Tulsa Tough Reports

Rand Miller, Justin Fraga and Ryan Parnes went out to Tulsa, OK recently to represent the Green Team at the weekend long NRC crit series. Below are Ryan's summary reports for each of the three races they entered.

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Tulsa Tough NRC (Blue Dome, Brady District and Riverfront Criteriums)
Teammates: Rand & Justin.

Hi All,

Sorry for the late report, but my head just stopped spinning from all those crits! Tulsa Tough is an omnium series of 3 crits held near downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. A prize list of $75,000 brought out some serious pro talent and the racing was furious. The actual Tulsa downtown was almost completely deserted during the weekend, which was durn creepy. Like some virus had ravaged the town and the zombies were just waiting for nightfall to come for brains. Despite all that, each of the courses was packed with cheering fans, and that made for a great atmosphere. A pre-race highlight was Justin's interaction with the locals:
Janitor at hotel with more fingers than teeth: "WHOOOOOEEEEEEEE! You gonna win tonight??!"
Justin: "If I do I'll be you a beer."
The janitor went on the press Justin about his name and lodgings so he could collect his beer after the inevitable victory.

Friday: Blue Dome Criterium
This course is a real beauty. Its an eight turn barn burner with smooth corners and some gradual grades on some sections. They had repaved some of the turns since I was there two years ago and this, combined with an impressive field kept this race fast fast fast. The Pro/1 Men didn't start until 9:30pm which meant the course was dark and a lot of the fans were already a few drinks deep. If you want to recreate the atmosphere get 10 of your friend and give each of them a desk lamp, then have one of them spin you in your chair while the other 9 scream and flick the lights off and on.

The race started fast and never slowed down. The three of us did a pretty good job of staying forwards in the group, but with the speed constantly high and people taking the turns up to 5 and 6 abreast it was hard to move around. When I say constantly fast, I mean that I kept it in the 53-13 for most of the race. It switched to laps much earlier than we thought and Rand and I were not in great position. Justin was farther up in better position, but after getting tangled up in a crash (he was fine) he pulled the plug instead of risking his life to move up through 100 riders going all out. Rand is wiser than I and knew that any move form our position would be in desperation, but I'm impetuous and tried to get up near the front. I failed. In the end I could only roll in for 42nd. I think that might be the hardest I've ever ridden for such a bad placing. Winners note: Justin said he had never seen anyone go as fast on a bike as Brad Huff was going when he won the sprint. Bahati couldn't even make up any ground on him.

Saturday: Brady District Criterium
This course was a big L, with the start finish on the short part at the bottom, followed by 3 turns before the course did a gradual climb up a wide boulevard past Soundpony, a local cycling bar where fans were going absolutely nuts. At the top of the course the road narrowed to two skinny lanes before turning onto the long downhill stretch and a final left onto the finish. This race was pretty frustrating, especially for Justin, poor guy. Right off the bat one idiot caused two crashes before we had done half a lap. None of us went down but it put the whole field in a bad mood. We ripped around the course for a good while and then Justin established himself in what looked like a great break: two guys from most of the big teams and a decent gap. He put his head down and did a big pull and then Floyd Landis attacked their group. Some guy from Jelly Belly started yelling at Justin to chase it down and Justin rightfully told him where to stick it. Sometimes people think they can tell you what to do just because they get paid to ride their bikes. Good on Justin for not letting himself get pushed around.

The rest of the race stayed more or less together. We'd rip around the course going hard out up the hill, avoid the carnage as the course narrowed at the top and then say a little prayer as we flew through the bottom corner leaned all the way over at well over 40 miles an hour. Then people would try to move up on the finishing straight only to jam up 8 wide in the first turn. Towards the end of the race, Justin did a great job of moving me up, but I couldn't hold the position amid all the swarming and I ended up out of position and sitting up in the final sprint.

Sunday: Riverfront Criterium.
This thing is a real doozy. A long exposed start finish straight, then a sketchy narrow right onto a 17% climb similar to Cat's Hill, but instead of leveling off, it takes another ride up a 6% grind. Then you do a big whoop-de-do before turning onto a STEEP descent into an off camber right back onto the finishing straight. In short, the course is crazy. The course, and the fans. There were maybe 200 people gathered at the top of the climb going absolutely nuts! Many were in costume, bedecked in flowing robes and viking helmets, some burnished voodoo dolls and all were screaming and dancing, blasting the field with hoses. Its pretty wild, to say the least, but I would have kissed the people with the hoses. Tulsa is nothing if not HOT and combined with the humidity it was overwhelming. Justin had to catch and early flight to get back to work, so he raced the 1-2 field. It looked like he had it on lock down, riding comfortably in the top ten while we were watching, but his heart just wasn't in it and he pulled the plug on the last lap.

Sadly, Rand and I didn't fare much better. We were pinning it every time up the climb and tempting fate through the last corner each lap. I felt like I was racing against the course more than I was racing against the other riders. People were dropping like flies due to the heat and the previous hard days of racing. I was sitting in flogging myself up the climb each lap, but I decided to pull the plug with about 10 laps to go. I wasn't feeling strong enough to finish well and it didn't make sense to dig myself into a hole and risk taking a spill just to say I had finished. Rand made the same decision and we called it a weekend. Dan Ramsey had an incredible ride after attacking the field with 4 to go and managed to finish just meters ahead of a sprinting field for the win.