A couple of things that hadn't happened in 2021 happened. One was the Auburn Classic collegiate weekend and the other was Mardi Gras. Neither was quite normal. Both were great anyway. I think it was Thursday when Julia texted that she wasn't going to be able to make the road trip to Auburn because she still had some mild but lingering concussion symptoms from her crash. That left just Sean, Joey, Evan, Christopher and me. Fortunately the university is OK with me driving the whole way and even more fortunately we got a big Ford 12-passenger van with a couple of the rear seat rows removed. That made it way easier to load and unload the five bikes, spare wheels, and other luggage. In fact, we should have thrown in a couple of stationary trainers since we had the room. We left around 10:00 am and made the easy 5.5 hour drive, staying below 75 mph because the Big Brother alarm and GPS would beep at me if we exceeded that. Rather than to straight to the Best Western we made a little detour and headed for the Road Race course to do a lap before dark. There were a few teams there doing the same thing. For some reason the guys kind of attacked the first hill while I was still off the back and so I just let them go since I was still having some pulmonary congestion from the COVID case I'd had three weeks earlier. I'd done this race a number of times so I was pretty familiar with the course.
Saturday morning everyone met for breakfast at the hotel and we took off for the Road Race course nice and early. The temperature was in the 40s but the sky was clear so I knew it would warm up. Three of the riders were Category D and Sean was Category C, so we didn't have people in all of the waves. Brett and Lisa were there, though. Lisa would race the combined Women's race and then turn right around and race the Masters race with Brett and me. My race didn't start until 10:00, so the rest of the Tulane crew would be finished by the time I started. Sean was a bit sick with some upper respiratory problem and ended up with a DNF after a few laps.
In the D race some kid, reportedly a triathlete, rolled off the front from the start, caught the women who had started minutes ahead of him, and finished 5 minutes up on the lead group. Joey was with that lead group for most of the race but finished 2 minutes behind it in 6th place and 5 minutes ahead of Christopher in 7th and the rest of the field. My race started out with a fairly brisk first lap, as usual. Every time I would have to make a sustained effort I could feel my lungs burning, and since it didn't look like things would settle down much for the rest of the race I decided to limit the damage and pulled the plug early on the second lap. For some reason the group eased up at one point during that lap and I made contact with it for a mile or two before the next attack up the hill on the back side when I eased off the back again. I was fine cruising at a moderate pace, so I decided to finish out the distance solo. Mid-way through the last lap the A race caught me right around the "big" hill. I eased over to the right to give them a lot of room. Over the top I noticed one of the riders having a conversation with the moto ref and then dropping off the back. He'd been disqualified for centerline violations. I caught up to him and we rode the rest of the lap together. Meanwhile, Brett got into a 5-rider break that finished 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the field, putting him into 2nd place in the 45+ age group (it was 35+/45+). Lisa finished 7th in the 45+ race after placing 2nd in the Women's race. There was a TT after the road race in which Joey placed 3rd, Christopher 4th, and Evan 5th. Sean was 3rd in the Cs.
My greatest personal success on Saturday was convincing everyone we should have dinner at Olive Garden! While waiting for a table I chatted a bit with Julie Carter who is the coach for the Lindenwood varsity team. They were there with a full-size bus and athletics staff.
The forecast for Sunday had been looking like rain, but as the evening went on the forecast started to change a bit making it quite uncertain. As it turned out the rain missed the race entirely. I never do the criterium since everyone would have to wait around for hours just for me. The Category D race was at 8 am, and since Sean had already decided not to race, that meant we'd have three people in the first race and then be basically done. Then Evan kind of crashed during warmup and backed out of the race too, leaving us with just Christopher and Joey. Category D is very much a beginners race, so things can get sketchy. On the very first lap there was a big crash on the tight bumpy turn #3. Somehow both Joey and Christopher managed to get with the front group after that. Both were in a nice 5-rider lead group until Christopher dropped his chain on the bumpy turn. He was eventually lapped but latched onto the front group when that happened and ended up passing a couple of riders who had been ahead of him. Joey finished 4th and Christopher 7th, so that wasn't too bad.
After the long drive back to New Orleans I was glad that we had Monday off because of Mardi Gras the next day. There was a Mardi Gras Giro Ride Tuesday morning, and given the fact that I'd logged a total of 40 unimpressive miles all weekend I decided to skip my usual Fat Tuesday routine of the Royal Run followed by a stop on St. Charles to watch Rex and then a long walk down to the French Quarter and back.
Instead, I did the Giro and then we rode bikes down to the Quarter, which meant I missed all of Rex, Zulu, and the truck parades. Candy walked around with me for a bit and then headed back while I made a few more passes around the Quarter looking at the people and taking a few photos. I was glad that I managed to catch the Société de Saint Anne group just as they got to the river to throw wreaths and ashes for departed loved ones (OK, some of those are pets, but some are people). I came back with photos but not even a single strand of beads.
I guess it's back to work today!
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