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Date: April 21, 2000 As promised the Chronicles went to Linton to ride the Master’s Nationals Course. Terry agreed to be company as he is an engineer and can read maps, a skill never acquired by self. Because people may be planning to spend money to come to Nationals this report will try to present facts. Keep in mind that facts are not always the truth and the Chronicles apologize for straying from the path. For the same reason this Chronicle will also try to fair. Don’t despair, this will be a one time divergence. We arrived at Humphrey Park. The largest building there is the Roy Clark Community Center. It was open as a wedding reception was being arranged. It is assumed that the Roy Clark Center will be race headquarters. It is a pole barn. It has two bathrooms each with one toilet. There were a couple of other buildings around the park as well as a small community swimming pool. It could not be determined if there were any other bathrooms. Do not go to the race assuming there will be sanitary conditions. The question of clean bathrooms was sent to Evan Call. The response from John Tarbert is that they will have portable toilets. Linton has an Arby’s and a McDonalds. Joseph Hensley is a judge and a mystery writer. He advised once that any city with an Arby’s was a class place. Joe helped self get into law school and is held in great esteem. So there you have it - Linton is a place of high eats. After putting on three jerseys, two windbreakers, knickers and tights, winter gloves and boots it was off to the road course. Terry had the maps downloaded from the Truesport website - the ones on the usacycling.org page are too small to read. The written directions do not comport with the maps. Example: The writing says to go south and turn onto a north county road. However, as anyone who has knows anything about the layout of the Northwest Territory will tell you, roads south of baseline are south roads and those north of baseline are north roads. Details, technicalities, property law - Chronicles were right at home. So, the map was followed.
The first twenty miles of the road course are easy with some grades. You cross a set of railroad tracks about a mile from the start. These are bad tracks. There will be people whose race finishes on the first set of tracks. There is a second set of tracks about two miles from the starts and these are also bad. They are on a slant. Again people will flat and will have crashes. If the USCF uses any sense it will neutralize the race until these sets of tracks are passed. The first twenty miles. The course gets much harder after you turn west at Worthington. From there it is seventeen miles to Jasonville. Those who race in the Indiana Race Series know that Jasonville is where Shackamak State Park is located. Outside of Worthington you climb up a windy grade. You then enter State Road 48 and there is the only climb on the course. It is about four hundred meters long and is a big ring main road hill. For approximately the next fourteen miles you go up and down long grades and rollers. They are not sharp or steep. Keep in mind that the wind was blowing about thirty miles per hour from the northwest so these grades seemed pretty darn hard - similar grades ridden after turning south on State Road 59 did not seem so hard. However, it would be the Chronicles take - and Terry agrees - that splits will form on State Road 48 if for no other reason than the really good masters always break the field and they always win. Also, keep in mind that in July in Indiana it will be hot and wet and the prevailing wind is from the Southwest, which means that during the entire second half of the course you most likely will be riding into the wind. Note also that the course is ensconced in cornfields and if it is humid - and it will be - you will be riding through a fog of corn bugs. Keep your mouth shut - it is better to turn blue than puke maggots. On the good side no hog farms were seen or smelled. When you enter Jasonville you head south on State Road 59 and from there it is ten miles to Linton. The grades and rollers continue until you get near Linton. The map shows that you turn onto a back road somewhere north of Linton. However, Terry was unable to find the road and what with being frozen didn’t care. In total part of the sixty-two mile course was ridden and most of the forty-two mile course. Note that due to map error part of the course was not ridden. However, roads parallel were ridden and the topography appeared similar. Which is to say that there don’t appear to be any small ring climbs that were missed. In short these are fair courses on good roads. There probably won’t be much traffic. Only three pick-ups drivers refused to move over when passing and only one driver threw food and that is good for Indiana. Wayne Stetina wrote last year that he preferred courses such as Babler Park in St. Louis, Brown County State Park near your Chroniclers home and where yours truly was run into purposely by a Morgan County NRA Supporter - he went to jail - and Spokane. This is not that type of course. So, if you only want to do a course with very hard climbs then don’t come. You will be disappointed. The Chronicles did not look at the TT Course. A Time Trial is not a sporting event and as proof note that it is the preferred form of racing in England.
Depending on your opinion regarding how selective a National’s course should be the road courses are perhaps fair and with the exceptions of the railroad tracks and gun idiots most likely safe. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Criterium course. It is the Chronicles’ opinion that a National level criterium course should have the following characteristics:
Unfortunately, the Linton course does meet any of these standards. The course is advertised as .8 miles. In fact it is .65 miles. It has two long straight sections heading north and south. The east-west section at the north end is curved somewhat like an oval. The west straight is bordered closely by a wooden fence with exposed stakes. The riders are separated from the fence by a large drop off. If a rider goes off the road he will be hurt. This deep a drop-off is not permitted on state and federal roads. But, it gets worse. As the end of the west straight where the speed will be high you encounter the only real turn on the course. You turn off this one lane straight onto a narrower road. If you go off the inside of the corner you will hit a fence post. On the outside you will hit a ditch. Now, in fairness the course and the turns would be quite safe for a group of ten or perhaps more. So, the races will be safe after the first two or three laps and you can be sure that there this will transpire. Here is what will happen.
If you don’t have a good starting position you will have to move up right away; however, that will be all but about the first ten racers. On the backstretch racers will be pushed off the road into the ditches and fences. Then in the turn there will be a screech of brakes and blown tires and busted carbon wheels and half the field will be gapped. The officials will have to pull lapped riders. So, men and women will travel to Indiana, pay money to stay in crummy little hotels and then get to race for five minutes and if lucky will not be so injured that they can’t race on the weekend. Do criteriums break up? Absolutely, however, it is generally the pace that dictates that racers are eliminated. Will the best and fastest win? Absolutely, but again they will do that on any course and as an example note the Super Week courses at Kenosha, Whitefish, Downer Avenue and Manitowoc or the course at Downer’s Grove in Chicago. No unworthy rider ever wins. You don’t have to have a hamster course to force a selection. The best that can be said for this course is that is it no worse than most of the courses Tim Tyler uses for his Tour of Ohio. So, here are the Chronicles’ suggestions.
Again, the Chronicles have tried to present a fair - albeit only perhaps for the Chronicles - appraisal of the courses. The Chronicles take is that most racers will enjoy the road course though those who prefer very hard climbs will be disappointed and perhaps with justification. The Criterium course will be quite fair to the ten or so who make it into the only corner first. For the rest it will at best be a day of humiliation and self is quite too well acquainted with that emotion. Every master known to the Chronicles is a successful adult. The only entities they permit to treat them like the USCF are the airlines and the phone companies. Ride fast and take chances. Bill Stone |
