The Racing Rapides stage race was in Alexandria over the weekend and here's my recap of the fun:
Due to losing Frenchy to a flat tire in the first lap of the road race, and Brian and I getting dropped 2/3's of the way through the second lap, Tim didn't get much help in the Masters 35+/45+. Then Tim and I weren't there for Sunday's crit to defend our 4th and 8th place GC standings in the 45+.
Brian took charge of the peloton most of the first part of the first lap of the road race. He was out there punching the wind with a couple of other guys, staying around 26-27 mph most of the time. Being my first road race since September, I sat in and played it safe to regain the feel of a pack. I had two goals: be with the pack after the first lap (which I did) and, if I was going to get dropped, to finish the 44-mile race in under two hours (which I did in 1:58). The first lap of our Masters race was only two minutes slower than the Cat. 1-2-3's, meaning the breakaway that PMarr was in. We crunched the first 14.5 miles in 37 minutes or 23.5 mph average.
The fastest we went was on a flat stretch of road at 38.3 mph while we were chasing Tim on his first breakaway attempt early in the second lap. I'm spinning 110-120 in my 12 but we only held that for a few seconds, bringing it down to 32 for a good while longer. For several miles after that, Tim, Brian, and I occupied the front 4-5 positions in the peloton. No formal rotating pacelines (can't do that in a pack anyways)...whoever got up front just drove the pace for a while 'til the next person came up. No breaks were succeeding for long. We drove up the first hill of the second lap at 28 mph and I was thinking this was only going to get harder and less fun for me.
We lost Joe when he flatted and he took himself out of the race. The pack didn't slow down a bit and Joe would have never caught back on solo. Then halfway on that long stretch of hills on Lap 2, I couldn't stay with the pack even though I was climbing way faster than I usually do which would be good enough to stick but not this time. A while later I see Brian and V Liberto (NBO) off the back and I bridge up to them. The rest of the race would be us three picking up stranglers, especially a number of Cat. 4 riders from the race ahead of us. At one time we had nine riders all together although we'd lose three of those (one of them was a guy from ProBike who was 2nd GC after the TT in the 45+) by the end of the three laps. My quads started hurtin' & crampin' the last two miles and I was barely hanging onto the group. I gave it one more shot to get past for a chance at the sprint but it wasn't happening. I just rolled in since time was not a factor in these races, getting 11th. That left me in 8th place GC with 10 points.
The time trial was a little tougher than I thought it would be. A couple of nice hills to climb over after some screaming decents which usually left you in the wrong gear for the climb. I ended up doing the TT twice...the first time a truck/boat combo got in my way at the start, leaving me doing a trackstand for a few moments, but I continued on in case I couldn't get a re-start. I got an estimated 7:18 on that run and I used up a lot of calories to even get that. The officials allowed me the re-start so I lined up behind the 1-2-3's as the last rider and gave it another go. I was still tired from the first run but I was lots braver on the decents and smarter on the gearing, so I ended up with a 7:04 for 6th place of 16 in the Master 45+ group. I was happy being only 9 seconds slower than this guy from New Orleans who was in 5th place, and within 11 seconds of 4th place. Tim, of course, won the TT with a 6:36 but it was not one of his better rides.
It was nice to get back in the peloton again. Hopefully, I'll do okay in Natchez next weekend.
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