CajunMan Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 2)

Kmill - cool, now may be I have a chance at beating you.  Probably not but I like to dream!

Bear - I don't trust the forecast more than a day out but just in case I will have to track down a bike umbrella.  I thought I saw one that attached directly to the aero bars!

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Rode the course this afternoon, from US90 rode the loop twice and the stem once there and back. Roads are in fine shape, some better than others, potholes are marked well with orange paint, miles are numbered and marked with white.

Good breeze blowing in, I averaged 21 staying in Z1 and Z2.

Of course, all that on dry pavement.

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Edited by kmill23 2009-09-09 3:22 PM

Yeah, it's impossible to ride the full route, which starts on an airport service road (private, inaccessible) and goes for about a 1/2 mile the wrong way on the US90 shoulder. Most people just park at the Texaco on the corner of US 90 and Garber Road, and ride from there. Cuts about a 1-1/2 mile (X2) from the route.

OK, here's some over-analysis:

*First half mile past the service station is so-so, then you get to the best part of the course from about mile 2 to the intersection  with N. Girouard Road. If you're not rocking this 2-mile stretch (both ways) you're wasting the best surface on the course.

*Left on N. Girouard then right on Bayou Tortue: surface is only decent, be aware of potholes and patches on the two little bridges at the bottoms of the declines.

*About 5-1/2 miles in, you take a hard right on La Flamme (I believe this is the second road to the right). Wasn't marked that well but I'm sure there will be course marshalls there on race day. That first quarter-mile on La Flamme is IMHO the worst surface on the course. Dosen't last long, though, you quickly get to a newer, better surface. La Flamme is a straight one-mile shot through a few industrial parks.

*Left on St. Nazarre, more new asphalt, lot more traffic now that WalMart and Home Depot opened on the US 90 end. St. Nazarre takes a quick right, then about three-quarter mile "Ts" at LA96.

*Left on LA96 for about 3-1/2 miles. Mixed surfaces, actually pretty decent until you get to the St. Martin Parish line, then it becomes wavy, undulating. Not bad when you're around 20mph but a little unnerving when you're bombing down the hills at close to 30mph with traffic at your elbow. First time around was about 5:30 so a lot of traffic, shouldn't be as bad Sunday. Few hills, nothing bad enough to get me out the saddle.

*Hard left on Aubrey Ouzenne right past the 10-mile mark. Aubrey Ozenne was resurfaced three (?) years ago, but they didn't use the best material. Even right after the resurfacing it was a little rough. Since then, some major cracks have developed. Most were well marked with orange paint, be careful not to get a wheel caught in a crack though. In some places areas have been resurfaced and are a little smoother.  S-turn at the 11.5-mile mark not really worth getting out of aero for.

*At 12.25 there's a harder left, then at 12.75 a small bridge and another hard left. Be cautious here as the road is beat up just past this blind tursn, you have to pick your way through patches on the right and a crack on the left while going up a slight incline. At this point you'll be back in the residential areas with a few small climbs on a so-so surface. At about 14.5 you're back at La Flamme, where you begin to re-ride the road that brought you out there.

Not sure if that helps any...

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Goody bags include black T-shirt*, black cycling socks, headsweats cap, towel, race belt, water bottle, cup, and a handful of nutritional samples.

*Peeve: T-shirt is Zorrel's "Dri-Balance," mostly (70%) cotton, same material he had two years ago. Comfortable enough for casual wear, but I don't like it for training as its evaporative properties leave a lot to be deisired. I prefer the red ones he had last year which are 100% polyester in a textured weave. In fact, I just order those shirts for our tri club training shirts.

Depends on the amount of rain and presence of other conditions. Lighting kills the swim almost automatically.Drizzle like today, maybe they let us go off. Downpour, maybe not.

I would hope that Rusty would make every effort to have the race go off if at all possible, especially after having to cancel twice in the last four years.

Bear, for us newbs, why would they cancel the swim if it's a downpour (I can see the ride)?  Is it a safety issue with lifeguards/kayaks seeing the swimmers?  I understand (and support) cancelling when lightning.

Don't think rain alone would cancel the swim, I'm referring to the bike. Raining enough to affect visibility, maybe so.

Raises another question, if they see the need to cancel one segment (i.e., the bike) do they cancel the race or restructure (swim-run? run-swim-run? swim-run-swim?)

I'll be there no matter what the weather is like! Hopefully the weather will break by Sunday morning.

The LA Tri it rained right up until a little before thestart then it let up.  Hopefully it will let up much earlier.  Hopefully not a swim-run-swim as 800meters will be enough on Sunday unless they do 400 meter swim, run, then 400m swim.  Either way I will there. 

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Picked mine up today, very nice goodie bag.  Probably the best I have ever received.  Plus Smoothie Factory had some good prices on some stuff I needed (gu energy, cytomax, etc).  Checked out Capital Cyclery and found Cypress Inn.  No rain while I was there but it looked like it was going to rain when I was heading back to BR. 

Good luck all, see you there!

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Fun time, hope everyone made it okay.  Heard of a few crashes and saw lots of folks with flats.  One poor guy had three flats and ended up running is bike in the last couple of miles.  Ouch.

Age group results are posted on Atomic's website. It looks like they lumped the T1 and bike time together for some of us.

I didn't have a bike time posted but they ranked me within age group; not sure what happened with that.
Freaking 4th in age group!  I wish I could figure this running stuff out.

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Every race/ride I've ever done in the rain has had an abnormally high number of flats. I heard the LAMBRA road race championship in Jackson this weekend was the same way. Here's the theory I've often heard:

When your tires are wet, debris will stick to them, We're talking real small debris like pea gravel or small glass fragments. If your tire was dry they would easily fall off. But the water holds them on, and after several revolutions they get pounded through the tire.

Not sure if there's any substance to this. I know I've flatted in the rain and the piece of pea gravel that was the culprit was still embedded in the tire. Might be a good topic/question for the main forum.