Baylor University Race Weekend 2011

So this past weekend we loaded up the trailer and set course for Waco, TX. Yeah, also known as Middle of Nowhere, as well as the place where they had that incident in 1993. Honestly, folks, that's all I could remember about Waco until I found out that the Dr. Pepper Museum was only a couple of blocks over from the hotel (too bad we couldn't visit). Regardless, we got to the hotel room after a long car ride on Friday and I wolfed down a can of beans with onions and salsa before getting some sleep. Sleep was a major priority considering we were all pretty tired from travelling.

There's seriously a town called Cut and Shoot, TX.

The sunset was beautiful on Friday.

Saturday morning consisted of breakfast with the Rice and MSU teams at the hotel and then an early departure to the road race. Once we arrived, the race officials directed us to a field where we were to set up our bikes. Okay, no problem. But upon opening the car door, I remembered what goes in fields. Cows. Cows that leave their dung everywhere. We also saw some cacti growing, which made riding our bikes to the road a bit tricky.

Almost stepped on this not-so-little surprise while exiting the car

Yeah, that's the first wild cactus I've ever seen.

The road race went pretty smoothly, and David got a pretty decent placing in the Category D race. I was in contention for a top 10 spot but wiped out when a couple of riders went down in front of me. Fortunately, I landed in a ditch after hitting the pavement, which was convenient. My knee was extremely sore (probably from my bike clipping itself out for me during the fall), but I can remember yelling at the people in the follow car (that stopped to assist us) to "help the kid who's down." Whoops, I forgot that all of us that crashed were still down when I said that. Actually, a rider from Rice sounded seriously injured, and I vividly remember watching him hit the road before wiping out myself. Not the best memory to be seared into my brain. Once I was able to get up I walked over to him and made sure his head was still in the game by asking him his name, the date, etc. He seemed to be doing okay but I told him not to move while some race volunteers called the ambulance. He was at breakfast the next day and we found out that he had a broken collar bone, some stitches, and no concussion, which is very fortunate considering how hard he went down. All of Tulane Cycling was relieved to hear that he didn't suffer any head injuries.

Those of us that walked away from the crash (and still had functioning bikes) lined up to get back into the race when I noticed that everything around me was brighter. Apparently I had lost my Oakleys in the crash, and I rushed to go find my sunglasses under a mound of dirt while those riders headed off. After getting back on course, another group of Category D riders came along and helped pull me to the finish. Another teammate of mine tweaked his knee in the race and finished right at the back of that group. In addition to the Category D road race injuries, a Category C rider for Tulane also wiped out (twice). It was a sore Saturday for all of us.

At least I finished in one piece.

Not so bad after all.

Next item to purchase: new bib shorts.

We had almost identical injuries on opposite sides of our bodies.

Saturday afternoon was a bit warmer (read: 95 degrees Fahrenheit), and we got to the course set up our bikes for the team time trial. The men's team captain informed David and I that we were to race in Category C for the time trial, which made us feel all the better (pause, not). We hydrated as best we could and rolled up to the start line. The race was only 9 miles or so, but the heat got to us, and the uphill finish wasn't easy. One teammate in Category B almost suffered a heat stroke and took a while to normalize after finishing his race. Not a fun way to end the day.

Getting ready to line up for the team time trial.

Category C time trial finish.

After showering and going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, we returned to the hotel for some rest before Sunday's crits. A few of us watched some Comedy Central before bed, which was pretty entertaining.

We got some good Mexican food.

Sunday morning rolled around and we headed off to the criterium course. I had to run back into the hotel to grab my leg warmers since the temperature dropped about 45 degrees overnight. Great. After setting up our bikes, David and I warmed up for the Category D race. Once the crit started, he pedaled into the lead group while I hung back with some Rice riders. We worked our way forward until the end of the race, and after looking at the results, David and I came in 5th and 7th, respectively. Not too bad for a cold day.

It was cold.

Very cold.

Make-me-bitter cold.

And someone needed to bring a vuvuzela.

Not bad!

During the long ride home, we hung out, ate cake, and shot the breeze. Remember when I said I'd be able to cope with Waco if there were cupcakes? Cake does the trick too.

LSU Race Weekend 2011 - Carpe Diem

Hey y'all,

First of all, listen to this video while you read (it will put you in a good mood):

Yeah, we played some pre-race tunes to get into the groove of things.

It works.

This race weekend at Louisiana State University was packed with above average performances by many of our riders. It started out with a Saturday morning team time trail on River Road, followed by a criterium on LSU's campus in the afternoon. The road race was held Sunday morning and had higher-than-normal distances for each racing category. Two Tulane cyclists won all three races in their respective divisions, and many other teammates gained top 10 finishes (and other assorted wins) in their races. We seized the day (I mean weekend).

Saturday morning's sunrise over the levee

Teammate going over paperwork-related shenanigans with a race official

That stadium is huge! Now I know where all of Louisiana's money went...

Only in Louisiana...

Post-crash in the crit (running to the finish line in socks)

Hanging out before the road race on Sunday

Post-race shenanigans

One teammate (who is a fraternity brother of mine, who also happens to be a reverend, and who is in medical school) won all three races in his category. He somehow found the time to study between races. Another teammate was able to cat up to the Women's A category after Sunday's race, which is great for the team. She won the race weekend for her category (read: all three races) and gained the officials' approval to race at a higher level, so we'll be supporting her in that endeavor. Overall, it was a great race weekend with a stellar performance by Tulane Cycling.

Post crit - Yup, #1, second win in one day

Next week we race at Baylor University in Waco, TX. People say it's a small town, but hopefully it'll have cupcakes. I can cope if there are cupcakes.

Mardi Gras, Fires, and Fire Ants

Oh boy, where to begin...

This was Mardi Gras weekend, folks. Yes, five days jam-packed with shenanigans (for most people) and sleep (for me) here in New Orleans. (I can't believe I'm blogging about it on Fat Tuesday itself, but that's besides the point.) We got our respective training sessions done, but we also made sure to fit them around the Mardi Gras parade schedule. The entire city stops functioning during this holiday weekend, and you can't really get much cycling done if there are are 250,000 drunk people blocking the road. Planning your rides can go a long way this time of year.

Thursday started off with a team dinner before the parades, which was an ingenious idea. A teammate cooked up a Mexican feast and invited those of us in the area over for a quick bite to eat (and for some reason I couldn't say no). The food was very good and I even picked up some recipe ideas during the event. The guacamole was the best I've ever had, and my teammate added mango to one of her pico de gallo dishes, which left me pretty speechless. Yup, speechless, like in the romance movies. Deer caught in the headlights. Lance Armstrong doing trigonometry. It was that good, folks. I'm pretty sure I made the biggest dent in the pico/mango dish, and the team can attest to that. Hey, at least I didn't make the biggest dent in all of the dishes, right? After dinner, we stepped outside (read: across the street) and watched the Krewe of Muses parade.

Mexican food to kick off the weekend.

On Saturday, the team woke up at 5:30am to volunteer for the Warrior Dash (the race with insane obstacles) over in Norco, LA. It made sense for us to help out with a running race since so many volunteers come to our cycling races. So we entered our vehicles and got on the road by 6:00am. The weather was a bit drizzly, but we parked at the race venue, threw on some raincoats and made the best of the situation. The race organizers split us into various volunteer groups once we got there, and one of the coordinators told my group that we would get to have the "fun" job. I didn't quite believe her until she actually told us what we were doing (I thought she was being sarcastic in using the word "fun"). She basically told us that we would get to light fires on the race course all day, which is a pretty awesome job considering the fact that most of us weren't allowed to light fires when we were kids.

Groggy much?

Laugh all you want, but this guy most likely had no problem getting out of the grass parking lot after the rain storm.

Enough firepower to fend off the warriors.

The only drawback to that field was the vast number of fire ant mounds, which I didn't quite see until it was too late. I have a newfound respect for those sneaky insects. You most likely glossed over the topic of fire ants while you were in grade school, and if you're anything like me, you probably didn't pay much attention to the descriptive words such as "stinging," "painful," and "venom." But those words became vividly enhanced once I stumbled upon the ant nest. Whoops. It's more painful than it looks, but I should have been watching where I was going in the first place. Note to self: Wear eyeglasses more often in order to avoid situations like this one.

My legs after the catastrophic invasion of fire ants.

Real fire (not fire ants).

Teammate looking official.

Big random spider.

The guy in first place as he approached our burning logs.

Yes, that's Snow White, a dream come true.

The chip timing system stayed intact through all the mud and shenanigans.

Once the race was over, we all got into our respective vehicles (after a short storm warning) and drove home. The fire that we were stoking made it onto the local news website later that day, and I am quite proud of it. Not bad for a half day's work!

Fast forward to yesterday (Lundi Gras). My roommate and I walked over to the parade route and caught the Krewe of Proteus and Krewe of Orpheus parades. All in all, it was a pretty good evening with not much to complain about. We ran into some old friends who recently graduated, and after the parades some of us headed home to rest up for the actual Mardi Gras parades, which will be going on in a few hours.

Happy Mardi Gras