The Joe Martin Stage Race, or JMSR, as it's affectionately know, was a tough race. I went in very fit and felt great the first day against a stacked Masters A field. The hill climb time trial went ok and the road race not too bad after making the final cut among the strong men on a very challenging course and finishing 14th in our group of 16 in the final sprint with some bad cramping. The criterium was a disaster for me though and one I would like to forget ever happened. Normally I recover well for the second day of racing but not this day. The JMSR criterium course is one of the toughest in the country and it will weed out the weak, and I was definitely weak this day. I managed to hang in the top echelon of riders until 5 laps to go when my legs finally had had enough on the tough finishing hill. I popped like a plastic cork on a cheap bottle of champaigne and it was not pretty. Everyone was on hand to witness it and so it was time to swallow some pride and ride as hard as I could to keep from getting lapped, which could easily happen if I wasn't careful. I managed to find a good rhythm and kept my speed up after a recovery lap and never came too close to getting lapped, but my pride was showing some road rash and I needed to deal with it quickly so it didn't ruin what really was an awesome weekend of racing and spending time with a good friend. So I worked some psychotherapy magic on myself and found my happy place for the rest of the day and enjoyed my time sitting in the sun.
The OKC Velo Pirates after the final JSMR stage
L to R: Jay Hawkins, Frank Jakofcich, Hunter East, Me, Johnny LaSorsa, Bruce Tanner
After the JMSR I took a couple of weekends off racing and also managed an entire weekend without riding before the Racing Rapides Stage Race. The weekend without riding, as I shall call it, was the most relaxing two days I've had in years, and it was good. Actually, it was AWESOME, and no doubt helped me gain a little more enthusiasm for upcoming races.
So with a fresh attitude and somewhat fresh legs, the usual suspects loaded up on the Rockstar bus (Hunter, Evan, me and Kris) and headed down to Alexandria on Friday. After having dinner at the House of Butter and Salt, I mean, the Outback Steak House, we drove 45 minutes outside of town into a national forest to setup and get some rest before an early race start Saturday morning. Hunter had decided to race the 1,2,3 race as his son Evan had just upgraded to Cat 3 after an awesome 2nd place overall at JMSR in the Cat 4 field. Hunter not only wanted to look out after Evan in his debut cat 3 event but it was also a good chance for them to race together before Evan starts what is assuredly an early professional career in another year or two :) I was left to fly the Jolly Roger for the OKC Velo Pirates in the Masters field by myself.
My awesome parking job in Alexandria at packet pick-up.
Our 65 mile rolling hill race started at 8:30 Saturday morning and promised to be a very warm and humid day, just like I like it. The course was much hillier than I thought it would be. I'm always surprised when I come across hills in Louisiana, but they do have some and this area was no different. In fact, while none of them were very severe, there were a few that were long and steep enough that some of the guys were going to suffer, so I took it upon myself to set a difficult'ish tempo on each one so as not to burn any of my matches, but make sure some of the weaker guys were softening up a little. Donald Davis, reigning LAMBRA (Louisiana Mississippi Bicycle Racing Association) masters champion was racing with us and as always, very fit and strong. Donald won the Rouge Roubaix race the past two years along with almost every stage race I've entered in the past 12 months. He is very fast and can time trial with the best of them. But Donald was riding without any teammates like I was and we both had to be vigilant in order to keep any threatening groups from riding away from us. One small group managed to get a 45 second gap on us about 25 miles into the race and Donald and I were the only ones willing and able to make a chase. So we started working to bring these guys back and it was about 5 miles of hard pulling, just him and I before he attacked me when I was in the middle of a long pull. I had no more speed in my legs, hell, I was riding as hard as I could, and he knew this was a good time to get rid of me and bridge up to the break alone. It was a smart move on his part and it definitely put me under some pressure. No one in the group would help me so I kept chasing, heart rate pegged and hoping my legs could withstand the pressure for a few more miles, which was what it was going to take to bring these guys back. But I got lucky and guys started trying to jump across to the break, when this happened, I was able to start grabbing wheels and getting short rests before going back to the front and pulling again. We finally caught the front group and now I could begin licking my wounds and recovering. After some time sitting on wheels, another strong attack went up the road with Donald and I was easily able to bridge up to them and the best part of it was knowing that I was recovering from hard efforts really well.
The race was moving on and the temps were rising. We were about 15 miles away from the finish and again, never having seen this course before, had decided to ride every hard hill at the front to control to tempo and put some guys under pressure. At 10 miles to go, a hill rose up in front of us and as usual, I went to the head of the group, after a few minutes of hard riding we came around a corner and the road continued up as far as we could see. Donald noticed everyone was hurting and he came around me with a hard attack. This was it, do or die. I went with Donald and we quickly starting sharing the pace. I looked back and all I could see were the three guys we had drug along with us. Everyone else had dissappeared and now the work began. Donald and I continued to trade pulls but the other men refused to work. About five miles to go and we convinced Glenn Richard of Acadiana Bicycle Company Racing to help us. His pulls were short, which didn't give Donald and I much time to recover, but they were better than nothing and we weren't going to refuse any help. We continued to work hard in hopes of putting as much time on the guys behind us as we could. I was also hoping to drop some of our breakaway companions knowing they were all in various stages of dehydration and cramps but they all managed to stay on much to my displeasure. The finish was looming and now we were all starting to think about the final 600 meter long hill to the line.
As we rode closer to the finish, the cat and mouse games started and I found myself at the front when I really didn't want to be. Hell, I had been working my butt off for the last 10 miles and I had no intention of letting these guys jump me at the finish line. We're almost to the bottom of the hill and no one was pulling through, and to make it worse, our speed was dropping considerably. This wasn't good for me. I knew if we were going slow enough, Donald would be able to jump hard and put a gap on me that would be difficult to make-up on the finishing hill. So I decided to take control of the finish and went as hard as I could once we hit the bottom of the hill. I sprinted from the front of our group and managed to surprised them I think. I established a small gap and went as hard as I could knowing this was my only chance to get the Win. I was able to hold them off until the false flat for the final two hundred meters when I looked back and saw them gaining on me. I had been sprinting the hill for over 400 meters and there wasn't much left in the tank. The legs were screaming and starting to shut down, but no one had pulled up next to me yet and as I inched closer to the line I was starting to realize I had a chance to win this thing. I managed one last acceleration to the line with about 50 meters to go and rolled over in first place. Holly cow!!! I couldn't believe I won, AND I beat Donald Davis in the process! I was in so much pain crossing the line I couldn't manage a victory salute, but rather dropped my head and coasted down the backside of the hill. I turned around once I stopped seeing stars only to see Hunter and Evan chasing after me. I think they were happier for me than I was at the time. It was a great day but it wasn't over yet so no time for victory celebrations.
The TT was to be a short and painful 3 miler that was mostly uphill. I'm not a good time trial rider. But I'm not bad either, so the strategy was simple, go to my max and stay there from the gun. It hurt and my time was OK, which put me in 3rd place on the stage and 2nd place behind Donald Davis on GC. Hunter, Evan and Kris all rode strong time trials and afterwards, we pack up the bus and headed back to downtown Alexandria to find an urban camping spot for the evening. After a short oil pressure warning light scare, we successfully made our way to the spot where Kris and Evan had located for us on a recon run earlier that evening in the tow car. We were parked right on the crit course in a vacant parking lot with a live oak and a small patch of grass for our front yard. It was just like home!
Sunday morning I woke up early feeling good after a good night's sleep. It was nice being able to take my time with some morning coffee and breakfast as well as race prep. The early starts make for hectic mornings so the added time helped me keep my calm before the inevitable storm that was about to happen for the GC battle.
My race was the first to go off at 10:20, Hunter et al wouldn't start until 12:20 that afternoon which meant they were all still in relaxation mode as I was getting my gear sorted for my warm-up routine. I managed to get a long warm up knowing it would be critical for a solid race performance after all the work I did the day before. The legs were feeling good during the warm up but this was only my second criterium of the season so I was a little nervous about making sure I was going to be smooth and fast in the 8 corner .8 mile course.
Our race was planned for 50 minutes complete with a hot spot time bonus sprint thrown in somewhere in the middle of the race to keep things exciting. Glenn Richard was sitting in third place overall, just 3 seconds behind me, and Donald was 10 seconds ahead of me leading into Sunday's race. Donald would be riding to protect his lead and Glenn was gunning for me. It was going to be a fun race. The race started without too much incident and the pace was moderately fast most of the day. I was never under pressure and after only a few laps of the course at speed, I was getting the feel for this type of racing again. The Hot Spot sprint was announced and I positioned myself to gain a few seconds over my rivals, the only problem was, there wasn't a long steep hill to sprint up and these guys were a little faster than me in a straight, flat finish. Glenn and Donald both pipped me at the line and I was dangerously close to losing my second place, never mind getting closer to Donald. But I was still in 2nd place overall with half the race left to go. The only thing to do now was make sure Glenn didn't take anymore time away from me with the time bonuses available at the finish. I also wanted to take time out of Donald but to be honest, wasn't feeling too confident as he had been marking Glenn and I all race and he is plenty strong enough to bridge up to us in the event we managed to get away. So, rightly or wrongly, I had decided to try and defend my 2nd place overall.
The race came down to the final lap. We had one rider off the front, Todd Lafleur, who had been in the break with us in the road race the day before. I thought we had caught Todd two laps from the finish as I was riding his wheel in the last lap. It turns out we had lapped a rider I thought was Todd and so, as it turns out, I wasn't riding Todd's wheel, I was riding Todd's teammate's wheel. Ugh, I hate it when I make that kind of mistake. Todd was off the front by about 15 seconds as we were starting our final lap, but because there were so many turns on this tight course, he was out of sight and I wasn't aware he was still away. So I thought we would be sprinting for the win and was planning to attack before the final corner and get a good gap for the final 300 meter headwind sprint to the finish line. However, Glenn had other ideas and his teammate Kevin Landry (the dude with the biggest quads in Louisiana) went to the front and rode such a hard tempo there was no way I was going to be able to jump him and maintain a lead for the last 300+ meters. I Sprinted in with the main group for a disappointing 6th place. Glenn won the field sprint which gave him a 6 second time bonus and moved him to 2nd place overall and me down to third or possibly 4th, depending on Todd's time gap ahead of us. It turns out I salvaged the 3rd podium spot for the GC which made the long drive home that evening slightly more tolerable.
Start Line of the Crit
Hot Spot Sprint - 4th place, no time bonus for me
Good picture of my butt sitting on Bennie's wheel
Top three GC Left to Right: Donald Davis, Glenn Richard, Me
A special thanks to Bennie Flores' wife for taking these photos.
Hunter ended up winning the 1,2,3 race out of a break of about 6 riders with an impressive sprint that actually gave him a time gap from his breakaway companions. Hunter's win moved him into 3rd overall but unfortunately, with Kris missing the break, he moved down to 6th overall. Evan clipped a pedal coming out of a corner and fell heavily which resulted in another rider riding/crashing over him. I noticed Evan not coming around with the group but the other rider who ran into Evan had come in for his free lap. I ran up to the guy (John Dias) and asked him if Evan was ok, he thought he was and said that Evan was with a Police officer who was controlling traffic but John couldn't really tell me where Evan was. After what seemed like an eternity, Evan finally came walking up with his jersey off and bibs ripped up, showing road rash all over his body. I felt so bad for him but the adrenaline was obviously still pumping because he was smiling and didn't appear to have any serious injuries. Of course, anyone who has had a hard bicycle crash knows the worst part is usually the shower after, not the crash itself. So we got Evan to the bus and I proceeded with the clean-up routine and it wasn't pretty. I think Evan wanted to punch me for the pain I was causing him, but it was necessary to prevent infections and he manned up and took it. After a tortuous shower and lots of primal noises coming from the shower stall, I bandaged him up and helped Hunter and Kris get the bus packed up. Evan endured a time honored right of passage for cyclists this Sunday. It was his first serious crash and road rash clean up process. And while it was probably one of the most painful experiences of his short life, he earned his Man Card this day. A good day indeed.
Wins and man cards. Fantastic!
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