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| Random leftover trophies for the TT |
I had to go back to the NOBC Results website to see how long we've been doing the TT championship on the LaPlace course. Turns out it started in 2009. The event was put on by NBO for the first few years, with some assistance from the NOBC, but time trials on that course go back way farther than that.
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| Super-rare photo of me in a TT |
In the 80s we did some two-turnaround 40 km and I think some 10 km time trials out there, starting from the Ruddock boat launch, and at one point in 1982 we held a national record attempt there sponsored by the Baton Rouge club. From the NOBC Newsletter, "Brian was shooting for records in the 75, 100, 125, and150 mile time trials, but the 95 degree heat and increasing wind forced him to end his attempt at 125 miles. Nonetheless, Brian set new National records for 75 miles (3.09.18), 100 miles (4:16:42), and 125 miles (5:38:37) before nearly collapsing at the 125 mile turn-around. Brian's first two 25 mile times were 1.02 s, and his 100 mile record represents four 1:04 time trials back-to-back." That year Brian also set a Louisiana 25 mile TT record of 56:09. This was before Time Trial bikes and aero helmets. Yesterday, at the LAMBRA TT championships, only ten riders went under an hour. The winning time this year came from Mat Davis with a 53:13, still a bit afar from the course record of 49:32 set in 2023 by Matt Govero.
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| Thursday afternoon make-up miles. Levee bike path status unchanged. |
The week had started off with more rain, ensuring that the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive remained flooded. It's still flooded as I write. Wednesday's WeMoRi route was altered because of that, going around the Elysian Fields traffic circle and then back to the Canal Blvd. spur before returning to LSD and Marconi. It was a fast one. Thursday's weather was not looking too promising, but I really thought the rain would hold off until 9 am or so. It didn't. We got in the Lakeshore Drive part, but somewhere between Bonnabel and Causeway it started to rain. That turned into a full deluge within minutes, but at least it was brief and the temperature was warm.
Then around midday I was sitting at the computer when the lights suddenly went out. Just some of them. I thought a breaker must have tripped, so went down to the basement and checked them, multiple times, but they all looked fine. Since the lights that seemed to be out were the ceiling lights that still run on knob and tube wiring and for some reason go through a little two-fuse box hidden behind a kitchen cabinet, I thought maybe one of those had blown. Nope, those were fine. I called and set up an appointment for an electrician to come out because I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then of course the lights started working again, so I went out for a ride. When I got back, the house was hot and I wondered if there had been a power surge that had knocked out the a/c. I went outside and saw the condenser fan turning at about 10 rpm. Hmmm. I called the a/c people to schedule someone for the next morning, but after more investigation I realized that the main problem was that the house wasn't getting full power and that one of the two legs coming into the panel must not be fully powered. I called Branden, who works for Entergy, and half an hour later there was a truck half a block away where a tree branch had taken out one of the power lines. After much tree-pruning they fixed the fallen wire and everything was back to normal except for the piles of oak tree branches left behind. I spent a couple of hours cutting and bundling the ones in front of our house the following day.
Friendly Friday had a big turnout and was therefore predictably fast, but I was mostly hiding out in the group thinking about everything I'd have to pull together for Sunday's Time Trial. I had earlier started up the little generator that I use for races to make sure it was running OK. It ran great for a minute or two, then the RPMs went through the roof and something electrical inside blew up. I knew we could run the race clock and printer from my Jackery power station, so all we'd really lose would be the big P/A system. Fortunately I had two functional megaphones on hand, so no worries there. At one point on Friday the Sewerage & Water Board guys showed up to fix the fire hydrant on the corner that has been leaking since April of 2025. Finally. True to form, they spent about half the time sitting around talking while one guy with a shovel worked and two other trucks loitered nearby.
By the time registration for the Time Trial closed late Friday night we had around 45 riders, which was more or less what we had last year. We've had around 100 in the past, but that was then and this is now. I knew there would be a few late additions, of course.
We had a good turnout for the Saturday Giro, and with Norman Nolan in town, plus some of the usual workhorses, I knew it was going to be a fast one. It was. The average speed from the bridges out to Venetian Isles, around 15 miles, was just a shade under 28 mph. We lost a few riders along the way, especially along Hayne Blvd. where it practically never dropped below 29 and occasionally surged up to 33 mph. Fortunately I wasn't having a bad day and stayed with the front group, thanks mainly to Todd who bridged me across a gap at 32 mph when a couple of riders ahead of us blew up. As I'd expected, when I got home I had two or three people who wanted to register late, which wasn't a problem since I hadn't put together the start list yet. I finally got that posted and emailed out around noon, and then spent a couple of hours sorting through which things I'd need to bring - clipboards, computer, printer, power pack, stopwatches, signage, tables, tents, megaphones, chairs, medals, and trophies. During the day Branden stopped by to pick up the podium and traffic cones, and Charles came by to pick up a cooler for water and ice. That made packing up the car Sunday morning a whole lot easier.
The trophies I mentioned earlier weren't exactly regular trophies, per se. These were mostly trophies leftover from the 2020 NOLA Motorsports Speed Festival that had been cancelled at the last minute because of the COVID pandemic. There were also a few other trophies from races where people hadn't picked them up or where there had been more trophies than finishers. So we handed those out at random to the winners of the categories and age groups. I was glad to finally get them out of my basement, and they looked good in the photos, anyway. So on Sunday morning Candy and I loaded up the car and got out to Cajun Pride Swamp Tours a bit after 6 am to start setting up. By 6:30 volunteers and riders started arriving, and by 7:45 we were ready to give final instructions to the volunteers and start the stopwatches. We had 48 riders on the start list, although a few didn't show up. Aside from a couple of DNFs due to flat tires, things went pretty smoothly, and we were back home well before noon, after which I posted the results to the website and sent out notifications to the riders. Ty's podium photos are on the NOBC Facebook Page.
Some time after that I clicked on a text message that Pat had sent earlier. I had assumed it was just a photo he'd taken at the race. It wasn't. Charles had given Pat a ride to the race, and they had both worked the whole thing, heading back home just behind me. Unfortunately, Charles' car didn't make it all the way back. His clutch failed on the Causeway overpass over I-10, leaving them stranded for a while. They were both eventually extracted and the car taken to the VW dealer, but after spending a hot and sweaty morning and being almost in sight of home and air-conditioning and food, it must have been rough.
