Up at Northbeast

Last weekend I tagged along with four of the Tulane riders for a trip to north Georgia. It was our second trip to the Northbeast Cycling Classic, put on by the Piedmont cycling team, coached by Jamie Carney who would also be riding the 55+ masters race in which I would be racing 65+ (he finished 3rd, essentially half an hour ahead of me). I have to admit I was less than enthusiastic about doing this race because, after a nice long stretch of unseasonably warm weather, the forecast was looking a lot colder than my physiology likes. Of course, it's barely March, so I really shouldn't be complaining about upper 40s temperatures, but anyway, I am. Also, I am no fan of gravel riding, and neither is my neck. Still, I figured it would be a good workout and a nice change from another Giro Ride.

The group had managed to commandeer the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology department's 12-passenger van, so we were able to get all five people and bikes into it for the long drive to Cornelia, GA. They picked me up around 11:00 or maybe a little later (people had classes to attend), so we didn't arrive until 9 or 10, which was fine. The drive was uneventful, which was also nice. All four, Dylan, Josiah, Ben, and Liam would be riding the Collegiate Cat. 4/5 races. USAC recently changed from the A,B,C style collegiate categories to numeric ones like regular licenses have. They haven't revised the upgrade policy or anything, so it's all kind of a mystery to me, but it looks like the bottom line is that most collegiate races will have two races, a 1/2/3 race and a 4/5 race. This is actually a little better for the newer riders, I think.

So Saturday morning it was, of course, cold and dark when we arrived rather early at the school parking lot for the race. It was the same place we'd been last year, but the course itself was quite different. The start of the 6 mile circuit was a bit down the road from where we were parked, and it featured a fast downhill, an interminably (for me) long gravel climb, and then a very steep 0.6 mile climb to the finish. I probably would have loved it twenty years ago, in the summer. 

Some old guys

My race started at 10:00, after the Cat. 4/5 race and was mostly 55+ riders plus five or six 65+ riders. At the start I pulled off my knee-warmers and handed them to Ben. I was still shiverring a bit from the cold, but knew I'd warm up quickly. Fortunately, nobody attacked from the gun. The first half of the circuit was mostly just low rolling hills, almost flat, ending with a long and winding downhill. It would be the first fast downhill on the new bike for me, and combined with my still-shaky arms it felt a little sketchy once we got up over 40 mph, so I was staying near the back of the group. When we got to a straight section the speed got up to 47 mph, at which point a rider in front of my suddenly got a speed wobble. I dragged the brakes and moved over in case he lost it, but somehow he recovered, although it opened up a big gap. After the downhill there was a right turn, and then a mile later the gravel. I about made contact again by the time we hit the gravel, but by then I was pretty gassed, and as usual for such conditions was having what you might call exercise induced asthma, which always seems to happen when it's cold and dry and I am at my limit. So anyway, most of the group rode away from me a that point as I trudged through the gravel climb that had grades up to about 9%. Once back on the asphalt, there was a bit of downhill that petered out a kilometer before the end of the lap. The final climb was pretty steep, with a little bit above 10%. I definitely gave the Di2 derailleurs and the 30-tooth cog a workout. Most of the rest of the race was essentially a moderate time trial for me. I caught and passed a few people, finishing 4th out of the 5 65+ riders, for whatever that's worth. It was nonetheless a pretty intense and badly needed workout for me.

TTT Start

For two of the Tulane riders, Ben and Liam, this would be their first actual road race. Dylan was still coming back from a bout with Giardia, and Josiah was not really in shape yet. Ben and Liam were doing great and staying with the lead group, which was quite impressive. Unfortunately someone ahead of Liam kind of lost it in the gravel on one of the laps and clipped Liam's front wheel causing him to crash. Fortunately they were going pretty slow at the time, but unfortunately he went down on the drive side and bent the derailleur hanger. He limped to the start/finish where I was standing and had to DNF since the shifting was all screwed up. At least he hadn't shifted into the spokes and ripped the derailleur off the bike. We were able to bend it back into shape in time for the after noon team time trial. Ben finished 11th out of 35, about a minute off the lead but still in good company, which was pretty great. Dylan and Josiah finished 21 and 22, also pretty respectible on such a hard course.

For the afternoon time trial they decided to do the team TT. For the "B" group the finish time would be taken on the 2nd rider, so the plan was for Josiah to burn himself out first, followed by Dylan doing a suicide pull, after which Ben and Liam would finish it off. It went more or less to plan, although I think they were disappointed not to have made the top three (they were 5th). None of them had ever done a team TT before, so it was actually a pretty good result. We had a great dinner at a place called Kabobalicious in Clarksville where the owner gave us some of his special hot sauce once he found out we were from New Orleans.

Sunday morning it was slightly warmer for the 8:00 am Cat. 4/5 criterium that had 40 riders on the line. The course was a silky smooth asphalt rectangle with mostly wide turns around a huge high school. It was only about half a mile around, so I was expecting a lot of riders to get lapped. The TU guys lined up right in front, which was good because one rider attacked hard from the gun and ended up lapping the field. 

Josiah and Dylan hung in as long as they could, Ben was looking reasonably comfortable in the front group, especially considering it was his first ever criterium, and Liam, who was coming down with a cold, was holding his own near the back of the front group. When they got down to about five laps to go Ben managed to move up into about 5th wheel, which was looking perfect, and I was fully expecting him to finish in the top five. As they came around the final corner, however, a rider dive-bombed the turn on the inside and made contact with Ben's front wheel. It was a miracle that he didn't go down, but of course that took him totally out of contention for the sprint since it was maybe 150 meters from the corner to the finish line. He finished 13th out of 40, so still an excellent result, with Liam finishing just behind him at 16th. I think Josiah was pulled along with about half the field, placing 22nd with Dylan 25th. Although I wish we'd had more riders make the trip, it was still a great start to the road season for everyone.

With bad weather predicted for that night, it was good that we didn't have anyone in the 1/2/3 race so we could leave early enough that they could take showers before checkout time. We got back to New Orleans around sunset, and well before the cold front that eventually came through around 2 am. The dog was pretty nervous about the lightning and thunder, so we were up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night.  This morning the temperature was around 40° and there was a 30 mph north wind with much higher gusts. Although the streets had almost dried up by 6 am, I don't think anyone rode. Around noon the sun came out, and with the temperature up to around 50, I went ahead and ventured out, quite over-dressed as it turned out, for a short ride on the levee. The wind was still around 20 mph, so it was mostly a battle with the handlebar since there was a crosswind for much of that route. Despite having ridden Saturday's race mostly at my own pace, I could still feel it in my legs Monday morning. The next two mornings are going to be quite cold, so I don't really know how that's going to go attendance-wise, but at least the wind will have died down a bit. I will be so happy when it gets warm again and I can breathe normally.