Cooling Down or Heating Up

There's a rather brief time of year around here when the group ride intensity is inversely proportional to the ambient temperature. We call those two weeks "Fall." I've been slowly re-adjusting to early morning temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s. To be clear, I consider those temperatures to be somewhat chilly and although the knees might remain bare, I'll generally go for some sort of base layer and possibly arm-warmers, even though I know that two hours later it might be twenty degrees warmer. I guess the prevailing thought is to go out the door dressed for the warmer temperature and just be cold for the first hour, but that never really works for me. I have to admit, though, that the additional clothes always make me feel slow. I don't really know if that's real or imaginary, but it's quite consistent.

So Mellow Monday a week ago had a good turnout, and with the temperature barely below 70° F I don't even remember if I opted for anything under my summer jersey. With the seemingly ever-present ENE wind, things got fast as soon as we made the loop at the Armory, keeping the average speed for the westbound stretch up around 28 mph. Fortunately it settled down after that. We had to practically stop for the light at Harrison, so it was basically a matched sprint from the light to the top of the overpass. Situation normal.

I somehow got out the door a little early on Tuesday, for which I was apparently about to be punished. Despite the recent time change it was still fairly dark as I made my way to NOMA along Bayou St. John. I hit something along there, like a little pothole perhaps, and wondered if I'd pinched the tube, but it seemed OK -- for about 30 seconds. Just as I got to Elysian Fields the rear tire went dead flat. I walked the bike across Wisner to change the tube under a streetlamp as Big Rich stopped briefly to see what the problem was. Anyway, of course I missed the start of the 6 am ride by two or three minutes, but eventually found them out on Lakeshore Drive somewhere past Esplanade. 

We had a few people for the ride out to Williams Blvd., along with a pretty good east wind, so it was fast out and slow back. I was feeling pretty good and so I probably spent a little more time on the front than usual, which isn't saying much really.

Wednesday's WeMoRi was pretty typical. Charles was running late, so he found me on Lakeshore Drive just before we were sucked up by the group, which wasn't going super fast. I was hanging in well enough, but we did have a little excitement at the end. Fortunately I hadn't contested the leadup to the sprint at Marconi, because one of the guys pulled his foot out of hit pedal (it was new and the tension was probably at the lowest setting) when he stood up to sprint. His leg went flying out to the right, his bike careened to the left and then shot across to the right toward the curb. He was somehow still more or less upright until he ran out of road and hit the curb which thankfully landed him in the grass. Amazingly he didn't take anyone else down in the process, and once we pulled his chain out from between the crankarm and frame he was back on his way relatively unscathed. 

After I got home I had to take the car over to Uptown Auto for a very expensive oil change, and so I threw the 'Cross bike in the car so I could ride home. The owner, Paul, happened to see me as I was coming out of the office and asked about the bike, so I asked him about his Triumph. Turns out he has both a TR 250 and a TR 6. I'd always seen one or the other around the shop, even back when it was next to Cooter Brown's before it moved to River Road at Industrial. I don't know why they were complaining to me about the price of synthetic motor oil since they clearly passed the full cost on to me! At least nowadays I get an oil change about once a year rather than once every 3,000 miles like in the old days.

Thursday was another morning levee ride. We had a pretty nice group, picking up a few as we went along, so it turned out to be a pretty good workout. One visiting rider from the US Virgin Islands joined us (he was also on today's Monday ride and I think was on the SaMoRi Giro too. Anyway, it was a nice steady workout, again with a bit of tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way back.

By Friday it was a touch cooler and the wind was starting to shift around to the north I think. This particular Friendly Friday stayed friendly a little longer than usual. Things stayed fairly smooth until, not surprisingly, we picked up the tailwind on Wisner prior to the sprint up the overpass. That stretch was mostly in the 28-30 mph range, but there were a lot of riders, so it wasn't really a problem. 

On Saturday I went straight out to the 6:30 am SaMoRi which has essentially become the SaMoRi Giro now. By the time we were down to the end of Lakeshore Drive we had a pretty huge group or at least 40. I was wanting to do some work that day, so I was staying closer to the front than usual. There was a pretty good NE wind, so while I was staying near the front I was definitely staying off the front, at least until we made the turn south toward Chef. That stretch of course got fast - Strava says 26 - 31 mph. Anyway, I basically just did more work than usual. On the way back down Hayne it was staying up around 30 mph. A gap opened up as we got close to the overpass, so I put in a huge effort there and almost, but not quite, bridged up to it. It was a nice try anyway. 

Later that morning we went over to watch the Tulane football game with was pretty bad, at least for Tulane. Joe Paul and company were doing a long ride to Ponchatoula and back that day (Joe Paul split off from them and rode to Baton Rouge to watch the LSU game). 

Sunday a cold front had moved through just in time for the Tulane long ride out of Abita Springs. Although it wasn't too cold on the southshore, by the time we got to Abita Springs with three bikes on the roof and one in the back, around 7:45 am, it was probably around 49 degrees. Knowing it would warm up like 20 degrees during the ride, I just wore a base layer and arm warmers. I started out with knee-warmers too, but one of them kept falling down because I was wearing an old pair of Tulane bibshorts and the elastic on those had kind of given up, so those came off pretty early, which was fine because it was nice and sunny by then. There was a lot of German on this particular ride. We had Pirm and his wife Tessa, plus Tulane rider Malte who is also German. 

The 75-mile ride itself was mostly very easy, at least until I decided to put in a little effort on the climb coming back on Isabel Swamp Road. Of course I expected everyone to regroup when we got to Highway 40, but apparently I'd flipped the switch for some of the guys and they went flying past me just before we got there. There was still a group of four or so that was well behind me, so although I was in no-man's-land I kept some pressure on the pedals down 40 to Bob Baxter and then all the way to down 1083 until I got to 21 where I stopped and waited for the rest of the group. By then the front group was way up the road.

We had a nice lunch at Abita Brewpub afterward, so by the time I got home it was probably around 3 pm. My legs had been feeling a little sore the whole day, probably because of that little sprint up the overpass on Saturday, but it wasn't all that bad really.

This morning's Mellow Monday had a fairly small group, but there were a couple of people who apparently wanted to go fast. After I took a pull at one point on the way back down Lakeshore Drive, whoever it was who came through surged and opened a gap, leaving a couple of us to our own devices. It wasn't until after I'd turned onto Marconi that I caught back up to the group, so I ended up doing a little more work than I'd planned to do on a chilly Monday.

Sunrise Season

Heading home from Mellow Monday a week ago

We will thankfully move the clocks back an hour this coming weekend, but in the meantime we've been treated to some pretty sunrises on the morning rides lately. We've also had practically a whole week with morning temperatures in the 60s, which for most people is comfortable and for me is a bit chilly. I'm not complaining, of course, real winter will come soon enough I guess.

For the past few weeks I've been doing the usual 6 am ride from NOMA on Tuesdays, but have switched to a 6:15 am levee ride on Thursdays. A week ago on Tuesday I was able to blend in with a small group once I got out to the Lake Trail, which was nice. That group was a bit smaller than it has been, which seems to be the trend with most of the rides lately. As if the pre-dawn darkness isn't enough, we have had sustained strong winds for at least a week now. It's getting old.

Friendly Friday was pretty typical, which is to say that it started easy and ended fast as usual. Afterward I braved the traffic and potholes on Carrollton and met up with the Tulane Coffee Ride on the levee. We went over to MoJo on Freret Street this time, coincidentally arriving just as Candy showed up walking Charlie, who of course loved the attention, and the dog biscuit. There was a long line there, but I eventually got my cup of coffee as Candy headed out to continue her morning walk.

On Saturday I went out in the dark with Jupiter and Mars high in the sky to see if anyone would show up for the Giro Ride. It was fairly windy, not too bad, but by 6:55 I'd finished my coffee and was still sitting there alone. It seems that the SaMoRi has officially morphed into the Saturday Giro now. As Doug Haddock once said in reference to riders going the wrong way at the Tour de La, "Bikies are like sheep." So I figured I'd ride solo out to Chef Menteur where I could turn around and get in with the group. I wasn't too keen on riding the stretch on the Interstate alone, so I took Bullard to Chef. I then turned around at Fortier Blvd., constantly looking over my shoulder for the group that I was sure would appear at any second. Eventually I decided that I must have missed them, and went back the way I'd come, only to find out later that they had indeed been behind me the whole time. Since I'd taken the Bullard shortcut and also turned around early, I then just continued out to the lake trail to at least make up the missed mileage.

Sunday was a 75 mile Tulane ride out of Pass Christian. It was in the 50s when we rolled out from War Memorial Park a little late, around 7:50, with eight or nine people, including Charles and Steve. This was a pretty consistent Zone 2 type ride that seemed to be about 70% headwind. I was comfortable for most of it with a baselayer and arm-warmers, although it did warm up nicely by the time we got back. Afterward most of us went over to that little Sea Level place at the harbor, which was nice. My legs felt achy the entire ride for some reason, so I guess it's a good thing it never got fast. On Monday I tried my best to keep my efforts as mellow as possible under the circumstances. Naturally it got pretty fast heading back on Lakeshore Drive, thanks to a pretty strong northeast wind coming off the lake.

Tuesday the wind and temperature were pretty much the same, and as I expected I ended up solo after Lakeshore Drive. The tailwind made the westbound stretch pretty nice, and of course also made the return trip pretty slow, but at least there was a nice sunrise to watch. Later that morning I met up with Dylan, Pirm, and Zach, who handles Club Sports at Tulane, to show him around HQ. Apparently some people have been asking about the club's space at University Square. I'd guess it's Athletics since they recently installed the tennis courts there for the tennis team.

This morning I went out to the lakefront to meet up with the WeMoRi. When I latched onto the end of the paceline along Marconi I was surprised how small the group was. I guess people are getting tired of riding in the dark and at this point are just waiting for the time change on Sunday. When we got to the usual sprint over the Wisner overpass, I let a little gap open, thinking that it would be easy to close it back up on the downhill. Well, it wasn't. Eventually three of us came together and put in a half-hearted chase along City Park Avenue. Actually we were gradually losing ground until the front group eased up a lot after turning onto Marconi, which allowed us to close it back up. Apparently there had been a few other riders in the group before I'd met up with it. None of the usual Tulane riders were there today.

Da Wind in da Parish

Tour da Parish

It was still nice and warm as I rode in the dark out to NOMA to meet up with the Friendly Friday group. Still, in comparison with the prior couple of months, the 75° air felt just a little bit chilly. The forecast was calling for a cold front moving through in the afternoon, and I was already wondering just how windy and chilly it was going to be for Saturday's annual Tour da Parish ride.

We rolled out of NOMA as usual and half a mile later as we made out way through the I-610 underpass, there was a loud explosion. For a moment I wondered if something bad had happened above us on the interstate, but quickly realized that Wes' rear tire had suddenly blown right off the rim. It was quite a mess. He must have had half a gallon of sealant in there because the bike was covered with it. We had barely even started the ride, and most of the group continued on with the usual warmup, but a few of us stopped to assist. I knew that the following day would probably be a hard one, so I didn't feel bad about missing most of the ride. Besides, I was planning on riding down to the river afterward to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride where I needed to hand off a BikeReg check to the treasurer. So Wes quickly pulled out an inner tube, removed the valve stem from the rim, and despite everything being covered in slime got everything back together started pumping the tire up with his electronic pump. The pump buzzed but the tube didn't inflate. It must have been bad or pinched. So someone offered another tube, and he tried again, unfortunately with the same result. Finally, on the third tube and with borrowed CO2, we got it inflated enough for him to limp back home as a couple of us headed to the lake to meet back up with the group on its way back. After regrouping at NOMA I headed off for the levee, but didn't get past Orleans before my own rear tire went flat. I rolled up to the coffee shop and, with my one remaining CO2 cartridge, got it fixed. Of course by then I was running a little late, but did eventually meet up with the coffee ride group. The rest of the day I was obsessively checking the hourly forecast for Saturday morning, which was not offering any better news. We'd be starting out at 7 am with a sub-60 degree NE wind blowing at 20-25 mph. A lot of the people who usually do this ride were already on the fence and leaning heavily to the other side.

The Thursday Levee Ride

So Saturday morning I got up early so I could get to the ride around an hour ahead of the start, which would ensure a nice parking spot and ample time to pick up my packet and generally get my act together. It was a good thing I'd planned to get there early because things started going downhill right away. As I was getting ready to leave, I grabbed the pump so I could top off the front tire that has a latex tube that always loses exactly five pump strokes per day. When I pulled the pump off of the valve stem, something in the valve broke and the whole thing came apart. It took a few minutes to put in another tube, pump it up, and finally get out the door. Although I was still somewhat ahead of schedule, I was starting to feel a bit rushed, and somehow managed to leave my phone at home. The biggest problem with that was that I had been planning on calling Catherine when I arrived so I could lend her my backup Garmin that she wanted to use. Of course, I never found her, but fortunately the route is pretty well marked and it wasn't an issue. It was still dark when I arrived, and after parking I walked over to the registration area and picked up my packet along with a welcome cup of hot coffee. Back at the car I went to open the back hatch, which has been troublesome for quite some time, and it absolutely would not click open. By then time was getting a little short. I ended up removing the front wheel while the bike was still in the car so I could get it out through one of the rear doors. At that point I noticed the front tire, the one I'd just fixed, seemed pretty low. I decided to go ahead and risk it on the assumption that it had just lost some pressure when I'd removed the pump earlier that morning, since it was almost time to start. (When I checked it back at home later that day it had about 50 psi.)

So the ride started right on time at 7 am with a smaller crowd than usual. I think a lot of people skipped the ride after seeing the predicted wind speeds. At the front, though, were Connor, Ben, Liam, etc., so I knew there would be a fast group. The first segment of the route heads generally east, so that meant a crosswind from the left. I was already expecting an early split since the road isn't wide enough for a big group in a crosswind, and I didn't want to die a self-inflicted death. Right away a group of maybe 20 or so split off the front with me and a few others hanging onto the back. As the speed ramped up the back of the group, as expected, started to get strung out along the right edge of the road. Although it wasn't super fast, I was getting pretty uncomfortable riding the tightrope, and finally decided that staying with the front group wasn't quite worth dying for. 

Pretty soon a nice little second group came by and I jumped into it as we made the turn to the south down to Delacroix. That was a nice mostly tailwind stretch, so if was fairly fast despite being entirely disorganized. Once we made the U-turn, which due to some complication was a few hundred meters early, we hit the headwind. The front group, of course, was long gone by then. Our group got semi-organized for a while with a rotating, if uneven, paceline, and after a while I could see MJ and Joe Paul up ahead. They must have dropped off from the front group. Knowing that both of them would work, I pulled our group up to them once we got close, so at that point we had a nice group of maybe eight or ten. We made the right turn onto the road to Hopedale and kept up a fairly nice paceline with a strong crosswind and significant headwind. 

After the second U-turn I pulled off the front and as I dropped back Joe Paul said, "you dropped them." I hadn't really, but I think one of the riders in the paceline blew up and opened a big gap that nobody closed. So the rest of the way it was just a nice steady 3-man time trial with MJ, who was more in race mode than Joe Paul and me, pushed the pace a bit. It was a nice workout, although most of the intensity was in the form of trying to keep the front wheel pointed in the right direction. I don't think I touched either of my water bottles, and I consumed on gel mostly because it was tasty rather than because I needed the carbs.

Meanwhile, Connor predictably ended up solo off the front, followed by Ben, who was also solo, and then what was left of the front group with Liam finishing third. Granted there's no finish line and no actual results, but it was a good ride for them anyway.

This morning it was still windy as hell but we had a decent sized group for the Giro. My legs were just a little bit worse for the wear, so I was limiting my relatively rare pulls. Otherwise it was a good ride. Like Saturday, I had a base layer and arm-warmers on, which was perfect.

A Taste of Fall

Thursday Levee Ride

Hurricane Isaias ended up making landfall around Destin, with impact that looks to me to be around upper Category 2 level. What that ultimately meant for us, as is often the case when something like that goes east of us, was a north wind and a little taste of fall, which is to say that the morning temperature may have gotten down to 60°F. Rather surprisingly, morning temperatures since have remained relatively cool. On Thursday we had a nice little group for the long levee ride with a bit of a tailwind heading out and of course headwind heading back. Friday, when the hurricane ultimately made landfall, the wind was stronger and more northerly. Not surprisingly, Lakeshore Drive was closed due to flooding resulting from the combination of a high lake level and strong north wind, so Friendly Friday was more like Fractured Friday as we decided to do a couple of laps around City Park instead. I wasn't in the mood to suffer and dropped off the pace early, which was probably just as well since I think the group kind of splintered anyway. I went ahead and rode down to the river afterward, rather later than usual, but eventually met up with the Tulane coffee ride as usual.

On Saturday I had originally been planning to do the 6:30 SaMoRi but Chris said he was going to do the Giro at 7, so I went ahead and did that. As usual we had a smallish but motivated group, so it was a good enough workout even if I was sucking wheels most of the time. 

On Sunday Ben had put together a Tulane long ride out of Abita Springs, so it was an early wakeup to get to HQ around 5:15 am for a planned 6:30 am start. I don't think we ended up leaving HQ until more like 5:45, so we didn't roll out of Abita until almost 7, which was fine since it would have still been pretty dark at 6:30 and the temperature was actually below 60°F. I wore my sunscreen arm warmer things, and did not regret it. The ride itself was strictly Zone 2 and it was a pretty beautiful day for the six or seven of us. Of course the ride was followed by lunch at the Brewpub as usual.

Tuesday's morning ride out of NOMA had pretty much the usual crowd, and as usual everyone turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive except for me and Jeff. As we traversed the parking lot shortcut to Bucktown Jeff inexplicably dropped his chain, and as often seems to happen, it got stuck behind the Trek chain catcher thing. Luckily he had a multitool with him, so he could loosen the little flap and get it out of the way, but in the process he managed to cut his hand badly enough that he was dripping blood on the chain. Anyway, at that point he decided to just head home at Bonnabel to tend to his wounds and get his bike back in order, leaving me to my own devices for the rest of the ride to the west. Fortunately I'd seen the Metairie group earlier, so I cruised along and waited to be swept up by it, continuing out to The Wall and back, which was nice.

This morning I accidentally got out the door a little early, so I got to Lakeshore Drive probably four or five minutes ahead of the group. I went ahead and headed east at a moderate pace, and didn't get caught until we were almost to Marconi. It was fast as usual but nothing unusual, so I think mostly everyone stayed together. As usual I was mostly just following wheels. Ben, Liam, and Jack were MIA, having decided to do a levee ride instead, apparently tapering for Saturday's "non-competitive" Tour da Parish ride. It's looking like Saturday will be cool and windy. The current forecast is calling for NNE wind at 19 (!) mph. The route starts off mostly easterly, then turns south down to Delacroix, then back north, then a long stretch out mostly to the east and then back west. Of course things could change a bit between now and then, but my guess is that a strong wind, especially a crosswind, will wreak havoc on a group like this.

Rain, Dark, and Flat Tires

A lot of this kind of scenery lately

It was, I think, Thursday before my legs felt more or less normal again, which I suppose is about normal after a flatlander foolishly ventures up into north Georgia and rides 104 miles with close to 12k feet of climbing. Apparently going slower did not significantly reduce the damage inflicted, at least on my legs. Last week included a fair amount of wet roads and outright rain, and I think I washed down the bike and drip waxed the chain three times. over the course of seven days. It's just like that sometimes. 

That Thursday ride was a late one, again because of morning rain. I went ahead and headed out for the levee around 6:40 am because it looked like I had a little window in-between the rain. A lot of the bike path was still pretty wet, and I rode through a short bit of rain shower, but otherwise I was glad I'd gone. Well, until I was three blocks from home and slashed the hell out of a basically brand new Conti 5000 on a sharp rock. The also new TPU tube immediately exploded through the cut, and by the time I rolled to a stop it had also been pinched by the rim. Later that day I sewed in a boot, so the tire will at least be usable as a backup. Fortunately I already had a tan wall Conti on hand that I'd mistakenly ordered a while back, so that got me through the next few days until a proper matching black one arrived today. I was a little surprised how much it bothered me having mismatched tires.

Last Saturday I went out with the SaMoRi again since they have now shifted to a slightly more palatable 6:30 am start and I figured my caffeine withdrawal symptoms would probably not kick in until it was over. Nothing much to say about the ride itself except that since most of the regular Giro riders are now there on Saturdays it was basically a Giro ride. The forecast for Sunday was not looking good, and in fact it ended up storming all morning. I finally slipped out on the 'Cross bike around 1:30 and found much of the levee bike path to be reasonably dry. Granted, I did get a tiny bit of rain along the way, and there were some areas that were pretty wet, but considering all of the rain around the area, I am chalking it up as a win, even if I got in only 33 miles. That brought my week's total to 251, so I'm going to call it a recovery week. 

By Monday it was starting to look like something significant was developing in the western Gulf of Mexico. I was really hoping we would get all the way through the hurricane season without a single hurricane in the Gulf, but it doesn't look like that will happen. Anyway, the Mellow Monday ride was good, but the roads were mostly wet and once again the bike needed a bit of a wash afterward.

On Tuesday, things were thankfully dried out a bit, and after the usual fast bits along Lakeshore Drive I was left to my own devices for the out and back on the lake trail. The Metairie group, or what's left of it after last week's crash, was nowhere to be found, but a nice northeast tailwind lured me into going all the way out to the Wall anyway. Naturally that meant a relatively slow slog back to the east, but I wasn't in a hurry. That evening I decided to drop the fork as far as I could considering the hydraulic hoses that run through the headset bearings to see how it was all looking. I can't say it was looking all that good. The bottom headset area was pretty dirty, but at least the relatively new bearings seemed OK, so I cleaned everything off, slathered some Phil Wood grease on everything, and put it all back together. Before brake hoses went through the headset bearings I wouldn't have bothered with this cable since it was so easy and inexpensive to install new headset bearings, but now it's a real chore and if things don't go right you could end up having to run new brake hoses, bleed brakes, re-tape handlebars, etc., etc., so it's probably best to at least try to keep things reasonably clean and lubed.

The morning temperatures have started to come down a little bit. This morning as I rode out to the WeMoRi it was probably around 75°, which may not seem cool to some, but seemed cool to me. I think the 15 mph northeast wind may have contributed a bit to that feeling, though. With the slightly cooler temperature comes a lot more darkness, at least until we make the fall time change at the beginning of November. That has it's own consequences, as we saw later that morning. I don't typically make much of an effort to get out to the lakefront in time to meet the WeMoRi on its way out on Lakeshore Drive. This morning I did get out the door just a little bit earlier than usual, and considering the wind I was rather surprised to see the long paceline climbing the Bayou St. John bridge as I approached it on Beauregard Avenue. Of course, there was no way I was going to be able to chase it down, so I turned onto Lakeshore Drive a minute or two behind it, continuing to the Elysian Fields traffic circle where I looped back around to await the inevitable catch. As I was approaching the bridge I saw a headlight coming my way which turned out to be Ben's. He had broken a rear derailleur cable earlier in the ride and dropped off the back. He turned around to join me, stuck in his 52 x 11, and we continued at a relatively leisurely pace, turning onto Marconi still probably two or three minutes ahead of the WeMoRi group. Just as I hit the start of the Wisner overpass, Jaden and Liam went screaming past in a full sprint, followed shortly by the already diminished group into which I smoothly inserted myself as Ben peeled off to nurse his bike back home.

Things went fairly smoothly after that, at least until we got back onto Lakeshore Drive where Maurizio launched an attack just before the bridge. That had everyone strung out and on the rivet as we turned left around the fountain, still in enough darkness to make it hard to see what was coming. That's when MJ, I think, hit a pothole hard, followed by someone else, resulting in at least one, possibly two, flat tires. Of course the front of the group was blissfully unaware of that commotion and continued hammering away, pulling Maurizio back before we hit the Elysian Fields traffic circle. By that time I had been on the drops in full wheelsucking mode for a couple of miles. Somewhere before the bridge there was another attack, and although I was by then mid-pack at best, with two riders already way off the front, I still saw something a bit over 35 mph between there and the finish at Marconi.

So according to Charles' WeMoRi report, there were three flat tires and one broken derailleur cable during the ride, not counting Calder's flat tire on his way home. Liam and I stopped for coffee, but we were the only ones today.

No problemo

So down in the Gulf we now have Tropical Storm Isaias, which seems to be heading for the Alabama/Florida border on the Gulf Coast, with landfall currently predicted to be some time late Friday or early Saturday as a Cat. 1 or Cat. 2 hurricane. Fortunately we will be on the "good" side, which will probably mean some nice northerly winds and some rain on Friday. Not ideal riding weather, but probably nothing to write home about.

96 Gaps

Post-ride group pic

It was time again for another trip up to Dahlonega for the annual Six Gap Century. This would be my 16th, if I survived, which would take me to a cumulative total of 96 Gaps and nearly 1,600 miles. I must be crazy. For weeks, the Tulane Cycling & Triathlon group had been working diligently on the logistics involved in transporting and housing 17 riders, and like last year had secured an entire home in a gated community (Bent Tree Community) in the mountains near Jasper, GA, which was about an hour's drive from Dahlonega itself. Donata, the club advisor, had secured two of the big Ecology & Evolutionary Biology vans, and two minivans from the motor pool were reserved. The plan was for most of the bikes to travel in the Biology vans along with two drivers each, and packing the minivans with everyone else. Like last year, we'd be driving up on Friday so that on Saturday we could do a short ride and pick up our packets in Dahlonega.

Waiting for the minivans to arrive

Everyone would be meeting up at HQ for 7:00 am, so I had Candy drop me off. By then HQ was crowded with the seats that had been removed from the Biology vans, and we were ready to load up the bikes. 

Packed

This time we arranged the bikes sideways, which worked amazingly well in the wide vans. I think we had 7 or 8 bikes in each van. Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and in this case there had been some miscommunication with the motor pool about our departure time that resulted in a delay of about an hour, I think. No problem, really, but it would have been nice to have arrived at the house before dark. The drive up to Jasper went pretty smoothly with a stop at the Bates House of Turkey and of course Buckees along the way. It was dark when we arrived at the gate, and then the fun began. I was driving at the time. There was a mile or two of narrow winding and very hilly road between us and the house that definitely made it interesting. Then, when we got to the end of the road there was an impossibly steep drive down to the house from a conveniently located trailhead. Ben was already there and suggested we park at the trailhead with the big vans since it was questionable if we'd be able to get them back up the hill. In fact we spun the tires a couple of times just trying to park the beast.

The house itself was very nice, as one would expect, with a beautiful view of the mountains, a full kitchen, outdoor deck, hot tub, pool table, etc. Everyone got situated eventually, so I nobody needed to sleep on the couch, which actually wouldn't have been uncomfortable at all. 

Saturday morning we headed out to Dahlonega around 9:30 for a 17-mile shakeout ride with 1,500 ft of climbing. It was the same route we'd used last year. It took a solid half hour to unload all of the bikes and get everyone ready to roll. Will dropped his chain and I think had some other bike problem, so I think he turned back early. Otherwise the ride went well and I felt quite good. I was very worried about having a repeat of the breathing problems I'd had in NC a month earlier, especially since the forecast for Sunday morning was in the low 50s. I'd already decided to make it an easy ride and avoid any heavy breathing. That actually worked out pretty well, although of course that meant a record slow ride time for me. 

Pinning on numbers 101

After the ride we went over to the high school and picked up packets and wandered around the vendor area where we had a nice visit with Debbie Milne at her Suprabars tent. After driving back to Jasper we hung around for a while before cooking up some pasta and sauce, bread, and garlic shrimp. Then we had a meeting to go over everything for the next day. Anyone doing the full century ride who didn't make it to the turnoff for the three gap route in under two hours was required to turn off and do just the three gap ride so our departure back to NOLA wouldn't be too delayed. I had a hard requirement to be back no later than 2:00 am.

This year they staged the start up near the high school building, which I didn't realize until I'd already started rolling down the hill to where it usually starts. As usual it was crowded with excited riders. The three gap riders where there to collect jackets and stuff from the six gappers, since it was pretty chilly at the start. I was wearing two jerseys and arm-warmers, with a sheet of notebook paper stuffed under the outer jersey. I regretted none of that even though the temperature rose by a good 25 degrees during the ride. There were a lot of New Orleans riders this year. Steve drove up solo and stayed at Ro's house. Charles came up with Calder but made a last minute decision to just do the Three Gap ride. Little Jo, MJ, Nick, Steven, Jason, Michael, Dalton, Mark, and I'm sure a few others were all on hand.

Sunday morning we were up out the door and on the road around 5 am, so we arrived at the parking lot early enough to get a good parking spot, unload and assemble the bikes, and eat some breakfast. For me, that was basically a cup of coffee and a banana. 

Back at the bikes I gathered up everything I'd be bringing. A flask of Hammergel, three or four Gu packets, a little Skratch in the big Tulane water bottle, and plain water in the other bottle. One of the riders was borrowing my backup Garmin for Three Gap, so I got that set up on his bike. I had put a new Conti 5000 on the rear wheel the week before, since the old one was pretty cut up. Tires were inflated to 65-70 psi. as usual. Once we started I gradually slid back until I found riders going the speed I was comfortable with, which in this case was relatively slow. The front of the group was probably five minutes ahead within ten miles, and would ultimately finish over two hours ahead of me at 4:48. If you want to put in a faster finish time on this ride you absolutely have to make the effort in the first 20 miles to stay with the first or second group. Despite the fact that I was obviously going easier on the initial climbs than usual, it didn't really feel a whole lot easier, but on the other hand I never got to the point where I was kind of gasping for breath on the early hills, which is something that I usually struggle with when it's cool and there's a little altitude involved. So anyway, things were going along fairly well, considering. 

The climb up Hogpen, the second of the six, felt just as difficult as usual. It looks like I averaged around 5.7 mph for the steeper section of that, where I might normally have been closer to 7 mph. Somewhere around a third of the way up Hogpen I pulled over where there was a traihead so I could pee, no doubt a result of the chilly weather. I probably hadn't gone a mile past that when I came across Will on the side of the road struggling with his chain. He'd dropped it between the cassette and the spokes. It took a couple of tries to get it back in place, and then a couple of tries to get going again on the 10% grade without having to put a foot down and try again. Dropped chains would turn out to be a problem for him the rest of the ride even though we had intentionally checked limit screws earlier in the week.  Anyway, I finally  came over the top feeling OK and coasted down the other side at 28-44 mph without trying. This was the first year I've ridden Six Gap with the route on my computer and the first time with the newer Garmin. It was nice to have the display showing the upcoming gradients. In addition we'd been given some nice stickers to put on the top tube that showed the mileage at the tops of the climbs.

For much of the rest of the ride I found myself surprisingly alone. I guess that's one drawback of hanging back at the start. On the plus side, the weather was great and I could enjoy some of the scenery without staring at someone's rear wheel. It wasn't until the last five miles or so that a three-rider group came by that I could get in with. So in the end I was kind of unhappy to have gone so slowly (official time was 7:10) but on the plus side I was never in any kind of difficulty, the Cervelo handled its first Six Gap flawlessly, and I wasn't any more toasted by the end than usual, which is to say I was pretty damn well toasted. As usual, my neck and upper back were the main problems. My lower back seemed to tolerate this year's ride surprisingly well. I think I spent more time standing on the climbs than usual this year, which may have helped in that regard.

Most of the other riders had good rides. Ben and Liam were both well under 6 hours, which was excellent, and Michael and Jao were well under seven. We did have a couple of casualties. Dylan misjudged a downhill turn when he had to change his line because of a car. He ended up in the ditch with a bent derailleur hanger and some fairly minor road rash, so wasn't able to finish. Mary, who was doing the Three Gap ride, had a broken shifter cable somewhere along the way and therefore had to get a ride back. Austin was the last to roll in with a time of just over nine hours.

I think it was probably around 4:30 by the time we were all packed up, gassed up, and hit the road for home. We had been hoping for an earlier departure, but would still be able to make it back before the 2 am deadline. It was as usual a long drive with sore legs. The absolute worst thing you can do after a ride like this is to jump into a car and sit there for nine hours without moving. I was at the wheel for most of it once we got past Atlanta, following Ben in the other Biology van. The drive back was thankfully uneventful, and by the time I took the last sip of the huge Red Bull I'd gotten earlier we were around Mobile. I got dropped off at home around 1:30 am or so. Naturally I woke up at 5:30 am, but knew better than to go out to the 6 am group ride. Instead, I waited a couple of hours and did an easy small-chainring ride on the levee just to keep my legs from totally rusting up. It's Tuesday evening right now and my quads still hurt when I go down stairs, my neck hurts, and my back hurts. So situation normal I guess.

Just Lucky

Tuesday's ride should have been kind of boring and relaxing. I'd decided last weekend that after three consecutive 300+ mile weeks I should take it easy for a few days before the Friday drive up to Dahlonega for Six Gap. Of course I went out and met the small 6 am group at NOMA anyway, and as usual it got a bit faster after we turned back toward the west on Lakeshore Drive. I hung around in the meager draft for most of it, but when it surged after the bridge I eased off the back. I continued solo out to the Lake Trail and quite soon saw the big Metairie group coming toward me. I contemplated turning around at that point and getting in with them, but then figured it would probably be better if I just continued at an easy pace so they might eventually catch me. That turned out to have been a very lucky decision. When I got all the way out to Williams Blvd. I turned back, rather surprised that I couldn't see the group coming toward me in the distance. A few solo riders went by who I though might have been with that group, so I wondered if maybe someone had flatted, or perhaps the group just broke up for some reason. I was almost to Clearview when I found out what the reason actually was.

Up ahead I could see a couple of riders over in the grass on the levee side, a few more in the grass on the lake side, and a few others at a stop on the bike path. It turned out that there had been a crash, and six riders had hit the deck. The group hadn't been going particularly fast, but there was definitely a significant crosswind coming off the lake that may have been a contributing factor. Apparently there had just been a touch of wheels somewhere in the paceline and multiple riders were taken out. I stopped there for quite a while. They had already called for help, and a few minutes later I saw some medics who had walked over the levee coming our way on foot. Jefferson Parish police were also driving our way on the bike path. Keith, Ty, and Sprague seemed to have taken the brunt of the crash. Keith looked pretty torn up and was favoring his right shoulder. Ty was lying down and had apparently landed on his head and back. Sprague seemed a little out of it and wasn't quite sure how he felt. Eventually ambulances and spouses and friends loaded people and bikes up, and I think all three went to the ER. From what I heard later, there were a couple of thoracic compression fractures, an infraglenoid / scapula fracture, and a concussion. I felt like I'd dodged a bullet, entirely through dumb luck, since I might very well have been in the group when it happened. Although at least three riders will likely be off the bike for a while, it doesn't sound like anyone required surgery, so to coin a phrase, "time heals all wounds." 

Later in the day Charles came by and we did our best to sort out the problem he's been having with dropped chains. One thing about electronic shifting is that there's no finesse involved in front chainring shifts. With mechanical, you can kind of ease the chain over from one chainring to the other if necessary, but with electronic it basically slams it over in one rather powerful motion. It's a hard enough motion that both SRAM and Shimano provide an additional kind of support below the derailleur to brace it against the downtube so the derailleur doesn't move during shifts. We did our best to align the alignment marks on the (Force) derailleur with the chainring, checked that the vertical gap was around the recommended 2 mm, reset the aforementioned wedge, etc. It was a rather frustrating iterative process. Some things needed Allen wrenches, others Torx. I mean, pick one. Please. I don't think we made it worse, anyway, so hopefully he doesn't drop the chain at an inopportune moment at Six Gap next weekend. Then we re-aligned the front brake caliper that had been very lightly rubbing on the rotor. One of the bolt heads is pretty mangled and needs to be replaced. Hopefully it's tight enough, but I can't really guarantee that.

Today I went out to meet the WeMoRi, but with a plan to minimize my time at significant intensity. I hit the lakefront about five minutes before I expected the group to show up on its way back from the armory, so I continued down Marconi, Toussaint, and Wisner at an easy pace, expecting to get swept up somewhere around the end of Wisner. I looked back but didn't see the group, so I continued around the park and onto Marconi, heading back to the lake, a bit surprised that I couldn't see the telltale cluster of swirling headlights behind me. I was about back to Toussaint by the time I could see them, and well onto Lakeshore Drive by the time they came by. It was a particularly small group, so it wasn't going super fast today. I slotted in to what I thought was the middle, which I guess it was, but it was probably also about four rider from the tail end since the group was so small. I put in a little effort as Maurizio surged over the levee with me on his wheel on the way back from Elysian Fields, and when he gave me the elbow I reluctantly took a super short pull, dropping back to find that there were only three of us left. Per my easy week plan, I then eased off the back as we approached the bridge, eventually getting caught by a couple of riders who had also eased off the pace. So I guess I'll call that "mission accomplished" because I don't think I put a significant dent in my recovery plan. Of course, I'm pretty skeptical that a few easy days will make much of a difference for me next weekend, but I'd like to at least not start Six Gap with sore legs.