The course is held on an old golf course right off the river and not far from downtown. Very nice little park for sure.
Straight to the meat....
Had a great warm up in the hotel room. Which happened to be right across from the race. So sweet!!
Talked to a UCI official earlier in the morning to find out that we weren't going to get a hot lap. Hmmm, so what to do....Poach the course. Yep that's right...on to the course I went right after the start/finish paved start I go. Sweet off camber turn into a tight left, down a long fast grass straight away in front of the expo area, double barrier's, under the Green Monster Flyover, transition to pavement to grass off camber corner downhill. Uphill turn left hard around pine tree, drop into a hard packed sandpit with a sweet lip at the end. Down towards the back straight away after a little sidewalk transition. Hit the back straight away on cart path to mud/grass tight switch backs which then transitions into one hard packed sand pit to grass to a 20ft sand pit that was about crank deep. Right after that I yelled at by a UCI official to get off the course.
Oh well I would see the rest during the race. Just to give you all a hint I did hit the course a good pace, but I was still in the small ring rolling through it. I wanted to get a looksee then hit the throttle a little bit.
So they make the call to staging area for Masters 35+. The UCI official standing a the opening for only one cyclist to pass through at a time. Another official comes through and starts to make sure the numbers are on right, people are there, and the whole bit.
Had a great warm up in the hotel room. Which happened to be right across from the race. So sweet!!
Talked to a UCI official earlier in the morning to find out that we weren't going to get a hot lap. Hmmm, so what to do....Poach the course. Yep that's right...on to the course I went right after the start/finish paved start I go. Sweet off camber turn into a tight left, down a long fast grass straight away in front of the expo area, double barrier's, under the Green Monster Flyover, transition to pavement to grass off camber corner downhill. Uphill turn left hard around pine tree, drop into a hard packed sandpit with a sweet lip at the end. Down towards the back straight away after a little sidewalk transition. Hit the back straight away on cart path to mud/grass tight switch backs which then transitions into one hard packed sand pit to grass to a 20ft sand pit that was about crank deep. Right after that I yelled at by a UCI official to get off the course.
Oh well I would see the rest during the race. Just to give you all a hint I did hit the course a good pace, but I was still in the small ring rolling through it. I wanted to get a looksee then hit the throttle a little bit.
So they make the call to staging area for Masters 35+. The UCI official standing a the opening for only one cyclist to pass through at a time. Another official comes through and starts to make sure the numbers are on right, people are there, and the whole bit.
Next call ups...first Will Black, second Phil Noble, third some 3x Master Crit Champion and so on and so forth for the front row. Second row are the Ohio Valley top eight. Third row registrants in order ....ME! Look behind me 2 more rows of guys.
Starting official gives his spiel. He steps to the side gives a thirty second warning then proceeds to shoot the starting pistol.
Holy shit hits the fan...I'm not losing spots,yet, but I'm not gaining. Then all of the sudden the outside opens up and I make a move to that side I can see the front but I'm not in the front end of it that's for sure. The transition from pavement to grass goes smooth then the cart path in the middle cause's some to lose momentum. I move up a couple of spots then the first right hand hits and I'm on the inside not bad positioning. Then the off camber and some guys make crazy moves on the downslope and I lose some spots as I dive down into the left hander. I can still see the front guys pulling away, but I'm holding steady. Making it through the hard packed sand pit moving up a couple of positions I transition to the deep sand pit.
What comes next is great. At this time I haven't got out of the big ring and we were full gas into the sand pit almost through the it someone decides to stop right at the lip. At this point I have two choices 1. Hit him at full steam 2. Try my luck and go around him. Well I chose number 2... My front wheel burrows itself into the sand, coming to a complete stop. The problem was that the rest of my body wanted to keep forward momentum going and boy did it. If you can think of a catapult shooting a flaming ball of shit towards a castle, well that was me. A flaming ball of shit expecting I was heading towards the ground at mach speed, clipped in and with hands on the hoods.
My Giro covered melon is what brought my body to complete stop on the grass. Yep totally shoot me the hell out of the sand pit onto the ground. All I remember is that I hear is CRACK as my melon smacks the ground, then to add insult to injury my bike comes down on my limp body on the ground. I roll over holding my noggen, while my bike is laying out in the middle of the course. Several people run over grab my bike and pull it out of the way. A UCI official runs over to see if I need medical assistance. I tell him I'm fine but have a really bad headache. His reply is that "I'm not surprised because that was really ugly."
I sat there a couple of minutes while the pain subsided and I got my bearings. Check my helmet..no cracks, check the body only a small flesh wound. Off I go to find the boss. My day done I go across the street and clean up. The boss does an assessment of me and declares "You're Fine!" Then goes on to add "Have you thought about changing hobbies?" Wow! At that moment I really considered it.
Starting official gives his spiel. He steps to the side gives a thirty second warning then proceeds to shoot the starting pistol.
Holy shit hits the fan...I'm not losing spots,yet, but I'm not gaining. Then all of the sudden the outside opens up and I make a move to that side I can see the front but I'm not in the front end of it that's for sure. The transition from pavement to grass goes smooth then the cart path in the middle cause's some to lose momentum. I move up a couple of spots then the first right hand hits and I'm on the inside not bad positioning. Then the off camber and some guys make crazy moves on the downslope and I lose some spots as I dive down into the left hander. I can still see the front guys pulling away, but I'm holding steady. Making it through the hard packed sand pit moving up a couple of positions I transition to the deep sand pit.
What comes next is great. At this time I haven't got out of the big ring and we were full gas into the sand pit almost through the it someone decides to stop right at the lip. At this point I have two choices 1. Hit him at full steam 2. Try my luck and go around him. Well I chose number 2... My front wheel burrows itself into the sand, coming to a complete stop. The problem was that the rest of my body wanted to keep forward momentum going and boy did it. If you can think of a catapult shooting a flaming ball of shit towards a castle, well that was me. A flaming ball of shit expecting I was heading towards the ground at mach speed, clipped in and with hands on the hoods.
My Giro covered melon is what brought my body to complete stop on the grass. Yep totally shoot me the hell out of the sand pit onto the ground. All I remember is that I hear is CRACK as my melon smacks the ground, then to add insult to injury my bike comes down on my limp body on the ground. I roll over holding my noggen, while my bike is laying out in the middle of the course. Several people run over grab my bike and pull it out of the way. A UCI official runs over to see if I need medical assistance. I tell him I'm fine but have a really bad headache. His reply is that "I'm not surprised because that was really ugly."
I sat there a couple of minutes while the pain subsided and I got my bearings. Check my helmet..no cracks, check the body only a small flesh wound. Off I go to find the boss. My day done I go across the street and clean up. The boss does an assessment of me and declares "You're Fine!" Then goes on to add "Have you thought about changing hobbies?" Wow! At that moment I really considered it.
We go check out Louivull after watching the pro's and ran into two miles of this....
At night this was something to see. Cars were lined up both ways just looking at all of the decorations. What's funny is that they said they don't do Christmas as good as this.
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