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The Masters 40+ group had a nice little field of about a dozen riders. The course was low rolling hills typical of the area - nothing dramatic, but providing occasional opportunities for those so inclined. Well, we weren't more than a couple of miles into the short 38 mile road race when the first attack happened, much to the dismay of those of us who need half an hour to get warmed up. Within the first mile or two I was at 32 mph and 165 bpm and thinking how embarrassing it would be to get dropped before the first turn. Fortunately, things came back together which quite predictably and no doubt according to plan allowed Kevin Landry to launch off the front, solo, a few miles later. With a couple of teammates at the front and such a small field, there was essentially no effort to chase and his gap grew quickly to I guess around 45 seconds. By the end of the first of three laps he had close to a minute on the field, but I remember thinking that, considering our pace, I would have expected him to be much farther up the road by then. Well, a few miles into the second lap we see him standing on the side of the road holding up a wheel. He'd been riding on a soft tire for miles and it finally went completely flat and forced him wait for the wheel truck which was following us. At that point I thought his teammates would either try to slow the pace (most likely), or launch an attack. Surprisingly, neither happened. About halfway around on second lap his teammates were still on the front and there were a few strong surges, so I figured they had looked back and not seen Kevin chasing and figured he was out of the race. As it turned out, he'd been chasing his ass off wondering why his teammates were on the front. Anyway, nothing got away on the last lap, so it came down to a sprint among the remaining riders. I was 5th behind Noel who came past me right at the line.
After that I packed up and headed over to Gray Cat Cycleworx to hang out and chat with Mike Lew who had just gotten me a deal on some new race wheels from Mercury Wheels that I needed to pay for. Mercury is owned by a friend of ours, Chris Mogridge, who started out in Mississippi but then moved out west to Ogden UT. I'm still a little uncertain how I'll like these modern, somewhat heavier, more aero carbon wheels, but I've been racing on my trusty Rolf Sestriere wheels that I also got from Mike when I got my steel Cervelo way, way back around 2000, and I figured that 18 or 19 years was about as long as I could expect those aluminum spoke nipples to survive. Anyway, in the process, Mike talked Chris into donating a set of carbon wheels to the Tour de Louisiane. I think we will give every rider who enters a raffle ticket for those, and then sell additional tickets at the race to see if we can raise a few bucks for the Northshore Humane Society that the race is benefiting this year. I never did actually eat lunch, so I headed over to the nearby park for the evening criteriums fueled by a couple of granola bars and soft drinks. I spent an hour or so getting the crit start/finish set up with the barricades and USAC banners and all, plus the work lights that Dustin had brought since the last race would be finishing in the dark.
The Master's race was pretty predictable except for the rain. Shortly after the start the rain began, and although the road surface was pretty good, and there aren't any sharp turns on the loop, it still required a little more caution than usual. A couple of very early attacks to set up Kevin who was off the front by the time we were three or four laps into the 40-minute race, but was pulled back fairly quickly. Things were fairly steady for a while after that, but eventually he took off again to solo in for the win. I ended up 6th in that one, and was pretty happy with how I felt even though I had spent most of the time sitting in toward the back. The Cat. 1/2/3 race was last, and I was happy that the two sets of work lights shining on the finish line provided just enough light to make the finish line camera useful. I drove back home after that, posted the day's results to the website, and went to sleep around midnight with the alarm set for 5:15 am. Back in Hammond Sunday morning I did the Master's race, this time on the same course but in the opposite direction and without rain. Acadiana had at least one additional rider in the field for this one, and there were a few other riders who hadn't raced on Saturday, so that was nice. We were only about four laps into the race when an attack put three riders off the front. I was still toward the back waiting for my heart rate to figure out that I was racing, but couldn't help but say to whoever was listening, "Really? You had to know this was going to happen, right?" Anyway, I went to the front briefly, hoping to encourage a serious chase, but without much effect, so those three riders road away pretty easily as the group settled down, content to let Kevin's teammates soft-pedal at the front. Eventually the break lapped the field, of course. I was hoping that they would just blow through the pack and was primed to go with them, but that didn't happen and everything just stayed together for a kind of messy sprint through the curves that I started from way too far back. I ended up 8th in that one, which was a little disappointing I guess. In all, the second criterium was a little easier than the first had been, at least for me, probably because I spent most of it just sitting on the back as a spectator.
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