never caught the slightest bit of his draft. Grant Dona, who was in 2nd place on GC made a huge effort and was out there for a while, but I pretty much knew he wouldn't catch Tim.  He was back with the group after a mile of chasing. The last lap was pretty calm, so it just came down to the last long  hill about a mile from the finish and the drag race from there to the finish line. Mary Jimenez attacked first, and rather early, so I waited quite a bit before sprinting to the line for another 2nd place. That and the criterium bonuses got me to within just three seconds of 3rd place and eight seconds of 2nd place, so I was at least happy with that. If I'd gone just ten seconds faster in the time trial, I would have had 2nd place in the bag. Damned time trials!