2010 MS Gran Prix Team Geaux Race Cat 5 Report

2010 MS Gran Prix Team Geaux Race Cat 5 Report
Road Race
Kevin, Gregg, Rupert and Chris L. aka “747 Jumbo Jet” participated in the Cat 5 road race on Saturday morning. After a good warm up we waited for the start, which happened to be on top of a hill. The race began and 75 racers accelerated from 0 to 30 mph in about a minute, Kevin was the only team member to stay in the front of the pack. Gregg, me and Rupert were at the back of the pack when in the first 2 miles a large crash of carbon fiber, aluminum and riders hit the pavement blocking the entire road. Gregg, Rupert and I made it through unharmed but we lost the leaders and never would see them again. The rest of the race for us was uneventful until the town of Wesson where the arrows marking the course got us confused with the arrows marking the circuit race. The rider in front of Gregg actually turned around to head the opposite direction, which made Gregg do the same then we figured it out and continued in the right direction. On the second big climb of the race, Gregg was able to drop me and eventually catch and pass a couple of other riders prior to the finish. I continued on to the finish by myself as did Rupert who was a few minutes behind me. Kevin maintained his position with the lead pack and was able to sprint to a 11th place finish, great job Kevin!
We had hoped to stay with the main pack longer to learn some things but the crash prevented that and taught us a valuable lesson, stay in front of the pack if possible. We plan to increase our training to better our chances of hanging on when the pack surges.
Time Trial
Saturday afternoon found us warming up on the 3 mile time trial course, which was actually pretty nice with some gradual ups and downs. Rupert went off first, then me, Kevin and Gregg at 30 second intervals. At about half way through the race I was closing the distance on Rupert, which I later found out was having back issues. At about 2 K to go Kevin passed me then a few seconds later the rider that started behind Gregg flew by me at about 35 mph. Kevin passed Rupert in the last few meters but the fast guy passed both of them, which meant he passed up all four of our team riders for a 2 minute gain! That guy went on to post a 6.08 winning time. Kevin averaged 24.4 mph for the race, Gregg 23, Chris 22.2 and Rupert 21.5, great job by all.
Circuit Race
The circuit race course was a 1 mile trek through a community college campus with one gradual climb, one short steep climb and a few downhill’s. The course was actually pretty fast and not too tight. The start field was less than 40 riders, which was good. Team Geaux Race started to the back as the leaders again pushed the pace very fast at the beginning of the race. Gregg, Rupert and I fell off the back and after a few laps we exited the course and watched the race from the sidelines. Kevin fell from the lead group but hung in to finish the race. The final sprint of the 10 or so riders in the lead pack resulted in a 2 rider crash; both were bruised but walked away.

Overall Kevin finished 18th out of the 75 riders that started, great job!

Lessons Learned
1. Stay in front of the pack if you can.
2. Increase interval training to be able to hang when the pack surges, i.e. training races.

CPLemoine@dow.com