Hammerdal and a 5-day Weekend

Almost dark and off the back but not feeling too bad about it Friday night (Boedi's photo)

I knew it was going to be a complicated week. A nephew and his family were scheduled to arrive at the house on July 4th. My brother and sister-in-law were coming a day or two later. Another niece and her family would also be arriving for the weekend. So lots of family that included small children pretty much guaranteed trips to the zoo, aquarium, and insectarium, plus big get-togethers for meals.

None of them had checked with me beforehand about my bike racing plans which were now, of course, very much up in the air. Dustin was putting on the Hammerdal Criterium series starting Friday night which included criteriums on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I'd been feeling increasingly desperate to inject more intensity into what masquerades as my "training program." After missing a lot of weekend riding due to officiating responsibilities I was starting to feel pretty badly out of shape, both mentally and physically, and I knew the only thing that could start to pull me out of that hole would be some actual races that didn't involve jumping on the bike minutes before the start after having been officiating the earlier races. So first, I decided to take Thursday and Friday off from work. I figured I could probably slip over to Hammond, just about an hour's drive away, on Friday night without being too unsociable. Saturday, however, was another question altogether so I put that race tentatively off the table unless the gods smiled on me, which they didn't. Sunday morning everyone was scheduled to be heading back to Orlando or Austin or Jackson, so I figured I could make those races.

Thursday turned out to be a marathon that started with a walk down to the start of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line. After the long ride down to Canal Street, we hit the Audubon Insectarium, followed by the Aquarium, followed by lunch, and then the streetcar ride back home. I was tired by the end of that day.

Lunch at Satsuma on Maple St.

Friday was busy as well, but since I had to bring a bunch of the LAMBRA equipment to the Friday night race, I had to be on the road around mid-late afternoon. That didn't turn out to be much of a problem, so I loaded up the car and got to Zemurray Park in plenty of time to unload and help get the finish line set up. The oddly named race (Hammerdal is a town in Sweden from which one of the city's founders, Peter of Hammerdal, came from) was held at a nice local park with a winding 1 km road around a little lagoon. As such, it wasn't really quite a criterium since there wasn't anything resembling a corner on the whole thing, but the sweeping curves around the lagoon proved to be sufficient to cause a few crashes anyway. Friday's events included just a Cat. 4/5 race and a Cat. 1/2/3/4 race, with a fixed-gear race in-between. With the Cat. 1/2/3/4 race not starting until after 7:45 pm, it was going to be dark by the time the 1-hour race was over. For the really old guys with cloudy eyes like me, that just added another layer of concern on top of the multiple cash primes that would make it hard to hang onto the back.

Jim was bloody mess after his crash, but showed up and raced Saturday and Sunday, placing 5th and 6th, anyway.

Despite getting a reasonable amount of time to warm up, this race didn't go well for me, but I knew teammates Jim Booth and Chris Brown would probably do fine. When they announced a Prime on the first lap, I knew I was in trouble. As expected, the race started out like it had been shot out of a cannon, with the first lap averaging 28 mph despite having started from a standing start. It didn't slow down much after that, either, with attacks and primes coming one after the other. Halfway through the second lap I was already coming off the back, and I wasn't alone. I got together with Butch, who not coincidentally is my age, picking up one or two others over the next few laps. We were about 20 minutes into the 60 minute race when we heard the lead motor coming up behind us. Fortunately the officials hadn't pulled us, so we jumped onto the back of the pack when it came by. That lasted seven or eight laps until there was a big long surge and we were popped off the back yet again. By then it was pretty dark, so it was probably just as well. Meanwhile, a break had gotten off the front. When they came around and lapped me (again) I jumped onto the back for a few wonderfully smooth and fast laps while they pulled me back up to the pack that they then lapped themselves. I hung with the pack for a little while, but was soon off the back again, getting pulled in time to help the officials with the lap cards and bell. Somewhat disappointing, but not all that unexpected. Two laps before the finish we heard that there had been a crash on the back side of the course. A couple of minutes after the finish Jim Booth came riding up looking like he had been dragged through a cheese grater. It looked worse than it was, but it was visually impressive nonetheless. He's gotten caught on the outside of one of those fast sweeping curves and ran out of asphalt when the rider ahead drifted wide. Meanwhile, Chris placed 7th, which was impressive since there was a two or three-man break off the front.

The obligatory snoball stop

Saturday was Zoo day, followed by lunch at New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood, and then snoballs at Panola, and then a lot more food with everyone over at the house where I perhaps drank a little too much wine for someone who was planning on getting up at 5:30 am to race. Sunday's races started at 8 am with the Masters race and ended with the Cat. 1/2/3 race at 10:30. I was planning to leave around 5:45 am. James, my nephew, was planning to head out with his family for Austin around 5:30. Things were going on schedule until he discovered his car wouldn't start. So we jumped it from mine in the dark and got him on the road, although I was giving him only about a 20% chance of getting back to Texas without having to buy a new battery (he did indeed have to get a new battery en route).

These races went somewhat better, which is to say I didn't get dropped. Since that was basically my main goal, I was pretty satisfied with it. The Masters race was considerably slower than the Friday night race had been, although I was very much in survival mode near the back for most of it, finishing mid-pack well behind a small breakaway. The 1/2/3 race was actually a lot of fun even if my game plan was basically to follow wheels at the back. There were a lot of attacks, but fortunately for me there was also some omnium points team strategies playing out that resulted in periodic lulls. Of course a few riders got off the front, but the resulting team considerations kept the pace in the pack kind of under control. Right after seeing the 2-to-go lap card, the motor passed us and the pack was lapped by the leader, which meant that we were unexpectedly on our finish lap. I guess only about a third of the riders realized that because there wasn't really much of a sprint. Still, I felt good about how I was feeling after riding two races that morning, so I'm logging it as a successful weekend even if it isn't reflected in my placings. After my race I rushed to the car, put the bike on the roof, and rushed back to collect up the camera, tripod, a ton of traffic cones, the race clock, and anything else that would be needed for the upcoming Wednesday races and Team Time Trial. I was rushing because I needed to get to Audubon Zoo for a Tulane event at 2 pm. Somehow I made it, although I have to admit I was pretty wasted by then. At least there was a lot of food and wine and snoballs!