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| Pretty happy and surprised to have made the podium in the criterium this year |
Last week was Masters (and Juniors) Road Nationals week up in Augusta. A couple of weeks earlier I had gone ahead and registered for the road race and criterium, despite the nagging feeling that I was not really in race shape. Not that being in sub-optimal shape has ever stopped me before, of course. I admit that there was still some hesitation, but it was more because of the cost and the fact that I would probably be making the trip solo, again, like last year. The entry fee for the two races was $240 and three hotel nights came to $500, plus a couple of tanks of gas, so basically we're talking about something like $20 per race mile. The forecast a few days prior was calling for rain on Friday, the day of my road race, and possibly also on Sunday, the day of the criterium. On the other hand, when you are in the 70-74 age group and nationals is within driving distance, why the hell not? I mean, it might be your last chance, right?
Earlier in the week I had been intentionally limiting my efforts on the usual group rides, having taken the fact that I overslept on Tuesday and missed half of the ride to be a divine message of some sort. Thursday was going to be a nine-hour drive, so I was confident that my legs would at least be reasonably fresh. I left home on Thursday around 6 am or so, and had a nice uneventful drive up to Augusta.
With my road race scheduled for around 10 am, I had lots of time in the morning and arrived at Fort Eisenhower (previously Fort Gordon) a couple of hours early. I quickly found Tom and George and the rest of the Texas Geriatrix team, and also old-time racing friend Lonnie Kennedy. I'd been feeling some nagging chest congestion for a few days, which only served to amplify the dearth of confidence I already had, so I was really hoping that the race would go more or less like it had the prior year, which could best be described as "slow and defensive." Basically half of the riders were afraid of the 1 km climb at the end of each lap, and the other half were planning to attack on the 1 km climb at the end of each lap. This year I was firmly in the prior camp. The course is fairly hilly, with almost no flat sections, which can make it really hard if riders are aggressive on the climbs. Luckily for me, that wasn't the case. Kent Bostick and Tom Bain were both monitoring the front, and I think were sufficiently confident about their ability to handle the finish climb that they weren't too worried about how much of the packfill like me they brought along for the ride. George Heagerty took a long solo flyer at one point, but I don't think he got more than about 45 seconds before being gradually reeled back in. I was feeling my lungs every time there was a surge, and so unlike last year I was just hanging out near the back, knowing full well I wasn't going to be contesting the finish climb. Luckily for me there was no attack there on the first lap like there was last year. I moved up a little bit as we got to the final couple of kilometers, and was in a pretty good position for the finish if I'd been feeling good, which I wasn't. I mentally pulled the plug about halfway up the climb, which tops out about 400 meters from the finish, then accelerated again once it flattened out, but of course by then a lot of riders had gone past me. I ended up 13th, which was about what I'd expected under the circumstances. Kent got out-sprinted on the line, and Tom was 3rd.
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| Tom, Lonnie, and little ol' me |
I got to the course a couple of hours early on Sunday for my race, which didn't start until around 10 am, mainly so I could get a good parking spot. That gave me a chance to chat with some of the USAC folks I know, like Bonnie and Venesia, before squeezing into my kit and getting the bike set up for a little warmup. The criterium had originally been set up to include the 65-69 age group, so would have been basically a 65+ race with potentially 75 riders, but people had complained and they had decided at the last minute to give the 65-69 riders a separate race. That brought our field size down considerably. I think we had around 30 on the start line. I was glad to see that everything was dry and rain was unlikely, at least for the morning races.
Still feeling rather unconfident, I spent a lot of this race farther back in the field than I had the prior year. That probably saved a little energy, but also made for much more sketchy riding. Unsurprisingly, there was no successful break, so most of the field came into the final seven laps together. We were probably somewhere around 5 to go, coming into turn 2, when a rider came flying past me on the right around mid-pack and I thought to myself, "Where does he think he's going?" Well, I guess where he was going was into the barricades or something because as I went through the turn I heard someone yell something, followed by the sound of a significant crash. I guess at least a couple of riders went down, but with it being so close to the finish I didn't look back since I was more concerned about trying to maintain a position somewhere in the front half of the field, mainly for reasons of safety.
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| Results |
As usual, halfway through the last lap riders started to fight for position, and unlike last year I wasn't really inclined to fight back too much. I guess I went around the last turn about 10th wheel. I did launch a respectable sprint and passed a few riders before the finish, so I think I was probably 7th or 8th across the line, with no idea how many ahead of me might have been in other age categories. Last year I was 5th, when turned out to be 4th in my age group. This year I figured I was definitely off the podium, and after a couple of cool-down laps headed off to the car to get ready for the drive home. At that point I could hear the announcer starting the awards for the first three or four races, so I checked the online results (never saw paper results posted) and was kind of shocked to find that I was 5th. I turned around and went back to where they were doing the awards, and a few minutes later stepped onto the lowest step where Bonnie put a medal around my neck and we raised arms for a quick photo. I actually felt pretty good about 5th this year, considering. Tom ended up 2nd and Kent 1st, again.
The drive back was uneventful except for the usual alternating Indy 500 and gridlock around Atlanta where I image body shop techs are the highest paid in the nation. I still had a bunch of granola bars and drinks in the car, so I stopped just once for gas, which got me back home just a little bit after sundown. Eddie Corcoran was the only other NOLA rider who raced, and unfortunately he had gotten some kind of food poisoning or a stomach virus the night before his road race. Somehow he gutted out (pun intended) his road race, which was quite a bit longer and faster than mine had been, finishing 38th in a field of about 60 in his 60-64 category. His criterium on Sunday had been pushed back to accommodate adding that 65-69 race, and some other change, so he ended up skipping it. I think the re-scheduled time was late in the afternoon, so he wouldn't have gotten home until after midnight, and might have ended up racing on wet streets, so it wasn't an unreasonable decision under the circumstances.
It was back to the routine, and the heat advisories, on Monday, and then on Tuesday the lakefront bike path was wet and full of puddles and cut grass which made quite a mess of the bike. Yesterday I went out to the WeMoRi, jumping onto the group along Marconi as usual. That put me near the back as we made the right turn onto Wisner. Some of these riders seem to have a deep-seated fear of that corner, and when gaps started opening ahead of me I yelled "Pedal!" but it was to no avail. There was a half-hearted chase, but the gaps wasn't closed and I ended up with Charles all the way around City Park as the front of the group vanished up the road. Back on Lakeshore Drive we turned around when we saw the group coming, so at least we were there for the last couple of miles.
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| Thank goodness for airbags! That curve used to have a cautionary 25 mph speed advisory sign, but it hasn't been there since at least Hurricane Ida. |
When I got home from work late Wednesday following a little end-of-academic-year party at Superior Grill, there were multiple police cars in front of the house. As it turned out, one of our long-time neighbors who lived in the apartment across the street had been found dead. The crime lab was there for a while, but we never found out anything more. As we were sitting on the porch watching all of that unfold, I heard the unmistakable sound of a car crash around the corner on S. Claiborne. A moment later I saw a car driving down Claiborne with heavy front-end damage, dragging various car parts along the way. I rushed down the stairs and around the corner where I could see a car up against the big oak tree at Lowerline and Claiborne.
There were already some people there, but as I got closer I realized that the person lying on the ground next to the car was one of our neighbors! She was definitely injured but fully conscious and concerned about her dog, Wally, who was also in the car and is something like 18 years old. One of her friends took the dog straight to MedVet, where they pronounced him OK. I ran back to the house to find the neighbor's husband and to alert one of the police officers who were conveniently still there, so a unit was on the scene right away. The car was clearly not fixable. I'd guess the car that hit it was going at least 50 mph around the curve. Four or five blocks down the street I could see another police car behind a car stopped in the left lane, so I assume the car that hit her hadn't gotten too far in the attempt to flee the scene. The neighbor was finally loaded into an ambulance for a trip to the hospital that ultimately confirmed a bilateral pelvic fracture, some broken ribs, lung contusion, etc. Later that evening we met someone from MedVet who dropped off the dog who we left in the neighbor's kitchen. Ken came back from the hospital I think around 11 pm to take care of the dog and get a little sleep before returning to the hospital in the morning.
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