Tour de Jeff - Warmer Weekend

After a rather cold start to the week, a gradual warmup had begun by Wednesday. I was not complaining. While some obviously delusional people like to claim that 60°F is ideal cycling weather, I don't slap that label onto anything very far south of 70°, and even that is a bit of a stretch. Thursday morning started in the mid-upper 50s with barely any wind, and after most of the group turned off for home at Canal Blvd., Matt, Jess, and I continued out to the lake trail for the usual out-and-back with Matt doing much of the work. On this practically windless day, the 23-24 mph pace felt easy. When we got back to the east end of the bike path, Jess turned around to log even more miles while Matt headed home, leaving me to fend for myself in the morning commuter traffic. Jess seems to be on a high-mileage kick lately, and would end the week with well over 400 miles, while I would feel quite satisfied with my own relatively meager 278. 

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was, as usual, brisk but not brutal, and afterward I cautiously made my way down Carrollton Avenue to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride. I had noted that only three riders had indicated on Discord that they would be going, but with the nice warmer weather I thought perhaps a few more might show up. As it turned out, though, they had all bailed. I wandered up and down the levee for a while trying to find them, but finally gave up and went home to make my own coffee. Perhaps they were resting up for Sunday's Tour de Jefferson. Perhaps they were just using that as an excuse to sleep late. Who knows?

So on Saturday I went out as usual to Starbucks for the Saturday Giro Ride. It was around 60° with just a slight east wind, but we ended up with only maybe six. A small group like that is actually ideal for a steady paceline, and indeed that defined much of the ride. I guess a lot of people were saving their legs for the Tour de Jeff? 

This year Bill B had arranged to have $2,000 in prizes, 5-deep for men and women, for the Tour de Jefferson, which was held under USAC permit as a Gran Fondo. The idea was that the finish line, at least for prize purposes, would be shortly before the turn into the park where the big banner and stage were set up. I got there pretty early, and picked up my number (plate style) chip timing thing that, as usual, I had to modify to fit onto my handlebar underneath the computer mount. No roadies like those things, but fortunately, I've dealt with them a few times before. Still, everyone much preferred the flappy seat post style timing chips/numbers that were used last year, and I saw every possible alternative mounting configuration you could imagine - wrapped around the seatpost, wrapped around the handlebar, mounted lengthwise under the computer mount, wrapped around the head tube, etc. Turnout was defintely a bit better than last year. Bill made the usual announcements about safety and such to the group at the start, but I was still a little confused about exactly how he was going to manage the placings since I had seen neither a finish line nor a timing mat out on the road when I was warming up. On the other hand, I was quite certain it would not matter one bit for me. I was hoping that a 5-person break would go off the front early. I have always had a hard time riding like it's a race when it, technically, isn't. I just never feel comfortable taking the kinds of risks that come up with this kind of competitive free-for-all and riders who may or may not have the requisite experience.

As usual we started out at a controlled speed for the fist mile or so behind Bill's car. After the right turn onto the road leading to the first of numerous U-turns, Bill hit the gas and so did the front of the group. Immediately we were up into the 28-30 mph range. I was trying to stay reasonably close to the front, and over to the left, anticipating the usual chaos at the upcoming left-hand U-turn, and as we approached it I thought I was in a good enough spot somehwere in the front 25 or so. But then riders started making U-turns all over the place in front of me. I don't know if there was a traffic cone or something that we were supposed to go around, but if there was, I never saw it and had to start the U-turn early since everyone in front of me was turning into my path. That turned out to be a minor disaster for me when someone bumped me mid-turn and I had to unclip and put a foot down to remain upright. Then, it took me a couple of attempts to clip in as riders went streaming past. By the time I finally got up to speed the front of the group was already fading into the distance at 30+ mph and I was desperately looking for a wheel that might perhaps pull me across. Up ahead, there were nothing but gaps everywhere, and as I sat on someone's wheel hoping for a miracle, I saw Christian sprint past. I should have made the effort to go with him, but didn't. Big mistake. I think he was one of the last to make it up to what became the big front group. The riders around me didn't seem committed to any sort of organized chase, and so we all eventually came together to form a second group of about twenty. Meanwhile, a small break had gone off the front of the first group that eventually because six as two riders bridged up from the big front group. On the plus side, a few of the Tulane riders, including Jess, Dylan, Josiah, and Chris, were in that front group, and Pirmin was in the break, so a good showing there. Lisa was the first woman, and Sam the first man.

So once I kind of recovered from the initial disaster, and although the main group hovered within a minute of us for quite a while, I knew we were on our own. There were just a few in my group who seemed interested in working, and although I was already resigned to my fate, I did end up doing more work than usual, just for the exercise. It was still a nice ride and a decent enough workout, but we would ultimately finish five minutes behind the main group. At the start I had throught I'd started up navigation of the course that I'd loaded onto my computer, but it didn't seem to be working. I had really wanted to be able to see how far it was to the next U-turn, since this course featured no fewer than six of them. So once things settled down a little bit I started trying to load the course again while riding and not surprisingly managed to stop and save the ride altogether. So then I had to start the ride again from wherever I was at the time, and yet still couldn't seem to get the course navigation to work. Go figure. As it turned out, though, this group was never aggressive enough that it mattered much if I went around the U-turns at the front or at the back.

Surprisingly the break never put much more than a minute on the large lead group, and by the end even the break was a bit slower than the main group was last year, finishing in around 1:59 (we'd finished at 1:58 the year before). As we got close to the end I was expecting to see a timing mat or finish line of some sort, but never did. I think maybe the top-5 placings were determined via a regular video or something, while the times were determined by the timing mat inside the park that was well after the finish line that was used for the placings. I don't even know if there was anyone there with a phone/camera when our group came by. That led to some controversy for Jess, who apparently was pretty sure she was the third woman at the sprint point (wherever that was) but was awarded 4th based, I guess, on the chip timing. Jess went on to ride another couple of hours that day, logging over 140 miles. For me, I was a little disappointed at having missed being in the front group where I'm sure I would have been fine, but that's how it goes sometimes. On the plus side, the weather was pretty perfect allowing everyone to ride in just summer kit. You can't complain about that for an event in the middle of November. 

Thanks to my group's relatively moderate 24 mph pace, and the fact that nobody crashed on one of the thousand traffic cones, I ended the ride none the worse for wear, heading home just in time to say goodbye to Jay who had been at the house over the weekend to deliver and recover his daughter from the airport, and for a Saturday brunch to celebrate mu sister Patty's birthday at Vessel NOLA.

Mellow Monday had a nice turnout, again thanks to the nice weather, and this morning's ride was likewise done in summer kit. It was just Rich and me for the out-and-back to Williams Blvd., taking long pulls on an almost windless morning. Meanwhile, the ring finger on my left hand is still swollen from that fall on the railroad tracks about three weeks ago, and I'm seriously considering ordering a ring-cutter at this point. 

Out the Door

Big combined Saturday group

On days like this it's really hard just to get out the door in the morning. After some reasonably seasonable weather during the week, things kind of started going downhill around mid-day on Sunday, and this morning was the coldest we've had thus far this Fall. Not to worry, of course. It won't stay for long since it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Wednesday morning's WeMoRi featured minimal wind and a comfortable temperature in the mid-upper 50s, but for reasons unknown seemed to have a lower turnout than usual. I slipped into the still-intact group along Marconi, shifting immediately from Zone 2 to Zone 1,000 as usual, but fortunately there wasn't a huge acceleration onto Wisner. I got my breathing back under control just in time for the sprint up the overpass, at which point Steve and Rob opened a huge gap as the rest of the group momentarily looked around at each other to see who would take the bait. Someone eventually did, but it wasn't until almost Marconi that it all came back together. The pace settled down a bit and despite having to respond to a surge or two on the way back from Elysian Fields, I was still feeling good enough to stay with the two or three wheels at the front for the sprint at Marconi. Charles was apparently out sick, and although he tried to make an early comeback on Thursday, he's still out for the count almost a week later, no thanks to the cold snap that hit us a couple of days ago.

On Friday I did the regular Friendly Friday ride, which was nice, and then rode down to the river for a little cool-down and coffee stop with the Tulane group. The weather was still pretty nice, but by then the forecast for Sunday was starting to look ominous.

Saturday's Giro had a decent enough turnout, and with a light tailwind the group sailed out to Venetian Isles at a steady 27-30 mph pace. As we approached the shade tree where everybody likes to stop we found the entire early SaMoRi waiting there. They had apparently had at least two flats that took a while to fix. So with both groups now merged into one we had a fun ride back. I guess there were 30-40 riders most of the way.

By Sunday morning it was clear that a cold front would be coming through right around ride time, and with the predicted wind speeds in the 20+ mph range, I was pretty sure there wasn't going to be much of a Giro, if any. The Tulane group had planned a ride out to around Hopedale, starting at 6:30, so I set my sights on that. I told them I'd meet them at the end of Nashville so I wouldn't have to negotiate Broadway, which is still torn up in places. When they arrived I wasn't too surprised to see only three. They had already formulated Plan B, which was to ditch the Hopedale route and instead do a lap of Lakeshore Drive and then a loop out to The Wall and then down to the river bike path. The wind was already blowing out of the WNW and would eventually climb into the 20-24 mph range as the ride progressed. Strategically, we would be riding into it earlier rather than later. This ride was strictly Zone 2 level, which was fine with me. For some reason Josiah spent about 90% of the time on the front - also fine with me. Anyway, it was a nice ride considering the wind. Of course, the wind was just the opening act of the cold front, and by Monday morning the temperature had dropped from the 60s to the 40s.

So when I rolled out of the house on Monday morning the temperature was around 42° and there was a steady north wind at, still, around 20 mph. Charles had already texted me that he was still sick and wouldn't be there, and I was pretty sure I'd be riding solo that morning, which is exactly what happened. In fact, I don't think I saw anybody else the entire ride. It was the first day I'd pulled on the long winter tights, long-sleeve jersey, and long-sleeve base layer. I was still cold.

This morning wasn't much better, and unsurprisingly it was just Wes and I at the start. It seemed even colder that the day before despite all the winter kit I'd piled on. As I headed out to the park I fumbled with the computer to switch to the screen that shows me the time of day, and noticed that it wasn't registering heart rate. I thought I had pressed the button on my optical HRM, but since it was under two layers of clothes I hadn't confirmed that it had started. Of course it hadn't. Oh well, my heart rate is just for my own curiosity anyway. So as we are starting the ride through City Park I'm kind of hoping that Maurizio won't show up. There's something about riding in the cold that just seems to sap the motivation out of me, and for the record, it takes a bit of motivation just to stick on Maurizio's wheel. Of course a moment later I saw Maurizio turn around to join us. Atypically, however, there weren't any other riders, so I guess the regular Tuesday morning group hadn't materialized because of the cold and wind, which by the way was now blowing strongly out of the east. So Maurizio led us out to the Armory into the wind with me glued to his wheel, but when he stood up to go up the rise at the loop there I just didn't have the motivation to accelerate again. Wes eventually came around me and Maurizio slowed down so we could catch. After they turned off I continued onto the lake trail, enjoying the tailwind and dreading the long slog I knew I'd have to endure on the way back. On the plus side, I was all alone so there was nobody there to see how slowly I was going.

It looks like the weather will now be warming back up to what passes for normal this time of year with low temperatures in the upper 50s to mid-60s for the forseeable future. The Tour de Jefferson ride is this coming Sunday and I'm just a bit apprehensive about it because there will be some prizes on the line this year. If I'm lucky, a 5-person group will split off the front early and things in the second group will quickly settle down to normal, which for this ride is usually still a little bit sketchy. Anyway, I won't be going for any podium places for sure. Later this month the GCBC is doing a little 72 mile ride out of Waveland that happens to fall the weekend before my birthday, so I went ahead and signed up for it since it's a chance to do a 72 mile ride on, almost, my 72nd birthday, which of course one has to do. It's a rule.

Turkey Season

The past week has been rather chilly and occasionally very windy, which is par for the course this time of year. Of course this taste of winter won't last. It's much too early for that. It did, however, make for a few rather uncomfortable morning rides. 

Wednesday morning I headed out straight into a gusty northwest wind knowing full well that there would probably be no regular WeMoRi. I went all the way out to Lakeshore Drive, mainly to see just how bad it was. As I'd imagined, the waves were crashing over the seawall in places, leaving the roadway wet and, in a few spots, flooded. I made a short video before turning back south onto Marconi to see if I could find anyone else. Eventually I did run into Charles, and we rode a lap around City Park before calling it a day. Thursday morning wasn't much better. By then the temperature had dropped a few more degrees, but the wind was still around 20 mph out on Lakeshore Drive. A few of us did show up for the 6 am ride, but the consensus, quickly reached, was to just ride some laps mostly around City Park, with just the eastbound section of Lakeshore Drive between Marconi and Wisner (since that was partly tailwind). We did about four laps, so at least total mileage was comparable to a normal Thursday. It was the first morning I pulled on the arm-warmers this fall.

Friday morning was much improved as far as the wind was concerned, but it was still in the low 50s when I left home. Friendly Friday was pretty normal, and as has become my habit lately I then rode down to the river with Charles to meet the Tulane coffee ride. It was also Halloween, so of course there were costumes.

As usual, Halloween night on Neron Place was very busy. For an hour or so the street was packed with kids in costume. Our neighbors were showing kids' movies in front of their house, and people were stopping by for food and drinks as we took turns sliding candy down the "candy chute," which is great because it keeps me from worrying about the little kids negotiating our front stairs while wearing costumes.

By Saturday I knew we'd be doing a 70 mile ride from Bay St. Louis on Sunday. It was still pretty cold before sunrise as I sat outside Starbucks sipping my coffee and wondering who would show up. As it turned out, a good amount of horsepower was on hand by the time we rolled out onto Harrison Avenue, and I was already contemplating how I would avoid inflicting too much damage on myself considering the following day's plan. Despite the east wind, the group that included Connor, Jaden, et. al. averaged around 27 mph all the way out to Paris Road. Coming around that turn at the back, I sprinted a bit to close the gap and thought to myself, "this is NOT going to slow down." At that point I made the strategic decision to back off and make my way out to the east at a more civilized pace. In retrospect, I should have stayed with them until Chef Highway because I  hate being solo on that stretch of interstage. Anyway, that worked out fine, and I turned around to get back into the group a mile or so before the turnaround. After that, I was fine with the speed, so no regrets there.

Sunday morning was the switch from DST to CST, but of course it was still dark at 5:15 when we met up at Tulane Cycling HQ to load up cars for the hour-long drive to War Memorial Park in Bay St. Louis. It was pretty chilly, but the sky was clear and by our 7:30 am start time it was warm enough (for me) to wear just a base layer shirt and arm-warmers and long-finger gloves. I was still chilly for the first hour or so, but knew it would warm up, which of course it did. I had gotten a third thru-axle adaptor for the roof rack, so the Cervelo was on the roof along with two of the team Specialized bikes. I will say that loading bikes onto the roof with thru-axles is infinitely more difficult than quick-releases ever were, which should be a surprise to nobody. There's a reason they don't call them "Quick-axles."

So we had I guess a dozen for this 70-miler on a super nice Sunday morning. A few would be splitting off early to do a shorter 50-mile loop. The pace was, relatively speaking, pretty controlled for this one with an average speed right at 20 mph and a max of 37. Although we didn't have a crash like last time, we did kind of accidentally abandon one rider at the store stop about 45 miles into the ride. When we headed out from the store everyone was on his or her bike, so nobody was looking back. One rider, however, quickly discovered that his rear derailleur cable had snapped - typical Shimano break inside the shifter. We were probably two or three miles down the road before somone's phone rang and we learned that he was still back at the store, so a few of us turned back, finally finding  him riding in our direction, stuck in the biggest gear on the bike. We stopped and adjusted the limit screw to at least get him onto the third cog, which put him in a gear that was a little high for the terrain but manageable. In fact, he sat on the front after that for a couple of miles, so it must not have been too bad. Somehwere along the way we saw a bunch of roadside turkeys, approps for the first day of November, I guess.

After everyone arrived back at the cars, we decided to have lunch at a semi-permanent food truck (Sea Level) at the marina basically across the street. That actually turned out to be surprisingly nice. It was probably close to 3 pm by the time I got home.

So I am slowly getting the new Cervelo Soloist sorted out more or less to my liking. I've ridden a bit over 1,000 miles on it so far. Saturday evening I moved the saddle about half a centimeter farther forward and angled it down around 1-2°, which worked out quite nicely. I think I'd been sitting more toward the tip of the saddle. Sliding it forward and lowering the nose put me in a better and more comfortable spot and effectively lowered the height just a touch, which I think it needed.  Yesterday I got a pair of regular, non-tubeless, Continental 5000 tires (235 g each) and replaced the significantly heavier Vittoria Corsa N.EXT TLR tires (330 g each) that had been on there. At the same time I put a latex tube in the rear and a lightweight butyl tube in the front (what I had on hand) to replace the larger, heavier ones that the bike came with. I think I could feel the difference this morning. Although both tires were 28s, the Continentals don't look quite a wide on the bike, and just feel a little less sluggish, so despite the cost, I think it was a good move for me. If I decide to try going tubeless, I'll have a set of tires on hand for that, but don't hold your breath on that one. 

This morning as I was riding out to meet the Tuesday morning ride, I dropped the chain shifting from the small ring to the large one, so immediately coasted to a stop so I wouldn't gouge up the carbon frame. I can't remember the last time I dropped a chain like that, and it had never happened before on the Cervelo. The bike didn't come with a chain-catcher, and coincidentially I had just ordered one from K-edge using the Tulane club discount, which basically covered the shipping cost. I'll get that installed as soon as I get it. One thing about electronic shifting is that you can't ease the chain over from one ring to the other like you can with mechanical. 

So the only outstanding thing with the bike for now is the question of stem length. I feel perfectly comfortable when on the hoods, probably because they are at least a couple centimeters longer than the mechanical ones on the Bianchi. It's a little cramped on the drops, but really not bad, so I may keep things as they are for a while and see how it goes.  The Cervelo uses the same seat tube angle across all of the frame sizes, so for the smaller sizes the actual virtual top tube is a bit longer than normal, which places the top of the seat tube a little farther back. You therefore have to pay more attention to the front center measurement instead of the virtual top tube measurement (and handlebar reach) when it comes to stem length, after adjusting the horizontal seat position to have the correct setback relative to the bottom bracket. Basically, you can't just blindly carry over many of your measurements from a different bike. It's interesting how handlebar reach and drop, and often stem length as well, have changed over the years as we went from the old brake levers that barely had room for half your hand, to indexed shifters that were significantly longer, to hydraulic brake/shifters that are even longer still.

Tour da Parish Week

Thursday heading back in the wind

This is an odd time of year down here. The morning temperatures have been nice and cool for the most part, and the highs just barely touch 80°F, but things can vary dramatically as cold fronts sag down across the area, sometimes quickly, somtimes not. Along with those fronts come north winds, often in the 12-20 mph range, that gust unhindered across Lakeshore Drive. It's not unusual for the local riders to check the early morning weather, not for the temperature, but for the wind velocity. This time of year it's best to look at the actual readings from the Lakefront Airport weather station rather than those from places like weather.com, because the former often gives a much more accurate reading of the situation on Lakeshore Drive. There are some riders who basically refuse to show up if it's over 10 mph, especially if it's cold. To be fair, it hasn't been cold yet, and I still haven't pulled even the arm-warmers or base layers out of the drawer. That may well change toward the end of this week, however, when the forecast is calling for early morning lows in the low to mid-50s. I truly hate having to make those wardrobe decisions this time of year.

On Wednesday the aforementioned wind was 8-10 mph out of the north, and as I struggled toward Lakeshore Drive to meet up with the WeMoRi I wondered how it would go. I met up with what I assumed to be a breakaway along Marconi. There were only three or four riders, and as usual I tucked in behind the last of them as I went from 15 to 25 mph and my heart rate increased by 40 bpm in less than a minute. We made the turn onto Wisner and I ended up behind Rob, who I think was on his track bike because of course you would take a single speed out on a group ride with 10 mph winds. There was a little slowdown at the light at Filmore, and as Rob sprinted to close a little gap, I didn't, thinking I'd just slip into the main group that was just behind, except that there wasn't a main group just behind. The crosswind along LSD had apparently shattered the rest of the small group that had at least shown up earlier, so I was left to my own devices. Back on LSD, I turned around early and latched back onto what was left of the group, which I think was down to maybe three or four, for the last bit. 

So dark!

Thursday morning was still pretty windy but at least it had shifted a bit out of the east, so I had a nice steady fast ride out to Williams Blvd. at 25-27 mph with Jason and Charles, and then a long ride back at more like 16-17 mph. By then I was already thinking about the upcoming Tour da Parish ride on Saturday. Friday's Friendly Friday ride got kind of fast as usual along Lakeshore Drive, but I was being careful not to spend much time in the wind, considering. Afterward I rode down to the river to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride, which was a nice easy recovery pace.

With nobody to shuttle out to da parish on Saturday, I had an easy drive in the dark, arriving at the start of the Tour da Parish ride with almost an hour to spare, which gave the mosquitoes plenty of time to inflict a couple dozen bites despite the bug spray I had brought along. I probably should have tried for more complete coverage because the bugs had no trouble at all biting me right through my lycra kit. 

warmup

The start was a bit delayed for some reason, but the first part went pretty much as usual, which is to say that the front of the group basically attacked out of the gravel bypass at 1.5 miles, leaving me quickly maxxed out in no-mans-land. I should have held back and gone through there a little farther back so I'd have wheels to follow, but as it was I kind of blew up chasing and then was streamed by a bunch of riders before I could recover. It looked like there was a lead group of maybe six, and then a second group that was a little larger. My group came together fairly quickly and hovered just 40 seconds or so ahead all the way out to Delacroix. For a little while I thought we might catch them, but I don't think too many in our group were sufficiently motivated for that. There was little taste of tailwind after that U-turn, and I think the group ahead of us took advantage of it but mine didn't, so they were soon out of sight as our group just cruised along mostly at 23-24 mph. Turning onto the road to Hopedale there was more of a headwind and our speed became even more inconsistent as some riders seemed content to plod along at 18-20 on the front. Right after the U-turn there I unexpectedly found myself with Boyd who had dropped out of the second group at some point. It turned out that somone had dropped something right around the turnaround and the rest of the group had waited, which explained why we were suddently alone. Anyway, by then we had picked up a nice tailwind, so we had a really nice smooth 2-man time trial, mostly at 26-27 mph, which was actually fairly conservative considering the tailwind and the fact that Boyd was on his Pinarello e-bike. It was really fun, though, and although it felt fairly moderate, it was probably the most intensity I got that day.

Soon after turning onto Bayou Road, however, Boyd's rear tire exploded in dramatic fashion. I think we were about 5.5 miles from the end, so I turned back to assist. He was riding tubeless tires, so he pulled out a plug and after a few tries finally got it into what he assumed to be the puncture. Unfortunately, the tire still wouldn't hold air, and we found a four-inch section where the tread had completely separated from the casing. At that point we should have put a tube in it, but Boyd didn't want to mess with all the sealant and everything and decided to just ride in on the flat since we were so close. We should have taken the time to put a tube in it, as it turned out. So we were riding along at maybe 10 mph, which was going as well as it could when riding on a flat, when we came to a section of road that had a little bit of a lateral slope to it. At that point Boyd's tire slipped completely off the rim and he crashed, bumping me a bit as he went down. His battery, which is about the size of a water bottle, had come unlatched from the seat tube, and I had to pull out my tire lever just to get the flat tire back onto the rim, and so at that point Boyd decided to just walk the rest of the way since we were maybe 1.5 miles from the end, so I rode alongside to make sure he was OK (he had hit his head just a little bit, along with his elbow and knee). We couldn't get the battery back in place, and as it turned out later we were trying to do it with the battery upside down. He secured it in his water bottle cage, so it was ok, though. We came to a police officer at an intersection about half a mile from the end who offered to get him a ride back, so I went on at that point. I think the EMS people kind of insisted that he should get checked out at the ER, which he ultimately did. 

Later, as I was enjoying the fried catfish that they always provide I found Dustin manning his Deviate Physio tent and noticed that he was also a little bloody. He had been with the front group all day, and on the fast tailwind stretch, when they were down to like four riders, he'd unexpectedly hit one of the blue fire hydrant road reflectors that they always put in the middle of the lane. I think he had one hand off the bar at the time, so he crashed, but seemed to have survived it OK. Anyway, although I was feeling a little frustrated at not having been able to make it into that second group in the first few miles, I totally enjoyed the ride back from Hopedale with Boyd -- except for the flat tire and crash part of course. I think it took is over 45 minutes to do the last five miles. Boyd ended up going to the ER to get checked out because of the head hit just to be on the safe side (he was fine).

Sunday morning another front came through with lots of rain and thunder, so the Giro was entirely out of the question. Once it passed, however, the sky cleared up quite a bit, so I went out around noon for an easy ride out to the Spillway and back. It was a little windy, of course, but otherwise pretty nice. I took a picture of the upriver end of the "levee raise" project that has closed down two miles of the bike path near Larose since April with an end date of "whenever we finish," which does not appear to be any time soon.

This morning's Mellow Monday ride had a surprisingly decent enough turnout considering the 12 mph north wind. As usual, it eventually got fairly fast along Lakeshore Drive, but everything came back together by the time we were back onto Marconi, except for Jess who didn't slow down when we met  back up with Josiah and Claudia.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Melissa is setting records down in the Caribbean and is probably going to flatten Jamacia. Winds are about up to Category 5 levels. It's expected to take a sharp turn toward the northeast, so not likely to cause problems here, but the islands are going to take a major hit. We have been super lucky this year that nothing has so far made it into the Gulf.

Waiting for the Sun

The mornings have been getting a little cooler -- and darker -- as we suffer through the last weeks of Daylight Time. That combination usually means more people on the group rides, and more surprises on the road. We don't switch back to Standard Time until November 2, which seems way to late for those of us constrained to early morning rides. Next Saturday is the annual Tour da Parish ride that starts at 7:15 am. which, as usual, will be just after sunrise. Also, as usual, we will start heading east with the rising sun in our eyes, unless of course it's cloudy and/or raining, always a possibility this time of year.

The weekday rides were pretty typical, except for the extended darkness and flashing tail lights. I do wish people would figure out how to set their tail lights to a lower setting for these group rides. Yesterday's Mellow Monday ride got pretty sketchy on the way back along Lakeshore Drive. A front had come through in the early morning hours, so in addition to the wind there was a lot of debris on the road, including palmetto fronds, Water Hyacinth blown out of the lake onto the road, and a big upside-down road sign with aluminum L angle reinforcements sticking up that we barely avoided. I uncharacteristically spent a fair amount of time out of the draft over on the left along there just to be on the safe side (literally). These would not be my only close calls that week.

After a windy and fairly sparsely attended WeMoRi I somehow didn't quite set my morning alarm right and woke up Thursday morning knowing I'd miss the start of the 6 am ride. I rushed out the door into the dark, flew down Carrollton Avenue because it's shorter (but riskier), and went straight to Lakeshore Drive where I eventually found the group. Then, after most turned off for home and I continued out to the lake trail, I found one of the regular groups there. They had decided to change their route a bit that morning, so luckily I had a nice group for the ride out to the Casino. That ride featured some patches of fog that had my glasses going in and out of my pocket a couple of times.

On Friday I did the regular Friendly Friday ride. As usual there was a good sized group for that one, but the pace, while in no way slow, never got too much out of hand as it sometimes does. Afterward Charles and I rode down Carrollton to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride which was a nice conversational ride with a stop at French Truck on Maple Street at the end. Plans were already afoot for a group ride over in Waveland for Sunday.

Saturday's Giro had a decent enough turnout and provided a pretty good workout. A little bit of a southeast wind had me up to 36 mph between the bridges chasing down the front group that seems to always put the hammer down coming over the first overpass. It was a good workout even though I was being a little cautious about doing too much work since I was planning on a 70+ mile ride the next day over in Mississippi. I did a quick turnaround after I got home to make the Tulane - Army football game, which was surprisingly good. It wouldn't be until later that evening that I would hear about a crash on the northshore group ride that landed John Egan in the trauma unit at UMC with a broken pelvis. He had surgery the following day, which apparently went well. I texted him on Monday afternoon and he replied right away, so he seemed to be doing well under the circumstances, although dreading the extended recovery process he was about to start.

So on Sunday I was up before 5 am to head over to HQ to meet up with the Tulane group going to Waveland. Since I knew I'd need all three spots on my roof rack, and I only have two thru-axle adapters, I brought the Bianchi for this one. After a couple of weeks riding mostly the new Cervelo I can't say it's noticeably faster or anything, so it isn't much of a difference going from one bike to the other anyway. 

We started on the beach in Waveland with a group of around 20, I think. A few would be doing a shorter route, but most would be doing the full 73 mile route. Despite not being familiar with the bridge between Waveland and Bay St. Louis, some of the Tulane riders took the lead right away and turned onto the bridge traffic lanes instead of the bike path, so everyone followed even though the traffic lanes are specifically marked as "no bikes." We survived anyway since it was 7:30 am on a Sunday. Of course, the early ride surge of adreneline split the group badly and I finally had to get everyone to stop for a couple of minutes so the rest could catch up. After that the pace stabilized a bit as the short-route riders dropped back. As usual on these rides I was kind of monitoring the group from the back.

Pretty soon someone flatted, so we stopped for that. The weather and route were about as good as it gets, and we had a nice double paceline going for a while. Pirmin, Jaden, and Kenny were on hand doling out advice. We were about 32 miles into the ride and coming down a little downhill into a gradual lefthand curve when one of the riders hit the rumble strip and ended up off the asphalt and on the sandy shoulder. The instinct to try to steer back toward the road washed out his front wheel and he did a beautiful flip, landing on his back along with one of the riders behind him. Charles rolled over the rear wheel of his bike that went flying across the road, bumping my own rear wheel as I went past. Fortunately both riders survived with just a lot of road rash mostly on their backs. The rear wheel, however, was badly out of true so it took a little while for Jaden and a multitool to make it a little less wobbly. 

After a long store stop around 45 miles in, we got going again only to have another rider snap a rear spoke. We stopped again and wrapped the broken spoke around its neighbor so he could continue. Luckily another spoke didn't break. We were around ten miles from the end when the front of the group rather unexpectedly dropped the hammer. That split things up a lot and left me closing a bunch of gaps. Eventually five or six of us came together about 40 seconds behind the front group that itself eventually shed almost everyone except Pirmin and Josiah, I think. Anyway, that got me a little intensity, even though we never got anywhere close to closing the gap. Other than the crash and broken spoke it was a pretty good ride on a really nice day. After a stop for lunch I don't think I got home until around 3 pm.

Fall and Falling

Friendly Friday - almost sunrise

The last few days have treated us to some beautiful Fall weather. Here in New Orleans, of course, what we might refer to as "Fall" is fairly similar to what they call "Summer" in other lattitudes. The morning temperatures in the 60s and highs in the low 80s have provided some welcome relief to both cyclists and air-conditioner compressors, and by the looks of the long-range forecast, the cool mornings will stick around for a while. It still won't likely get cool enough for me to start the annual "where did I put those arm-warmers" search, however. The morning rides now are largely in the dark, at least until the first week of November when we shift back to Standard Time. At that point, sunrise will be around 6:15 am so at least it won't be pitch black when I leave the house for a few weeks.

After Six Gap I took it pretty easy for a week, logging only 207 miles, most of which were pretty low intensity. The Tuesday after Six Gap I managed to put a stick into my rear wheel just as we were about to drop down the curb from the little bike path section along the 17th Street Canal onto Old Hammond Highway. That broke a spoke in my trusty Campi Scirocco wheel, so I just limped slowly home. Fortunately, I wasn't riding the new Cervelo Soloist yet because I was waiting for a new saddle to arrive. I called Adam at Bicycle World that afternoon, and luckily they had a couple of suitable replacement spokes. The car was in the shop, so I rode straight over there after work to pick them up, along with a roll of rim tape. I forgot to ask about spoke nipples, but back at home I found one that would work in a box of antique Schwinn branded spokes I'd inherited from Billy Richards, so the wheel was back in action for the following day, albeit with one brass spoke among all of the other aluminum ones (the original Al nipple had broken). The hardest part about the whole repair was coaxing the broken nipple and aluminum washer out of the rim through the valve hole. There was also some rain that week that interfered with a ride or two, all of which was just fine because it wasn't until Thursday before my legs felt reasonably recovered.

Great weather for the northshore Sunday ride

Last week's Friendly Friday ride was, as usual, more fast than friendly, so I was kind of staying out of the wind as much as possible despite my legs feeling back to normal. It was practically my first regular ride on the Cervelo. Afterward, Charles and I booked it down Carrollton to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride, which is always a nice recovery pace on the river levee. They'd decided to stop at Shug's Bagels on Maple Street, so the plan was to turn off of the bike path at the Corps of Engineers crossing on Burdette. As we approached the Corps building I dropped back with a couple of riders who were a bit off the back. Then we heard the train whistle from a train that was slowly approaching from around Audubon Park. We sped up just a bit before dropping down the levee and making an immediate turn on the bumpy asphalt to cross the tracks. I was almost at a stop as I met the group that was waiting there when one of the newer riders kind of miscalculated the turn and quite unexpectedly slammed right into me. I ended up on the ground with one arm neatly lodged in the groove of the train track. Fortunately, nothing was broken, although I probably jammed or dislocated my left ring finger, which is still pretty swollen.

On Saturday there was a planned Tulane northshore ride starting from Abita Springs. Since October is Festival Season around here, there were a couple of minor complications, one of which was that they were having their Fall Festival where we usually park. Fortunately one of the riders who lives in Abita pointed us to a big public parking lot that I didn't know existed, so that was great. I was riding my Bianchi since I have only two thru-axle adaptors for the roof rack and needed to transport four bikes. We headed out with seven riders for the planned 64 mile ride with a starting temperature of maybe 59°F. Yes, I was a little chilly. Pirmin was there, back from Germany, and I think he, Josiah, and Dylan were on the front of the group most of the time. Of course the pace was moderate by design. The weather was spectacular, as was the scenery. There was a charity ride going on that day starting from St. Benedict's, so we ran into a few of the riders and passed a few of their rest stops along the way, although I guess we missed most of the faster riders. We were kind of going in the opposite direction for some of their segments. Anyway, it was a really nice ride. Unfortunately, people had stuff to do afterward, so we just packed up and headed right back across the lake. I was probably home around 1 pm.

Sunday was a Giro for me. Again, it was just a bit chilly riding out to Starbucks in the dark, but the day's weather was again practically perfect for riding. There were about a dozen on hand for the ride, which was reasonably fast, mostly around 23-28 mph with a somewhat unexpected surge up to 39 coming down the overpass and then an unsuccessful chase from there to Seabrook. I did feel kind of wiped out by the time I got home, but that wasn't surprising after a 297 mile week. I was riding the Cervelo that is mostly functional except that I haven't quite sorted out all of the button functions and Garmin 540 data screens, etc., and probably need to go through the derailleur alignment process. I thought I'd immediately need to change out the 80 mm stem for a 100 mm one that I have on hand, but the Shimano Di2 hydraulic brake shift levers are so long that I barely notice any difference except on the drops. I guess I'll ride it like it is for a while and see how that works out. The Reserve 40/44 wheels feel kind of heavy to me, but I think that may be partially because of the tubless-ready Vittoria tires that are currently set up with tubes, and perhaps also the 11-30 cassette. Also, with an internal width of 25 mm (compared to 17-20 mm that I'm used to) makes the 28 mm tires seem huge. Again, I'll probably just ride them like they are for a while before doing anything drastic. I've always leaned toward light weight when it comes to wheels, but I'll probably try some lighter non-tubeless Conti tires and latex or TPU tubes first.

This morning it was pitch dark when I left the house. I glanced up and said hello to Orion, turned on the headlight, and headed off. Along Fontainbleau just before the turn onto Vendome I saw two riders fly by from Nashville. I thought they might be the Tulane riders, so I upped my pace, finally catching them somewhere after Washington Blvd. It turned out to be Connor and Jess (who was recently accepted into the graduate program at Oxford). It sounds likek Connor may be moving to Colorado to start ATC work, having just passed the course. At the museum there was a pretty big group for a Monday that included three Tulane riders in addition to Jess. Dylan and Josiah sat at the front all the way out to Seabrook. Then, after the loop, riders started wanting to go faster and the group split. I stayed with the second group that was just cruising at 20 mph or so. As we approached the Elysian Fields traffic circle we found Connor and Jess over by the curb kind of going the other way. I figured one of them must have dropped something, but it turned out that Connor had flatted. Anyway, we mostly regrouped after Canal for the last stretch down Wisner, after which a lot of riders just kept going on their way home, leaving just a few of us back at the museum. We found the Tulane riders who had kept to their easy pace and we all rode back toward uptown.

 

Six Gap for Sixteen

Thanks largely to Tulane's purchase of a bunch of new bikes for the team, together with the addition of Triathlon, the collegiate club's membership count was well into the 40 when the annual Six Gap road trip was being organized. It would be my 16th trip to Dahlonega, and this year we would have a total of 16 riders. We ended up at a huge Airbnb that was large enough to handle such a group but 40 minutes from Dahlonega. On the other hand, these were luxury accommodations compared to the local Motel6, and actually less expensive. Naturally, herding 16 cats, including myself, from New Orleans to Jasper GA in five minivans was a bit of a logistical challenge, but Dylan, Josiah, and Will pulled it off rather smoothly. For the first time, we decided to drive up on Friday, giving us all day Saturday to register, get in a short ride, and prepare all of the bikes and stuff for a 5 am departure Sunday morning.

View from the deck of our Airbnb in Jasper I will spare you the hot tub photos

On Wednesday evening I got the bike set up for Six Gap with the Roadlink derailleur extender and the 12-32 cassette that I pretty much reserve just for this particular ride. I'd planned to check everything out on the Thursday morning ride, but that was rained out. I'd used this setup twice before, though, and was pretty confident there would be no problems, even through I knew the chain was a link or two shorter than it should have been. It's a bit of a kludge anyway since the gear range definitely exceeds the derailleur's actual capacity. Thursday night I packed everything up so I'd be ready to help pick up the minivans at 7:30 am on Friday. Friday morning I loaded my stuff into the Volvo, pushed the start button, and heard just an ominous low growl from the engine. Yep, the battery had chosen that morning to die. So alternate arrangements were made and after everyone regrouped at HQ we all hit the road around 8:30 or so. I was in the van with Ben and four bikes. The drive went as usual, which is to say we all stopped at Buckees in Auburn for too long, and then got stuck in traffic in Atlanta, before finally making it to the house. This place was quite an upgrade from my usual accommodations and included things like a pool table, hot tub, deck, fire pit, and gigantic master bedroom with a walk-in closet the size of a nice New York apartment.

Saturday evening dinner at Pueblos in Dahlonega

The club had a great time Friday night until around midnight while I finished reading a book and worried they might be disturbing the neighbors. On Saturday we headed over to Dahlonega and got in a nice little 20 mile ride just after a tiny bit of rain before picking up our event packets and heading over to the practically traditional pre-ride dinner at Pueblos. Given our 4:00 am wake-up plan for Sunday, everybody turned in earlier Saturday night. Six were planning on doing the shorter Three Gap ride, while the rest were registered for the 104 mile Six Gap ride. The plan was to get to the high school just as the parking lot was opened so that we could park all five vans together. Amazingly, everyone was on the same page Sunday morning and we arrived just as planned, in the dark of course, but with plenty of time to unload all of the bikes and stuff pockets with nutrition. The excitement level was high and the weather nearly perfect as the 6-gappers rolled down to the start area about 20 minutes before the 7:30 am start. The temperature was 59° with an expected high around 80°. There was a short delay to the start as the organizers delt with a tree that had fallen somewhere on the course.

Waiting for the start. There were a bit over 800 doing the Six Gap ride.

As usual the start was a little chaotic, and also as usual I was being hyper-cautious, both about avoiding potential crashes and keeping my effort level fairly low. Back in the day I would have been more in race mode, but I figure I've done my time and deserve to look at the scenery at least a little. It was spectacular, by the way. I had one full flask of Hammergel and one half full flask of Hammergel, plus one bottle with electrolyte and another with plain water. I was feeling OK for Stonepile, the "warmup gap" and Neel's, the first official gap of the six, climbing at a conservative 6-7 mph, tempered by the upcoming Hogpen climb starting at around 34 miles. I should have put a little more effort into Hogpen, but it's hard to guess where your limits are for that sort of thing when you do it only once a year and haven't been racing all summer. I thus spent a lot of time in the 4-5 mph range where the grades were in the 10-12% range. As I have for the past few years, I didn't push it at all on the downhills, and as a result was only occasionally into the 40-45 mph range, never going over 46 mph.

About ten miles after descending from Hogpen you start the climb up Unicoi. This one is a little less steep, so I was mostly in the 7-8 mph range for the steeper segments. By that time I was actually feeling a little better than I had earlier. Again, I took the descent cautiously, never dropping down onto the drops, and mostly coasting. Somewhere after that downhill I somehow shifted my chain off the outside of the cassette where it jammed against the frame, so I had to stop for a minute to dislodge it and put it back where it belonged. The worst part about that was that I had to drop out of a little group I'd been with, and ended up alone for a while.

There was a rest stop somewhere along there that I rolled past, confident that I still had a full flask of gel and a full water bottle. Although it was starting to get warm, most of the morning had been cool enough that I hadn't been drinking a huge amount of water. I was thinking I could probably make it to the finish without having to stop. So I climbed Jack's Gap next without much difficulty since it is mostly more like 6-7% in the steepest sections. After Jack's, around 65 miles into the ride, I reached back for my still full flask of Hammergel and discovered that it was missing. It must have fallen out when I pulled out the other flask earlier. So I stopped at the next rest stop at around 70 miles to refuel because there was no way I was going to make it comfortably to the finish on just water. I didn't see any gels at that stop, so I picked up some packets of gummies and filled a water bottle with Coke.

The last couple of Gaps are relatively short and quite scenic, and although I was definitely starting to feel my legs, I felt pretty good for those. I came flying down Woody Gap, my favorite descent, into the sharp downhill curve a the traffic circle, which is arguably the most fun part of the whole ride for a crit rider, and shortly after that a rider came past me at just the right speed, so I hopped on his wheel. He happily pulled me the last ten miles or so at a nice pace to the finish after which we introduced ourselves and I thanked him for the draft. So I ended up with a chip time of 6:36 and a Strava ride time of 6:33, which is about average for the last five years or so. That put me 13th in the 60+ group. There were only a handful of 70+ riders, of which I finished first for whatever that's worth. My legs were pretty well cooked by the end, and although my neck and back were hurting, they weren't as bad as they have been some years. 

Some of the local riders had spectacular rides.The fastest time this year was 4:38 (these are all chip times). Miguel Davis, who is 16, finished at 5:15 (38th overall), and Connor Prestenback, also 16, came in at 5:29. Nick was 5:36, Sam at 5:45, Apryl at 5:46, Joe Paul at 6:07, and Dustin at 6:12 among others.

The Tulane Six Gap riders did remarkably well for the most part. Liam did a very impressive 6:08 ride time, and Josiah, Ben, and Dylan all finished with faster ride times than I. We did have a couple of casualties, though. Daniel had a little crash somewhere around the turn of death, but got patched up and still finished with a chip time of 8:02. Michael abandoned somewhere along the way and had to wait a long time for a shuttle back to the high school. By the time everyone had gotten back, had something to eat at the cafeteria, got cleaned up, and got the bikes all loaded back into the vans it was probably at least 4:30 pm. The drive back was uneventful except that we all got split up because of varying fuel stops and one missed turn. All of the other vans did meet up at Buckees in Auburn, but Ben and I had needed to get gas prior to that, so we stopped at a Love's and picked up dinner there instead. Still, the late departure had us back in New Orleans after 1 am, and by the time we unloaded at HQ, dropped Ben off at his place, and returned the vans to the motor pool it was after 2:00 am. I finally hit the sack around 2:30 am. 

All-in-all it was a great trip and a big accomplishment for many of the riders, some of which are quite new to challenging rides like this one. For me, I guess it is rather inevitable that this ride seems a little harder every year, but I'm glad I can still do it.

Needless to say, I didn't get up at 5:30 am on Monday to ride. Instead, I connected the battery charger to the car battery and waited a few hours for it to charge enough that I could drive it over to Bergeron Volvo. It was also due for its 120,000 mile service, so I wasn't too surprised the next day when they told me it would be a bit over $4k to take care of everything. Still cheaper than a new car, I guess. 

Of course this sort of expense always comes when you have just bought something expensive that you didn't really need. In this case, it was a new Cervelo Soloist that was still partially assembled at home. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but it was on closeout, happened to be about my size, and was priced a couple thousand off retail, and of course the trusty Bianchi Sempre has now accumulated 132,800 miles and probably needs a rest. I had broken down and ordered a proper saw guide and blade since I had to cut down the seatpost to clear the cutout for the rear wheel. It's a 48 with 165 crankarms and an 80 mm stem, so I'm sure it will take me a while longer to sort out the position and everything. Cervelo uses the same seat tube angle on all their frame sizes, so that makes the virtual top tube longer, as it was on my old Cervelo Soloist. The head tube is considerably shorter than it is on the Bianchi, but I think the spacers with which they shipped it put it at just about the right height. Anyway, I had it put together by last night, so now I need to ride around the neighborhood a bit and fine tune the saddle height, fore-aft position, handlebar position, possibly stem length, and handlebar height if not a touch high. Of course it came with insanely wide 28mm tires that are tubeless ready but with tubes, which is to say they are super heavy, so all of that, plus the Di2 shifting and disc brakes will probably take some getting used to.

Yesterday I cut my ride short when a stick got into my rear wheel and brought me to a rather sudden stop with a broken spoke. I limped home and later called Adam at Bicycle World to see if he happened to have a replacement spoke in the correct length. He found a couple, so I rode there after work and picked them up along with a roll of rim tape, forgetting completely about the fact that the original spoke nipple had mysteriously disappeared. Amazingly a brass spoke nipple that I pulled out of a 30 year old box of Schwinn branded spokes that I'd been given by Billy Richards' son threaded on nicely, so I was able to put the wheel back into service in time for this morning's WeMoRi where my legs were still feeling a little bit of Dahlonega.