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Tour LeFleur
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Saturday's crit was really a circuit race in a beautiful neighborhood with about one-half of the course a series of climbs and false flats and the other one-half a wide open, very fast descent to the start finish area. I raced in the Masters category with teammates Rick Selby and Charlie Davis. Our field was small - about 20 guys - but very strong with Tom Bain, Jorge Merle, some other fit Texans, Chuck Morre, Jerry Simon, and a bunch of Olympus team members who turned out to be very aggressive the whole weekend. The race started slow but that lasted until about one minutes into the race and halfway through the first climb and that was that. Olympus rider after Olympus rider attacked, and the elastic finally broke with David Field getting away by himself and the rest of us looking at one another exhausted from chasing his Olympus teammates repeatedly up the climb. A few laps later, Chuck Moore illustrated why he is one of the best Masters riders around with a strong acceleration right before the steepest part of the climb. He quickly was followed by Olympus rider Ed Chapman, and the rest of us just didn't have the firepower to keep up. Those climbs were getting steeper and steeper every time around. There was a lot of attacking action after that, and I don't think that my brain had enough oxygen at that point to store away all the moves in my memory. But, in the end, Ed Chapman and Chuck Moore were away for good to take 1st and 2nd, respectively. We swept up David Field somewhere along the way. I finished 9th and Rick 12th (I think) after an almost 40 mph sprint at the bottom of the hill among all of us in the chase group. Charlie had a rough day. His heart decided to act up right at the start, and he did the smart thing and sat out the race. Other results were Noel Puentes winning the 3/4 crit with a reported 42 mph sprint right in front of Branden Morvant who continues to impress with a strong 6th place finish. Chris did well in the Cat 5 field, but I cannot remember exactly how he finished as I was off warming up during his race. Amy also had a good day with a 2nd place finish in the women's field, and Tim Reagan was the man again in the Pro 1/2 field with a solo win right in front of a desperately chasing and very stong Gary Zerieck. Ben Schuler straggled in with some chasers after what looked like a very tough race. Sunday morning's RR took us to Flora, Mississippi and a very beautiful, rolling 22 mile course. Rick Selby, Peter Stephens, Mark Delaney, and I lined up for the Masters race. Our rivals all must have gotten a good night's sleep on Saturday night because the attacks started almost from the gun. Olympus again were the main aggressors, and we took turns with the other teams pulling them back. Peter, in particular, was the NOBC workhorse and managed to keep things together for the first lap. Peter reported before our race that he was there to race into fitness, and he wasn't giving himself a break. Count three thankful teammates for Peter's training through racing program. At any rate, about a quarter of the way into the last lap, I had a momentary lapse of good judgment and counterattacked the field when we rolled up to another ill fated breakaway attempt. I got a gap and kept rolling with hopes that a few other riders might bridge up to me and then we'd be in business with a break that would stick. Plus, I figured that I owed it to Peter. My scheme did not work out as planned, however, and the group were content to let me dangle about 20 seconds off the front for what seemed like an eternity. They reeled me in about 8 miles or so from the finish. Thankfully, there were no immediate counterattacks, and I had a chance to rest. But it didn't last long. Olympus went on the attack again and, after several failed attemps, managed to get one rider up the road. He got to about 15 seconds, and we let him sit right there until the last few ks when everyone started lining up for the sprint. The Olympus rider tried to snap the elastic a few times, but Mark was having none of it. Mark overcame his cramping to keep the gap constant for a while and then started closing it down as the finished approached. He shot up to the front as soon as the pace slowed and ramp it up again to keep the chase alive. Then Rick rolled up and told me that he'd bring me to the line. Our team was clicking, and I felt like Lance. And Rick delivered. The last 1.5k was a furious drag race as the course was pretty wide open, the road surface good, and a tailwind at our backs. Rick put me right in position to finish a respectable 4th with Tom Bain winning, Jerry Simon 2nd, and Ed Chapman from Olympus 3rd. I think that Rick finished right behind me. Not sure exactly how Mark and Peter ended up, but they earned their share of the prize money, that's for sure. Other RR results for NOBC riders were a decent middle of the pack finish for Chris in the Cat 5 race, another impressive finish for Brandon at 7th in the RR and 6th in the ominium, and a great 15th place finish for Amy in the (get this) 3/4 RR. Noel finished 6th in the RR which bumped him to 2nd in the ominium, and Ben redeemed himself and officially ended his slump with a strong 6th place finish in the Pro 1/2 race. |
