Back to Auburn

None of our riders in this, but definitely my favorite photo from the criterium.

I had not really been looking forward to last weekend's Auburn Cycling Classic. Well, actually, I had been looking forward to it until I got sick on on the 12th, ten days before the date. Then, after two days off the bike, followed by a week of miserable weather and low-key recovery rides, I had been holding out a little hope that I might be at least slightly competitive for the road race. However, I was not. The cold that had settled in my chest was -- still is -- just sitting there at some low level of disability rendering me unwilling or unable to put down any significant level of intensity for any significant amount of time.  To make matters worse, the forecast for the weekend in Auburn was calling for sub-freezing temperatures in the mornings. Because of that, though, the organizers changed things up and moved the start times for the first races up to around 10 am, which made a huge difference temperature-wise, but of course it was still going to be cold, at least by my debilitated standards.

This year we had four riders going to the race, and all indications were that the total race turnout would be higher than it had been for the past few years. We couldn't leave New Orleans until late afternoon, which turned into early evening, but at least it is a fairly easy six-hour drive. I drove up with Mack in one minivan, and Dylan and Josiah drove up in the other. Jess drove up separately with Connor. I guess we arrived a the Best Western hotel a little before midnight, but since we didn't have to leave for the Road Race until around 9 am, it wasn't a problem.

Jess at the back of her group in the road race

The road race was on a course I hadn't ridden before. Looking at the route map on Strava, there was s significant 1-mile climb about half-way around the 13-mile loop. It was broken into two parts, with a brief downhill in-between, but still showed some gradients in the 7-10% range. I had put an 11-28 cassette on the bike, which I figured could get me up the short kickers without having to go to the small ring. However, considering the condition of my lungs, and my personal aversion to coming down with pneumonia, I was pretty sure I'd have to let the pack go as soon as it got steep. In order to move the initial start time back by a couple of hours, they had grouped a lot of categories together that would otherwise have been separate. For me, than meant a fairly large 35+ group with people who young enough to be my grandchildren. But as seems to happen every year at this race, the masters riders entries were heavily skewed in the older direction, with the largest contingent being 50+. In other categories, the Women were all lumped together, so everything from Cat. 1 to Collegiate Cat. C in the same field. Jess was riding Cat. C, as it was her first ever collegiate race. Likewise Mack. Dylan and Josiah were both riding the Cat. D race, along with USAC Cat. 5 riders.

Peter and me a few miles before catching the little group ahead of us. Yeah, I was overdressed.

I guess the temperature was in the mid-40s and sunny by the time the masters race started. Some riders were wearing essentially summer kit, but of course, in my condition, I was afraid of getting cold, so I had on long bibs, long-sleeve base layer, long-sleeve jersey, and full-finger gloves. At least I was never cold! My road race started out quite fast, and as it did, I gradually slid farther and farther back in the field, all the while trying to minimize the lung damage. When we made the right turn at around 7 miles to begin the 1-mile uphill section, I was already at the back. I knew I shouldn't try to push it there, and planned to just let the group go and ride at whatever pace would minimize heavy breathing. The climb, which really turned out to be two climbs, wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected, and in retrospect I probably could have made the effort to stay with the group without doing too much damage. But I didn't. Up ahead, I could see a few riders dropping off from the group along the way, and soon after coming over the steepest section I came up on my friend Peter Stephens. We got together and started trading pulls. Up ahead we could see another group of three coming together, and after a moderate-level effort, we caught them five or six miles later. So we had a nice 5-man paceline the rest of the ride, which was perfect for me. I actually enjoyed the next three times up the climb. When we got close to the finish I was a little surprised that everyone in the group, except me, decided to sprint it out. I mean, we were sprinting for something like 17th place in the 50+ group and probably 30th overall. Jess was 4th in her road race. Dylan and Josiah both ended up off the back from the main group, but not too bad. Mack, I think finished, although they listed her as DNF, so maybe she just did one of the two laps. I'm sure it was a good learning experience for everyone. 

The time trial was at 4:30 pm, and it was starting to get pretty cold by then. Jess won her Cat. C time trial, and Dylan and Josian were 6th and 7th in theirs, so that was fine. That evening we all got together for pizza at Little Italy near campus, which was great. Again, we didn't have an early wake-up for the next morning, which was also great.

Sunday's criterium were on the NCAT Test Track, a big 1.7 mile oval. We had raced there a few years ago, and I remembered that there had been a couple of big crashes, so everyone got a little warning to be careful about riders taking weird lines through the curves. I was still feeling the damage from Saturday's road race, and since the masters race would be after all of the collegiate ones, I wasn't planning on riding at all. Mack decided not to ride the criterium. 

Like an oversized velodrome

Because of the combined categories, one of the races must have had a 50-rider field, which was kind of great. Jess' women's race went pretty well, and although she finished I guess ten down overall, it turned out to be first place in the Cat. C, so another podium for her. In the Cat. D / Cat. 5 race, Dylan was doing a great job with positioning. Josiah was hanging out nearer the back, which eventually caused him to get gapped off a few laps before the finish. With I think two laps to go, the pack came by and Dylan wasn't there. Then some stragglers who said there had been a crash. It was just about exactly where there had been a crash a few years back when we sent one of our riders to the hospital. The next time around Josiah stopped when he saw that Dylan had crashed, and they both eventually cruised in. I was glad to find that Dylan wasn't the rider who had broken his arm, but he definitely had quite a bit or road rash. Someone a couple of bikes up had swerved to avoid a reflector or something on the inside of the turn, which took out the next rider's wheel, so Dylan rode right into that and went over the bars. Anyway, I was glad there was not a trip to the hospital. After getting him patched up, we headed back home. As expected, we ran into some heavy rain around sundown as we neared Mobile, making the last three hours of driving rather stressful. Even so, I was probably back at home by 8 pm.