Opportunities - LAMBRA Crit and Road Champs

Road Race finish area in Clinton MS (not mine)

There was a time that seems not so long ago, but actually is, when I would have seen the announcement of a first-lap criterium Prime as an opportunity to launch a breakaway. When it was announced on the starting line of Saturday's LAMBRA 40+ Criterium Championship, all it represented to me was an opportunity to get dropped on the first lap. I started fairly cleanly, around mid-pack, on the very bumpy course in downtown Jackson, Mississippi.

The masters field wasn't too big, but there was quite a bit of horsepower in attendance, so I was already expecting an early break. You'd think that by now I'd know enough under such circumstances to stay near the front, and perhaps I actually do, but apparently my physiology has different ideas about sprinting around the entire first lap of a criterium course. So by the time we came to the last corner, which featured a big hole right across where the best line would be, I was near the back. We came flying around the turn with riders taking all kinds of different lines trying to avoid the bumps when Peter, who I think was just ahead of me, almost lost it on the outside. Of course that was like 200 meters before that first-lap prime, so a gap opened up right away that we were never really able to close. So basically we were off the back by the time we finished lap 2. Well, with the front of the race pushing the pace and attacking each other, we eventually accumulated a nice little group anyway as other riders were shelled from the front group. By the time we were half-way through the 40-minute race the front group was starting to break up.  Eventually we were lapped by the lead group, and then by Frank and Kevin who I stayed with until a couple of laps prior to the finish when my front tire exploded like a gunshot on the bumpy downhill. I'd pinched it on one of the many sharp edges and cracks and was immediately riding on the rim heading for a turn I couldn't possibly make and a rapidly approaching barricade. Somehow I got it stopped before running into the barricade, and luckily someone standing there offered me his front wheel so I could finish out the race. Oh well. At least I finished before being lapped by them a second time. Elliott, with whom I'd driven up the evening before, got 3rd in the 35-rider Cat. 4 race, his first since upgrading, so there was that. After the last race of the day we packed up and headed over to Clinton where the NOBC had a couple of rooms for Saturday night, and then drove all the way back to north Jackson for dinner at Bravo, which has practically become a tradition when in Jackson.

So we were up early on Sunday to help set up for the road races, just a few miles from the hotel. I had not ridden, or even seen, the course, but knew there was supposed to be a significant hill at around the 10 mile mark on the 16 mile loop. The Masters race started out calmly enough, as in the phrase "calm before the storm." There was a half-hearted attack the first time up the hill that pretty much everyone survived, but I was fully expecting fireworks on the second of the three laps. We were about four miles from the second lap hill when a couple of the Velovit riders went to the front and started stringing the group out. I was about 4th wheel at the time and by then could clearly read the writing on the wall. Obviously a plan was afoot and a big attack was going to be launched on the hill. We rounded the right-hand corner about half a mile before the climb and Andrew Crater from South Carolina pushed himself in front of me. He could see what was about to happen too.

Getting dropped on the hill

The hill represented the best opportunity on the course to establish a break; also the best opportunity to get dropped. Leading up to the start of the climb the pace picked up even more and I was already in the red zone halfway up when things came apart. Frank and Woody had attacked hard and over the top Andrew and Frank already had a gap. That had not been the plan, though, and Frank wasn't going to help Andrew with the rest of his team, including designated sprinter Woody, still chasing. That was pretty much the last I saw of the front half of the race, but what happened was that the group came back together, and then there were more attacks on the last lap that gapped off Frank I think a couple others. Woody was totally gassed and starting to come off the back a couple of miles before the finish but for some reason the lead group started looking at each other and that lull allowed Woody to rejoin them with only a mile to go. So basically they had a chance to gap off the best sprinter and the blew it, with the predictable result that Woody won. Andrew was royally pissed off and apparently argued with the officials about a car or something that the other guys didn't think had anything to do with the finish. Guess there's more to that story. Meanwhile, back in the second group, we eventually accumulated a nice little paceline of six or so with everyone taking pulls. Naturally there was still a sprint for the finish anyway. I was on Troy's wheel when he basically led it out, and for a little while I thought he was going to take me all the way to the finish. I really should have stood up and sprinted sooner, though, because in the last 50 meters Mike Corcoran came around us, and then right on the line David Blumenthal slipped past me. So it was another bronze medal for being the first 55+ dropped rider.

The guys up in Jackson put on a great race weekend with significant prizes, so I think everyone had a great time. Andrew Do took 2nd in the Cat. 4 race with Elliott 8th, so that was nice. The only bad things about the venues were the road surface in the criterium and the traffic in the road race finish area. I don't know where all those cars were going or coming from, and at least none of them were going fast, but it really did cause some problems with a couple of the finishes. The other problem was the loud music across the street from the officials and finish line that made it almost impossible for the officials to hear the communications from the follow cars and race crew. It was loud enough that it was even hard for them to communicate between each other. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and other than a crash in the Cat. 4 finish that sent one rider to the hospital with a broken bone, everything went quite well. More photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/prmZf98RLfHyzbLe9.