Texas State Weekend

Gavin won the Cat. B tme trial, crit, and overall

Last weekend I drove over to San Marcos for the Texas State Ultra collegiate races. From the outset, I had a feeling I was driving away from the good weather and toward the bad weather. I was not mistaken. I was still nursing a sore jaw after having an implant screwed into my jawbone earlier in the week, so I figured I'd get in just a little bit of training and hopefully some more moderate riding. Gavin, Frank (Haoting), and I made the trip in one minivan, with the three women in the other, and Dustin and Joey from LSU going up in Dustin's car. The 8 or 9-hour drive went pretty smoothly and we arrived around 10:30 or so, I guess, which wasn't bad considering we had not left until around 2:00. The temperature was already down to 40 or so, and predicted to drop farther by morning. I went to sleep hoping we'd be able to get in the road races before the rain.

Riding back after taking photos on the hill

Naturally, when I looked out the window at 6 am the next morning it was raining, and although it was predicted to end around 8 am, when the races were scheduled to begin, by then there was no chance we'd be seeing any dry asphalt all weekend. This is at least the third time I've been to this race and the weather each time has been cold and wet. Anyway, although the rain was technically over, there was still a cold mist for the whole road race. Riders were piling on whatever warm clothing they could find, so actual team jerseys were kind of rare. Julia, who is on the Tulane team, raced all day in an LSU jacket. I had planned on starting behind the A men and then eventually dropping back to follow the B men, but I was still rushing spare wheels to the follow car when the A race started, so I lined up with Dustin behind the B race. I was wearing my heavy NOBC jacket, a warm long-sleeve base layer, a short-sleeve wind-front base layer, and a thin long-sleeve Nike base layer, along with full tights and shoe-covers. It was a bit of overkill, but then again I knew I wouldn't be actually racing and might very well end up riding by myself, so better safe than sorry. The road race started out fairly easy, but I immediately realized we weren't doing the loop that I thought we'd be doing. There had never been any course map available, and after the race I realized that we were doing the old loop, but in the opposite direction. Basically, I was totally lost most of the time. So we were probably just about half-way around the first of three laps and I'm not paying much attention and I look up and there's this fairly big climb up ahead. I was still in something like the 53 x 15, loafing around at the back of the pack, when it finally dawned on me that this thing was way more steep than I'd thought. By then I was bogged down and afraid to try and force a shift while standing on the pedals, so pretty much everyone rode away from me before I got to the top. I came over the top and got together with another rider and we traded pulls at a nice pace that was obviously not going to be sufficient to close the gap which was probably already up to 45 seconds or so. This was fine with me, and apparently with him as well. Around the end of that lap we picked up one of the A women who had started with this group and gotten shelled when there had been a big surge, so I got in a nice little 40-something mile paceline ride without ever getting too cold. Mission accomplished, although I'd have liked to have done one more lap just for the miles. Gavin ended up placing 3rd in this race, but the other races were kind of a disaster for us. Kaitlyn and Julia were in the Women's B race. Kaitlyn crashed twice and Julia crashed once, but Julia ended up winning anyway. Kaitlyn smashed up her hip pretty badly and didn't finish. She would later ride the criterium on Sunday, though. Meanwhile, Frank, who was in the A group, somehow took a wrong turn while off the front and ended up on a highway somewhere, finally finding his way back but not finishing the race. Oriane finished 9th in the Women's C race. Oh well. Still, a 1st and a 3rd were good.

Cleat troubles on a 16% - 20% grade section of the TT

That afternoon was the infamous Time Trial on Fulton Ranch Road that features some short sections of around 20% grade. It was still very cold by the time that started around 2 pm. Gavin posted the fastest time in the Men's B category that would have put him 6th in the A race, while Julia did the same in the Women's B category. Oriane, who had just gotten her first pair of cycling shoes the week before, had a cleat come totally loose part-way up the climb. Dustin and I were halfway up the climb taking pictures and when we saw her walking her bike Dustin ran over to see what happened. He kind of hand-tightened the cleat bolts and got her going again, so at least she finished. Frank had a good time that put him 12th among the A riders. Everybody was happy to head back to the hotel after that to clean up. The bikes and clothes and shoes were all covered with mud from the wet road race, but considering the forecast for Sunday, nobody bothered to clean any of it off.

trying to warm up

So Sunday the rain stopped in time for the races, but the course was wet throughout because of the mist that was falling. Fortunately, the whole thing was at a big sprawling high school with fairly new roads. The loop was over a mile around and not very technical at all. It was still pretty cold - around 40 I guess - and never really warmed up at all. Everybody rode the Crit, including Frank and Oriane who had never ridden one before. Considering the wet roads they had instructions to just drop off the back whenever it got sketchy.

Gavin, on the left, realizing he has a flat rear coming into a wet downhill turn.

In the Women's race, Kaitlyn went for one of the early points primes, won it, and then dropped out of the front group. Julia stayed in there and ended up winning the sprint, locking up the omnium in the process.

Julia swept the B race.

In the Men's B race there was a lot of action. Frank came off the back fairly early as expected, but Gavin was looking for a win and was up at the front a lot. I was taking photos part-way around the course where there was a little downhill turn when the group came by and I heard Gavin yelling "flat!" A piece of metal wire had gone through his rear tire. Luckily we had spare wheels in the pit, and with the course being so long, he was able to cut across to the pit, change the wheel, and jump back in just as they were coming around again. A couple of laps later he was off the front with another rider who quickly dropped off. Gavin then just put his head down and went for it. There was still a lot of time on the clock, and there was definitely an active chase going on behind him. After a while a 2-rider break separated from the pack and was hovering around 12-20 seconds behind him, so we were starting to worry that he would be caught. Somehow he found a little extra for the last few laps and pulled it out a few more seconds, winning the criterium and the overall, with lots of room to spare.

So although Saturday hadn't gone as planned, and the weather pretty much sucked the whole time, it all worked out OK with some good results to show. After stopping for lunch we hit the road for home around mid-afternoon, getting back in to NOLA as a thick fog was settling in around 10:30 pm. It was a fun trip, although I wish I could have gotten in some more riding myself.