Mississippi Gran Prix

We were on the defensive all weekend. We've decided to employ a new tactic this weekend, however when most of us are just trying to not get dropped, tactics are as useful as tits on a bull. We did have some moments of greatness, but I told Frank that I felt like we brought a knife to a gun fight. It was by far the fastest racing I've done in Mississippi since the hey-day's of the Tour le Fleur when there were 200 pros there.

Anyway, the Friday night crit was just insane. I felt like I was in Athens. We were staying near the front, but were still a long way from being at the front or off the front. I took a couple of fliers, which didn't even last a full lap (except the first one) and Bain, Tim, and Jake were about the same. I got positioned well in the final few laps but got bumped really hard with a couple of corners to go and sprinted my brains out for 14th. As hard as we were going in the pack, Michael Olheiser was off the front, towing a guy that did the tours of California and Georgia last year. The guy sat his wheel for 10 or more laps and won the sprint @ about 25 seconds in front of the pack.

The RR was an exercise in humility. We were at the limit the entire time and got ourselves handicapped pretty early due to some really unfortunate blunders. First, we took on Clark Butcher for the weekend. Clark flatted about 10 miles into the race and Scott stopped to help. The roads were wet so there were flats everywhere, so they never caught. Then at about 45 miles, there was a 6 man break that blasted past me as i was off the front. I never got on, so as the pack came up, I was screaming that we need to chase. Bain said something to me and I thought he said "go to the front." Anyway, there we were, Frank, Jake, Tim, and myself chasing our brains out to bring the crit winner back for about 10 miles. The whole time Bain was off the back with a flat with Chris A and Woody. We had no idea. Bain finally caught, but his race was basically over. Chris gave Bain his wheel and Woody was done. I never knew he flatted until the race was over. We did our very best to screw ourselves. Jake and Frank finished in the front group, but there was a small gap in front of them.

The TT was slower than this year for most people. Bain was not feeling his best and neither was Frank from the morning RR, but Jacob was the suprise of the day rolling a 8:06 for 10th place.

Then the final Crit at the Co-lin college was really epic. As they called out names it started storming. Only for about 10 minutes, but the roads were wet. However these riders were as about professional as you will find and there was a really gentle pace in the corners and an insane pace on the straights. The streets started to dry after about 40 minutes and every lap was faster than the last. Nothing would get off the front and last and Tim was really one of the strongest guys there. For a while some of us just felt like "also-rans". But with about 5 laps to go, there was a dangerous 6 man break off the front and Clark and I wnet to the front and gave some last ditch efforts. This evidently destroyed the field becuase only about 25 riders came across the line the final time (they were pulling dropped riders). One lap to go and Micheal O asked Tim to get on his wheel, making a deal, but one of those Metro VW a-holes hooked Mike hard putting Tim on his head in the gravel and mud. Hotel San Jose finished the crit 1-2-3 and Tim finished in the golf cart with a concussion. I think Tim might have pulled something off. He was riding that strong.

We didn't ride bad, but we really had no luck, no opportunities to capitalize on. It was a long drive home. And San Jose just dominated everyone except Mike O.

KB