Back to Cuba

Although the windy Tuesday ride started with a pretty big group, there were only four of us that did the full ride out to Ormond.

Well, the Cuba in Alabama anyway. Last week was a fairly routine week of fairly routine rides that included the Saturday Giro that may or may not have been a good idea for someone planning to race bikes on Sunday. Then again, the Cuba Road Race & Alabama State Road Championship wasn't going to be exactly the world championship or anything, and the masters race was only 46 miles. I'd sent out an email earlier in the week looking for some company for this race, but nobody responded. Granted, it was French Quarter Festival weekend here in New Orleans and the race was over three hours away, but it's not like there's a race within driving distance every weekend lately. So I rolled out of bed at 4 am Sunday morning, made some coffee, and was on the road by 4:30. The races started at 9:00 but I wanted to be sure to get there by 8:00 since I had some radios that might be needed. The drive up Interstate 59 through Hattiesburg and Meridian was smooth and quiet. The weather was practically perfect - 70°F with a clear sky and light wind. I arrived right on time and found the parking area that was a bit farther down the road from the finish than it used to be back when this race was part of the Meridian-Cuba race weekend. Robert was already sitting at a table handing out race numbers when I arrived, so I carried over the heavy box of USAC championship medals that we'd finally received from USAC, along with the "radio bin." A few minutes later Ricky, the Chief Ref, arrived, along with Ian, the single moto-ref.

Turnout for this race was a bit on the low side, which is practically status quo lately. I think there were barely 50 riders in total, with the largest groups being the Masters with 19 and the Cat. 4/5 with 18. The lollipop course was the same we had used in the somewhat distant past. I remembered a short but steep climb about ten miles in - 7 miles from the start of the loop - and then just a lot of rolling hills with a fun and fast downhill somewhere in the last half of the loop that we'd be doing just twice. There was, however, one thing about the course I'd forgotten about.

Our race started about on time, 5 minutes after the Cat. 1/2/3s and 5 minutes ahead of the Cat. 4/5s. Although the pack started off at a nice moderate pace, one or two riders took off pretty much from the start and had a big gap by the time we were even onto the loop. That seemed to happen almost every year when I'd done this course before. For this race my main goal was to not get dropped. I found a nice spot near the back of the group where I hung out waiting for those two climbs that started around 10 miles in. The group seemed to stay pretty much intact for those climbs, which was kind of a relief for me. I never felt like I was on the limit there, but was a little surprised that nobody had attacked. Well, a few miles later I knew why. The last turn on the loop is a fairly sharp left-hander, and what I'd forgotten about it was that it went straight uphill afterward. So two things happened here that I should have anticipated. The front of the group attacked the climb pretty hard. I should definitely not been at the back when we came around that turn, and the result of that crucial error was that I really had no chance of going with the front part of the pack that separated itself before I even got through the turn myself. There were a few riders scattered between that front group and the back group, but I don't think any of them managed to make it up to the shelter of the front group in time. That left us with one or two riders way out there somewhere, then a chasing group, and then the rest of us - maybe 9 riders or so. There was never any serious effort to chase, so I figured out race was essentially over at that point, and if I had any doubts about that they were soundly quashed after we started the second lap and were passed by the Cat. 4/5 group's 3-man break. Some time later the moto came up alongside to warn us that the Cat. 4/5 pack was about to pass us.

Here's where I should explain that in a road race you can't take pace from riders in a group that you didn't start with. Well, the 4/5s passed us pretty slowly and as a result the two group got kind of mixed together. Our pace picked up by a few mph as a result, and I thought that if that continued and we got pulled up to the Masters break there'd be hell to pay. The motoref was having trouble getting the masters to neutralize, so we continued like this for a few miles. I thought that when we hit the climb 7 miles into the lap the groups might just naturally separate, but when that didn't happen the moto came up and pretty firmly told the masters to back off. That finally separated the two group and the Cat. 4/5s slowly disappeared up the road. Over the rest of that lap I guess there were maybe a couple of feeble attacks but things came back together each time, so we were destined to a pack sprint for something like 7th place, I guess. I have to say that I always like the finish to this race. After turning off of the loop you're only about 3 miles from the finish and you get a bit of downhill until you hit a little climb where the road crossed over the Interstate. That's at around 1 km from the finish. Up ahead you can see the start of a climb that curves to the left with the 200 meter flag sitting up near the top of it. Although my motivation was pretty low for a sprint for a minor placing that had to be many minutes behind the winners I figured I should make an effort just to get a feel for how I was doing. I was only one or two spots from the back of the group when the sprint started right at the start of the climb. I was still able to pass a few people before the finish even though I felt like I'd made only about a 90% effort, so I actually felt pretty good about that. I ended up 9th, which surprised me because I had thought there were more riders in the lead group(s). I guess I was 3rd or 4th in our pack sprint and felt like I could have placed higher if I'd not been starting from the back. After our finish I grabbed a radio and rode back down the climb so I could alert the officials when the Cat. 1/2/3 sprint, which turned out to be 5 riders, was approaching. Then I rode back to the parking area and ultimately picked up a bunch of the LAMBRA race equipment so I'd have it on hand for the Tour de Louisiane the first weekend in June.

Charley

The next day, Monday, I went out to the 6 am "Mellow Monday" ride at the City Park Museum of Art. For some reason that ride was less mellow than usual, but the faster segment is short so I don't think I did too much damage, especially since I was trying to limit my time in the wind. This morning's levee ride turned out to be kind of windy. There was a gusty north wind blowing, and with the way the levee meanders we had a lot of crosswind and a surprising amount of tailwind and direct headwind. I was still feeling the Sunday race in my legs a bit by the end.

Meanwhile back at home the new dog has been busy barking at everything, getting us up a couple of times every night, and destroying chew toys at the rate of about two a day. We are going to get rid of all of the dog toys that have stuffing in them because his favorite thing is to tear into them until he can pull the stuffing out, half of which he swallows. He's about at the end of his heartworm treatment now - it's been one month since the last two shots - so we're bringing him to our regular Vet tomorrow. He still has to take some Ivermectin for a little while at this point but hopefully we won't have to keep him quiet, which is increasingly impossible, for much longer. 

Summerish

Waiting for the Seabrook Drawbridge
 Easter Sunday

The Sunday Giro had, somewhat uncharacteristically, stopped en masse at the red light on Bullard at Hayne when I looked over at the rider next to me and remarked, "This is the hottest I've been on a ride this year." That wasn't to say that is was the kind of mind-numbing soul-sucking mid-summer heat that I knew was yet to come, but still, I think we were at a bit of a seasonal turning point. Back at home I found myself thinking it was about time to stash the long tights and long-sleeve jerseys and winter gloves and such somewhere in the back of the kit drawer for the duration.

Somewhere north of Pass Christian. Brandon, Colin, Charles, Steve.

A week ago Sunday a few of us went over to Pass Christian to meet Steve Martin for a 70-miler. I was looking forward to a break in my steady diet of local group rides, and the weather was looking like it would be excellent, which in fact it was. Well, unless you count that headwind on the way back. Anyway Steve, Colin, Charles, Brandon, and I had a pretty great ride in the country where everyone was on the same page, which kept the pace smooth and steady. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and with a light tailwind as we headed north from the coast, all seemed right with the world as each of us took long pulls at moderate effort levels. In its own way, the ride was a kind of recovery ride in that there wasn't much in the way of intensity unless you count the last 20 miles or so into an increasing south wind.

Friday

This week it was kind of back to the routine except for Thursday. Monday and Tuesday were certainly routine, anyway. Wednesday morning, however, greeted me with a 17 mph south wind, which made the ride out to meet the WeMoRi easy enough. As usual, I merged into the string of little headlights along Marconi, a bit surprised at how few there were. I guessed that the crosswind along the lakefront had shattered the group and there was another group somewhere behind. As it turned out, I was wrong about that. On the plus side, the smaller group made for a better workout. I was happy to put in the extra effort because the forecast for Thursday morning was calling for rain. Indeed, it was too wet to ride that morning, although the weather cleared up nicely later in the day. Fortunately the Tulane group was planning a 5:30 levee ride, and with things already winding down at the office ahead of Easter weekend I was able to make it out to that one, where I also needed to hand off a BikeReg check to Joey for deposit into the TUCA account. 

The weekend was really nice. For me, temperatures in the upper low to mid-80s are always the most comfortable. It was also Paris-Roubaix weekend, featuring the first women's Paris-Roubaix on Saturday, followed by the classic men's race on Sunday. Although GCN, to which I subscribe because it's the cheapest, couldn't carry those races live because other pricier services had exclusive rights to them, they did show really nice 30-minute highlights later in the day which I thought was perfect. Back at home, it was another double-Giro weekend for me. I had started out on Saturday thinking I might add some extra miles before going home, but by the time I was back on Lakeshore Drive I was more than ready to call it a day. It always seems to take a couple of weeks to get used to the warmer summer temperatures and I never seem to eat or drink quite enough on the Giro rides. I'd brought along a bit of HammerGel that I did have a the turnaround, so it wasn't a complete failure, but on the other hand I didn't even go through a single small water bottle.

Sunday cool-down

Sunday was Easter and of course that meant a somewhat smaller than usual Giro Ride group, not to imply that there wasn't enough willing and able horsepower to make it worthy. As I was having my pre-ride coffee at Starbucks David Schreffler appeared, decked out in patriotic garb. I hadn't seen him in years since he moved to St. Louis. He was in town visiting some family and then heading down to Tampa where he is expecting to move soon. Despite the smaller than usual turnout, the ride turned out to be pretty fast. I did manage to convince myself to make some efforts here and there, and as usual the warmer temperature - it was only in the mid-upper 70s I guess - agreed with me. 

Dave S

There's a race in Cuba (Alabama) next Sunday that I'm hoping to make, so I'll  have to keep that in mind this week. The masters race is only 46 miles, so it won't be like some of the long hot races of attrition we used to have on that course as part of the Meridian race weekend, so I guess that's good. Or maybe not. Sometimes the shorter the race the faster and more aggressive it becomes, and given my recent tendency to get dropped on the first uphill attack, that isn't really ideal. I'll have to go back and take a good look at the course profile so I'm at least not caught off-guard this time. I had some great races on that course back in the day, especially when it was in the middle of the summer, the distance was longer, and the temperature was higher. At any rate there's stuff I'll want to pick up from Robert to have on hand for the Tour de Louisiane that we need to really get moving on since June is rapidly approaching. At least I got the event permit submitted and set up BikeReg to open registration starting today.

Time Trial Sunday

I have always had mixed feelings about time trials. On the one hand, they are without a doubt an objective undeniable measure of your current aerobic fitness, or lack thereof, in relation to the other riders that day. For me, aerobic fitness is more about not getting dropped before the sprint rather than launching a successful long-distance breakaway. On the other hand, a 40 km time trial is an hour-long (if you're lucky) solitary test of mental toughness, determination, and suffering - not necessarily in that order. My strategy for avoiding doing time trials without becoming the subject of ridicule has been to instead put them on, thus providing credible cover for leaving the bike at home. Last Sunday we put on the LAMBRA Time Trial Championship, aka the "Race of Truth" out on the LaPlace course where we have done it every year since 2009, which would be 14 years for the arithmetically challenged. The weekend before I'd driven out to the course with a couple of cans of road-marking paint in order to find the three turnaround marks at roughly (the start and finish are offset) 5 km, 10 km, and 20 km for the 10, 20, and 40 km time trial distances respectively. A new wrinkle was that I was going to add a turnaround for a 15 km time trial. That was for the two handcycle riders who were planning to come. The U.S. Paralympics Cycling event for them is a 15 km time trial. 

Although it had been a bit less than a year since I'd freshened up the course markings, they were remarkably difficult to find from the seat of a car even though I'd started Strava, set to metric, on my phone. I think that Hurricane Ida had probably scoured the road surface a bit last fall. I had to backtrack at one point before I found the old badly faded mark. From the turnaround at 5 km I needed to go another 2.5 km to add the new marks for the 15 km turnaround. So now there were four turnaround marks and I was a little worried that it would get confusing, mainly for our turnaround marshals who would have to drive out ahead of the race and find them. So the Saturday before the race, after riding part of a shortened Giro and getting pretty well rain-soaked on the way home, I drove out to LaPlace again, this time with four fenceposts. I put one over on the shoulder at each turnaround with a bit of orange survey tape to make it easy for the turn marshals to find. I already had turnaround signs for the three usual turnarounds, so I made a new sign for the one for the 15 km riders (actually only one of them was able to come as it turned out). I had already assigned bib numbers and start times, and posted all of that to the website, so in the afternoon it was just a matter of getting everything together for race day. Branden came over with his pickup and got the awards podium, cooler, signage, and traffic cones, which would leave me lots of room in the station wagon for the tent, generator, clock, tables, computers, etc. Robert would be coming down in the morning from Jackson with the big caution signs and safety vests that had been used for the Hattiesburg race. Over the prior week we had signed up enough volunteers to keep things more or less on track, so at least we wouldn't be begging for help on race day, which sometimes happens.

Sunday morning I was out there in the dark getting things set up. All of the volunteers showed up, and things went pretty smoothly. We had two young Juniors doing the 10 km TT, then a 5 minute gap, then the handcycle rider doing the 15 km TT, then a two minute gap, then seven riders toing the 20 km TT, another five minute gap, and finally all of the 40 km riders. It seemed like a plan. Of course there are always unpredictable things at races, and this race was no exception. After starting everyone I walked back to the tent to start doing results (by then the young Juniors had finished). Quite a while later I heard from the turnaround marshal for the 15 km TT that he had never seen the handcycle rider. I had a result for him and his time looked quite reasonable, so that was mystery. After some detective work later that day we discovered that someone had put a random traffic come in the middle of the road somewhere between the turnaround for 10 km and 15 km. It may have been where the kayak people like to park and put in. The handcycle rider, knowing that his was the second turnaround, saw it, and although there was no sign or turn marshal, assumed it was his turnaround. I guess he wasn't more than a kilometer short of the actual 15 km. Meanwhile, one of the first 20 km riders somehow turned early, possibly at the sign for the 15 km rather than the sign for the 20 km, resulting in an average speed of something like 29 mph which was obviously wrong. Fortunately she was the only rider in her age group so it didn't affect any of the placings. The only other problem we had was with bib numbers that were unreadable from the side of the road, especially when multiple riders were finishing almost together. That required a process of elimination that delayed results a bit. I'm still not convinced that the finish times for a couple of those riders were accurate, even though we had two separate timers and multiple other people assisting at the finish line. I need to remember to tell people exactly where to put their numbers next year because putting them in the middle of your back is no bueno.

The weather this year was pretty nice. There was a significant northeast breeze, but it must not have been too bad because Matt Govero set a new course record of 50:48! Brett Reagan rode Merckx style and still did a 57:35 and that wasn't even the fastest Merckx style time. Sam Leblanc rode a 57:08. The fastest woman on the day was Jessica Jones who did a 58:17. I had been told a couple of months earlier by USAC that we would have official USAC championship medals in time for the race. Well of course when I asked about it again a couple of weeks before the race I was told the in fact would not be ready. Luckily we had enough leftover LAMBRA medals we'd made last year for the Road and Crit championships (USAC didn't provide medals in 2020 or 2021) to cover everyone, but it would have been nice to have had the nicer official medals.

After the TT most of the race volunteers went half a mile down the road to the Frenier Landing restaurant where we had a surprisingly nice lunch. Although that restaurant had been there for at least a decade I'd never been there and was quite happy to find it to be quite nice. 

So all-in-all the TT went pretty well. There were really just four or five people that we had problems with - either wrong turnarounds or bib number problems - which isn't really all that unusual. I was a little disappointed with the turnout. We had just over 50 riders this year. For many years we would get about 100, so I have no idea why the turnout suffered this year except that there were a lot of things going on - festivals, Final Four in New Orleans, etc.

Now it's time to get moving for the 51st annual Tour de Louisiane.