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.