Tour de La - Triumphs and Tribulations

I was feeling pretty glum this time last week. The long-range weather forecast was calling for a miserable rainy weekend for the 48th annual Tour de Louisiane stage race, and after all of the work everybody had put into the event planning it was going to be really disappointing to have a super-low turnout, not to mention how far in the red the event finances would fall. With only two days left for pre-registration there were only about 40 people signed up. Riders who lived far away were asking me if the race would be cancelled, if there would be flooding, etc.  In my head, I was figuring out how we might combine and/or shorten races to accommodate what would be tiny field sizes on wet roads.

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! 

And then the weather gods took notice and suddenly the rain chances started to drop with each passing hour. On Thursday, the last day that pre-registration was open, 68 riders registered, which would turn out to be slightly more than half of the entire race. By Friday morning it was clear that rain wasn't going to be a significant issue, and we all breathed signs of relief. Mignon had spent months making arrangements with the Northshore Humane Society for a little dog adoption event, along with face-painting for the kids, and had raised sponsorship from the local Subaru dealer who would drive ahead of the Cat. 1/2/3 field for the neutral lap. We had a ton of primes to give out, and just a couple of weeks earlier Chris Mogridge of Mercury Wheels had told Mike Lew over at Gray Cat Cycleworx that he would donate a set of carbon wheels and we'd decided to give every registered rider a chance to win them and also a chance to buy additional raffle tickets. We'd raised a bit over $6k in cash sponsorship, which would at least cover the $5k prizelist plus some cash primes and trophies and stuff. Even so, with the 129 or so riders who ultimately registered we would probably not quite break even after paying police for three different venues plus officiating and lodging. Anyway, by Friday I was feeling pretty good about things even though we had already lost two of the four moto-refs we'd been hoping to have for the road race. After giving Mignon the boxes of trophies and a bunch of traffic cones and the big caution signs, and giving Christian the water coolers and ice chests, I packed the Volvo up to the roof with everything else and around 4 pm headed across the lake to the Holiday Inn. That night a thunderstorm skirted just north of the area, but it looked like that would be the last of the rain.

A solo break in the criterium sealed the deal for 17 year old Logan

I was up at 5 am on Saturday for the 45 minute drive up to Stoney Point to set up the road race. We have this process down pretty well, so that all went smoothly as Fred drove around the course putting up the signage and Ricky set up the official's shelters and finish line cameras. Right across from the finish line is a family that raises quail, and they were setting up to sell pickled eggs, boiling crawfish, and selling other goodies that I wished I could try but really didn't have a chance to.

Erich and Kenny at the Criterium

That's about when someone drove up and said that the church hadn't been told about the race (we send them a $500 check every year). It turned out that our contact for the church isn't technically part of the church any more but had given us the OK and then forgotten to tell the pastor. Luckily there wasn't a funeral of something that morning!  The races went off on time under a sunny sky and everything went well except for one rider who was bitten by a dog during warm-up (the sheriff took care of that) and a minor crash about a mile before the finish of the Masters race (we eventually gave them all pack time). One of our two surviving moto-refs rolled in after the race with about 15 psi in his front tire.  Yeah, the moto-ref flatted!  It turned out he had multiple punctures, but luckily they were able to plug them so he could limp back home.  One of the other motos was doing finish line duty with us because his clutch had gone out a couple of days before and he was without his bike. We cleaned up the area and packed everything back into vehicles and I headed for the hotel to post results to the website, facebook, email, etc. and print them out to post at the 5:30 pm time trial. I had just enough time to wolf down a McDonald's hamburger before heading over to the TT course. As usual, the TT went smoothly and a few hours later I was back at the hotel with Ricky plugging finish times into the computer and again posting and printing results. Then Ricky, Mignon, Steve, Kenny and I walked over to Copeland's for dinner where I indulged in a big glass of wine.

The dogs had their own special bib numbers for
the Parade of Paws

Sunday morning the Covington criterium seemed a little more chaotic than usual. I had decided to move the finish line upstream a bit from prior years in order to be a little closer to the park where all the action, and the podium, was. We got the long USAC banners and a few sponsor banners set up along the finish area and then got word that the police down at the other end of the course were not going to close the road!  Huh?  We'd met with the city and the police a week or so earlier and everything seemed fine since we were doing exactly the same thing we'd done for a number of years prior, so everybody knew what to do and where the course went etc. Well, it turned out that someone must have bitched to the state police the year before and they in turn came down on the city police for closing the one block of state road that the course uses. Hence, they were refusing to barricade the street... for a criterium.  The compromise was that they would block the street with their cars during the races, but open the street in-between races (there were 15-minute gaps between races).

The dogs got to share the podium with the winners.

I sent Christian down there with a safety vest and flag because I wasn't comfortable with the whole thing and riders were freaking out thinking the road would be open to traffic. Randy H was already down at the restaurant where pedestrians have to cross the course to get to Sunday brunch.

There was champagne from Apolline Restaurant for the podium

Next year we'll have to get a permit from the state police for that one block of road, and I'd like to figure out how to get about 20 volunteers to serve as course marshals to keep cars off of the course because it is always a problem despite the signage and traffic cones and such. Although the city puts up no-parking signs there were at least four cars parked on the course. One was on the outside of a turn in the worst possible location, so we made arrangements to get a tow truck there after the women's race because the next race would have one of the largest fields of the day and would likely be going somewhat faster. So as we're getting ready to score the finish of the women, I see them come around the final turn, except that one or two of them seem to just go straight rather than turning.  Bad sign.  Someone had overlapped wheels and sent one of the women onto the sidewalk where she had fortunately missed the various poles and things but slammed into the side of a building with her head and left side. The Fire department is on site for medical emergencies, but we brought in an ambulance for that one. She turned out to be OK after getting checked out at the hospital. Anyway the rest of the races went great and with Erich serving up the tunes and Kenny delivering race commentary and announcing, and all of the cameras working well, it was really a pretty nice event. There was champagne for the winners on the podium under the oak trees, and the Parade of Paws was a big hit that hopefully generated some good exposure for the Humane Society. Stephanie Smith, who was racing in the Masters race, ended up in 4th.

Prior to the start of the Cat. 1/2/3 race we had the Parade of Paws where the dogs up for adoption got to walk the finish stretch while Kenny read a little bio on each. We got the riders lined up behind the Subaru lead car for the neutral lap and everything seemed under control ..... until we saw the field come around the last corner without the lead vehicle.  Turned out the police thought the car was just some car that had gotten on the course and they stopped it!  Sigh...  Anyway, the Cat. 1/2/3 race was won by 17-year-old Logan McLain, and there wasn't too much controversy after the leader of the Cat. 3/4 race skipped a pedal and dropped a chain during that race and the announcer told him to go take a free lap that wasn't technically legal, but once he went to the pit and stopped after being told to do so we couldn't really then tell him to chase since the pack was halfway around the course by then.

By the end we were all pretty exhausted, but I think it was a great race and everybody had a good time, so I guess it was worth it once again. I went home, unloaded the car again, published the results and poured myself a big glass of wine. Forty-eight years. There were only 20 riders who had even been born when the first Tour de La was held, and most of those were still in diapers then. Overall, I thought this was one of the best efforts we've made in recent years despite the unpredictable problems. Mignon really went above and beyond, handling the Parade of Paws, face painting, payments to all of the officials and police, organizing the podiums, awards, and primes. Pat and Christian, and Randy and especially Fred did a lot of the heavy lifting Saturday and Sunday, and on Saturday morning all of our follow car volunteers like Ty and Chip and Brandon were there and ready to go. With Ricky and Steve and Mark officiating, I was able to just concentrate on the results and handle the surprises like the road closure situation, the crash, the cars parked on the course, etc.  It was a good year. Perhaps if we can work around Tulsa Tough which always seems to schedule on the same weekend, we can get back to the larger field sizes we have had in the past.