Last weekend was the last event of the 2016 LAMBRA road racing season. The Team Time Trial and Criterium had been re-scheduled because of the disastrous flooding in August. In fact, it was amazing that the folks down in Thibodaux and Houma were actually able to pull off the re-scheduled race since I'm some of them were still in the process of repairing their homes. On the plus side, the weather for the entire weekend was beautiful thanks to the season's first cool front. Morning temperatures were in the upper 60s with mid-day highs I guess in the low 80s.
The week before the event I started contacting people about trying to get a TTT team together. My first attempt was an email to what I considered the most likely group. From that I got a quick positive reply from Steve, with whom I've done this particular TTT a number of times. After that was just silence. Eventually, one person said he was already committed to another team and another was out that weekend with baby duty. I then expanded the search to the whole NOBC email list but still didn't get a solid bite except for David, whose arm Steve had twisted. He was not exactly enthusiastic, but still willing to fill out a 4-man squad if needed. By Friday night the situation had still not improved, so Steve and I were considering just riding it as a 2-man for the exercise. I had to make the trip anyway since I had the USAC medals and the LAMBRA radios. |
| Early in the race as Adrian was closing the gap. |
Sunday's race started early, so I was out the door in the dark in order to get to the course around the time of the first race at 7 am. Well, although the local club had done a fantastic job with the race and had lots of course marshals, police, jambalaya, drinks, awards, etc., turnout was again pretty dismal. The Women's and Junior's races had zero entries.
The Masters race had four, including me. I was not feeling too good for this one. My left wrist and hand were still kind of hurt from the crash, so I didn't really know how they would hold up to the very technical 8-corner criterium. As usual, Kevin Landry attacked at the first opportunity. Peter responded and I went with him, but Adrian was I guess caught a little off-guard and got gapped off a bit. Our chase seemed more for show than effect, however, and within a lap or so Adrian was back with us. The rest of the race was essentially a nice smooth 3-man time trial at decidedly sub-maximal effort levels. I was a little surprised that Kevin didn't lap us, but I think he knew where we were and since he was planning on doing the Cat. 1/2/3 race later he had no reason to go any harder than necessary. By the time we were halfway through my left hand was going numb and I was glad we weren't going fast enough to require a lot of braking. The road were old city roads, so every once in a while I'd hit a bump on a right turn and really feel it in my left hand. Going into the last lap Adrian was on the front and so I figured I'd stay on his wheel in case Peter attacked. Coming into the last two turns I eased just a bit in order to give Adrian a gap for the three-block finish straight. He was able to hold out all the way to the line. My own attempt at a sprint was kind of short-lived and Peter came around me at the end easily. I think I still went home with $70 which more than covered entry fee and gas for both days, so that was nice. I probably should have entered the Cat. 1/2/3 race since there were only six entries and prizes went seven deep, but I wasn't willing to put myself, or my hand, through an hour of corners.
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