Rain and More Rain

The title says it all. The occasional popup pond Lakeshore Drive has been wet and closed off for almost a week and with the ground now saturated with water, it shows no signs of receding. The group rides have mostly been riding through it, slowly, but it's been no fun. At the moment, on Tuesday, it's probably about eight inches deep.

Friday

Last Thursday we had a more or less normal Thursday morning ride with just a few of us continuing out to Williams Blvd. The weather forecast had been calling for rain, but we had a little window that was almost long enough. Almost. It started raining on the way back, so I was pretty wet by the time I made it home. The forecast for the following few days offered little in the way of hope, at least in terms of staying dry. Fortunately, Friendly Friday was pretty fast and mostly dry, but things deteriorated significantly later in the day.

Early on Saturday morning I could hear it raining until maybe 6 am. The radar wasn't looking too good, and the roads were still soaking wet, so I didn't figure anyone would show up for the Giro. As I discovered later, a few did indeed show up and did the whole ride in the rain, but there were some special circumstances, including peer pressure and Mexican food at Jaden's house, in play that contributed to that. Despite the rain, that group spent a large amount of time in the 28-30 mph range, so it was by no means a social ride. I, on the other hand, set my sights on the afternoon, and ultimately went out for a ride on the levee at around 2:45 pm. Of course I took the cyclocross bike because I knew it would be wet (it was) and there would have been a high chance of flatting with regular road tires.

Monday - expecting rain

Sunday morning the forecast and radar looked pretty bad. Nevertheless, I hopped on the 'cross bike and rode out to Starbucks just in case someone might show up. Not surprisingly, nobody did. Since it wasn't actually raining, and I had my wool socks on and my ass-saver stuck under the saddle, I went ahead and did a lap of the levee anyway. It was just an easy ride, of course, so zero intensity, again.

Tuesday

Monday morning I was again alone, and again on the 'cross bike, and again everything was wet, but at least it wasn't actually raining. I stopped at the Museum of Art at 6 am just in case someone might show up, but no luck, so I did yet another lap of Lakeshore Drive. This time I rode through the grass to circumvent the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive since, after all, I was on the cyclocross bike.  Again, it wasn't much more than a sightseeing ride. I was about a quarter of a mile from home when it started to rain, so although I got a bit wet, it wasn't enough to really soak through the shoes or anything. 

Finally this morning I was back on the Cervelo. The radar was pretty clear, and aside from some remaining puddles and of course the Lakeshore Drive pond, the streets were fairly dry. We had a pretty decent group for the 6 am ride, but nobody wanted to ford the flooded section of LSD. We ended up turning around at Elysian Fields and then riding out to the Point, and repeating that once again. By then it was just Charles, Pat (in town until Monday), Mitchell, and me. It barely qualified as a training ride, but at least it was fairly dry. We stopped at French Truck for coffee afterward, and shortly after leaving my rear tire went flat. Charles and Pat were a little too far ahead to hear me when I flatted. It turned out to be a piece of wire that I fortunately discovered at the last minute. Surprisingly, I'd run my hand over the tire on the outside, and then again on the inside without feeling anything, and didn't discover it until I was about to hit it with the CO2. Anyway, it was a quick tube change and I was soon back on the road for home, arriving for the first time in three days completely dry.

Cheaha Mia

I threw the bike into the Volvo at the luxurious hour of 9 am and headed northeast toward Jacksonville, Alabama, hoping that the recently struggling A/C would at least keep struggling for the duration. It's a pretty smooth 6.5 hour drive via I-59 and I-20, and I was in no particular hurry. 

The plan was to check into the motel room in Oxford and then make the 20 minute drive up to Jacksonville to pick up numbers and partake of the $15 pasta dinner buffet at 5:00. Somewhere along I-20 traffic came to a standstill because of a crash up the road, adding a good 40 minutes to my drive, which didn't really matter since I was so early anyway. I unloaded the bike and bag at the Hampton Inn and headed north to Jacksonville, enjoying the increasingly hilly scenery. At the school where everything is staged I picked up my numbers and chatted a bit with Stuart Lamp who is kind of in charge of the event. Stuart was our regional USAC rep back when we had those, so we go back far enough that I remember him before the beard and greying hair. After I'd paid for the dinner I found out that Joe Paul, Lisa, MJ, and Jason were having dinner right down the street. Oh well. I had a reasonably nice plate of pasta and salad and headed back. Back at the hotel I affixed the chip-timing number to the seatpost, which of course barely fit between my tiny saddle bag and the rear tire (#shortpersonproblems), watched the highlights of the Giro, Googled how to properly set the time on the hotel's clock, and finally went to sleep around 10 pm.

Not knowing what the event day situation would be like I arrived kind of early, which turned out to have been unnecessary since the parking lot was more than adequate for the turnout. Lisa, Joe Paul, and Jason were all doing the UCI 100-mile qualifer, so they started ahead of the regular century ride group that MJ and I were in. Our group started out surprisingly slowly. I guess all the fast people were riding the UCI rides. There's a significant little climb four or five miles after the start, and as usual my physiology refused to adjust quickly enough. I was soon in the second group about 30 seconds behind the lead group. The next fifteen or so miles are mostly flat, and the lead group was obviously not in race mode or anything, so after a long chase we finally made contact with it shortly before turning onto Talladega Scenic Drive, which is the main road that goes up to the state park at the top of Cheaha. That started with a lot of ups and downs before coming to the main climb at around 38 miles, by which time the group had completely disintegrated. I spent a fair amount of time in my lowest gear, not feeling particularly rushed. Even the "big" climb up to the park entrance was only two or three miles long, so nothing like the longer climbs at Six Gap. On the other hand, the steep sections were definitely steep, so I was constantly going back and forth between the big ring and small ring.

It was getting pretty warm, especially on the steeper climbs where I was crawling along at 4-5 mph. I had one big water bottle with Skratch, plus a smaller bottle with plain water, and by the time I was halfway back I knew I'd need to stop to refill one, which I did at one of the rest stops. I had a full flask of Hammergel, so about the equivalent of five gel packs, plus a few backup packets, and although I emptied the flask by the end, I never resorted to any of the gel packs. One thing that was new for me was the Garmin 540's ClimbPro feature. I had the route loaded, and ended up riding almost all of the route with the map screen displayed. That showed a useful elevation profile and made it easy to know just how steep it was about to get, and how long it was going to stay that way. I think that over the six months that I've had that computer I'd never used anything related to elevation, for obvious reasons.

After coming over the top of the mountain on the way back there was a lot of nice downhill, virtually none of which required any brakes, although I did slow down for a few of the curves just in case they were sharper than I thought. Having the computer showing the route made it pretty easy to know if there was any kind of sharp curve coming up. Fortunately there weren't really any that would require significant braking. I hit almost 50 mph at one point without trying. After the longest of the downhills, there were roughly 20 miles of constant little climbs, some quite steep, and when another rider came past me I followed her. She said something to me that I didn't understand at all, so hopefully I wasn't a problem. I think she was Portuguese, if my post-ride Strava Flyby analysis is correct.

After turning off of the scenic highway, I eventually got in with a small group that was cruising at a nice pace. We were briefly on a part of the road race course from a few weeks ago. That little group kind of fell apart, but there were two other riders who came through, so I stayed with them the rest of the way. 

Although it was pretty hot by the finish, I have to say how nice the scenery was along the way, with a number of impressive scenic overlooks. Lisa ended up winning pretty much everything she could have, and was on the podium three different times - overall women, age group women, and QOM, finishing just under 5 hours. Joe Paul and Jason finished at 5:14 and 5:25, and Devin finished at 5:21. I cruised in at 5:42 and MJ at 6:05, although MJ's time included a fair amount of time at rest stops. His actual ride time was more like 5:48. For the record, it looks like I was around 7th among the non-UCI 100 riders after subtracting the ones listed ahead of me who had turned around early.

It was kind of a long drive back home, but I rolled into town around 9 pm, more than ready for food and a shower. The legs were still a little sore this morning when I went out to the Mellow Monday ride, which got fast enough along Lakeshore Drive to make me question whether I should have paid more attention to Strava that suggested something like three days for recovery. Anyway, I was glad to have finally made my way to this ride after threatening to do so for years. The Cervelo seemed to handle climbs and descents well and despite all of the front chainring shifting, never dropped the chain. 

Road Trip

Waiting for WeMo

Tuesday morning was another rain-out, bit the weather passed through quickly and by 10:30 I'd decided to get in some quality time on the levee despite the stiff north wind. I had already decided to taper off my effort levels a little bit this week since Sunday's Cheaha Challenge was lurking just around the corner, and the last thing I needed was to start that with sore legs. So the levee ride was actually quite nice. The sun was shining, the wind was mostly crosswind, and my 18-19 mph pace was just what I had been looking for. Of course, the two miles on River Road, thanks to the still-unfinished levee bike path section, was a bit stressful, but I again survived it without getting pushed into the ditch by an impatient truck driver.

Tuesday at the upriver end of the levee raise section - still unpaved, no activity anywhere

The next morning I went ahead and rode out to meet the WeMoRi somewhere along Marconi just as the sun was coming up over the eastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain. The group was a minute or two later than usual due to the fact that they had to ford the still-flooded and barricaded section of Lakeshore Drive. I think the group was a little smaller than usual despite the much improved weather. According to plan I was sitting in even more than usual, if that's even possible, but was still a little disappointed when a couple of riders rode off the front after the Wisner overpass. A somewhat haphazard chase ensued, in which I could not resist some brief participation, and the group came tantalizingly close to catching, but didn't. Having burned off the handful of riders willing to work, the chase then completely fizzled, a development that played nicely into my plan to take it easy.

Thursday morning I woke up already tired. I don't know what kind of marathon I must have been running in my sleep, but I very nearly turned back for home before getting to the lakefront. The ride itself was typical, but for reasons unknown I just felt dragged out the entire time. After most of the riders turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive, only a few of us were left for the long out-and-back to Williams Blvd. That ultimately turned out to be mostly just Matt and me, and fortunately Matt realized that I wasn't quite firing on all cylinders and did most of the work. Some days are just like that.

Friendly Friday - regrouping

This morning's Friendly Friday ride had a good turnout. The weather was pretty great, and aside from having to once again ride though the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive it was a fast one. I'm not sure exactly who all was on the front pushing the pace since I was spending most of my time near the tail end of the strung-out group. Unlike the day before, I felt fine and was going to make one big effort on the Wisner overpass, but that was thwarted when two of the riders ahead of me unexpectedly sat up, trapping me on the right edge of the road. Of course I should have been closer to the front, but thing had gotten reshuffled when we caught the stop light at Harrison.

Steve called last night to say he wasn't going to be able to make it to Cheaha, so I guess I'll be driving up alone on Saturday. At least it looks like the weather will be quite nice. I expect to get to Jacksonville around 5 or so to register and maybe take advantage of the $15 pasta dinner they are offering. Apparently there's also food available Sunday morning before the start, which itself is kind of confusing. In addition to a normal "non-competitive" century (that is apparently only 96.5 miles), and all of the various shorter distances, plus the "ultra" distance at 126 miles, there is also the UCI Fondo Qualifier thing that I guess is basically a race. That is broken up into age groups, with most doing the same 96.5 miles, except for the older age groups that inexplicably do just 84 - as if the extra 12 miles would matter. I registered for the regular non-UCI "century." They have group start times starting at 7:30 but separated by relatively small gaps that guarantee everyone will end up mixed together anyway. The three UCI waves start at 7:30, 7:35, and 7:40, and then my non-UCI groups starts at 7:42. Two minutes on a ride like this is just to help organize the start, I guess. It looks like the first 20+ miles are mostly flat with just one short significant climb, so I am fully expecting it to be fast enough to be dangerous with such a wide variation in abilities until things sort themselves out on the longer climbs.

The other day I compared the 36x30 low gear on the Cervelo with the 39x32 on the Bianchi and found them to be similar, with the Cervelo's lowest gear just a bit lower than that on the Bianchi when I have it set up in Six Gap mode. Since the climbs this Sunday are significantly shorter and less steep than Six Gap, I should be fine, at least in that regard. I ended up putting a new Conti 5000 on the front wheel since the one that had been on there had around 7,000 miles on it. Unfortunately it's a tan-wall version and doesn't match the rear, which I find surprisingly disturbing. I had had it on the workbench for months, and don't know if I ordered the wrong one or they shipped the wrong one.

Rainy Season

Mellow Monday

It was a week of rain-dodging, sometimes unsuccessfully. Wednesday morning I was surprised to feel a wet mist falling as I rolled out to the lakefront. The streets were, of course, wet. Still, it wasn't quite what you'd call "rain" or anything, and the temperature was fairly warm, so I continued on. As has been the case recently, I arrived at Lakeshore Drive earlier than I usually do, turning onto the Bayou St. John bridge about a mile ahead of the WeMoRi group. That got me almost all the way to the Armory loop before the WeMo came screaming past. I jumped onto the end as usual. The pace, I think, was generally a little slower than usual that morning. Toward the end of the ride, as we approached the Elysian Fields traffic circle, I noted how wet the road was. That traffic circle is notoriously slick when wet, a characteristic we have historically attributed to the busses that used to stop and wait at the entrance to Pontchartrain Beach back in the day. Maybe it's just that it's old, worn down concrete. Whatever the cause, it's always been slick and this morning was no exception. Even through we hadn't entered it at full speed, by the time we were halfway around someone up ahead started to slide a bit. That caused the rider in front of me to change his line, forcing me to the outside of the lane that is nowadays lined with flex posts. I went between a couple of those into the dead space between the traffic lane and the bike lane that nobody will use, and when I corrected my line to get back where I belonged, my rear tire slid a few feet to the right. Luckily I, and everyone else, made it through upright, although I had a little bit of chasing to do to get back onto the end of the group.

Friendly Friday

Friendly Friday's ride was at least mostly dry and well-attended, and as usual it got pretty fast in the usual places. I rode down to the river afterward with Dylan and met up with a few of the remaining Tulane students (exams were just ending) for a little cool-down and a huge bagel at Shugg's.

Lakeshore Swamp, Sunday morning

The forecast for the weekend had been looking pretty bleak, and I was kind of expecting Saturday morning to be a washout. When I checked the radar that morning, however, it looked like the worst of the rain wouldn't arrive until 9:30, so I made a quick decision to meet the earlier SaMoRi group instead of the Giro group. It was a distinct possibility that there wouldn't even be a Giro group, considering the forecast. Even the SaMoRi group was quite small that morning, and then a number of riders turned back at the end of Hayne Blvd. or Chef Highway, leaving only about five of us for the rest of the trip out to Venetian Isles. It was a pretty nice paceline kind of ride, and the sky still didn't look too bad. We didn't dawdle much at the turnaround, and started back at a moderate pace. A little while later we saw the small Giro group coming toward us. They all turned around and joined us. By then the sky was beginning to look a little darker. We were almost at the end of Bullard when I felt a cold downdraft hit us, and thought, "this isn't good." It wasn't. We turned onto Hayne Blvd. just as the rain started. This was some kind of front moving through, so the rain could best be described as "torrential" and the wind as "seriously gusty." As we climbed up the overpass the group fragmented. I had a white-knuckle grip on the handlebar coming down the bridge as the wind kept trying to blow my front wheel out from under me. Coming over the Seabrook bridge was similar. Everyone went straight onto Leon C. Simon since that was the most direct route back home. Unfortunately, much of the right lane was already flooded, and I think at one point my entire foot was underwater. I limped back home as the worst of the weather passed, disc brakes squealing like stuck pigs, and water dripping from my helmet. On the plus side, nobody flatted. Of course the bike got a good washing in the rain, so I had to wipe it down, dry it off, and re-lube the chain back at home. When I turned it upside-down (always a good thing to do after a ride in the rain) a fair amount of water drained out of the headset area, no doubt thanks to the opening and extra space to accommodate the brake hoses that go through the bearings and head tube.

Sunday morning the weather was better but the Giro turnout was pretty slim. The Lakeshore Drive Swamp where it always floods was blocked off, since that's so much easier to do than actually fixing the clogged drainage. We rode through the flooded section anyway, of course. As Giro Rides go, it was a pretty easy one. At least we were able to occasionally see some blue sky. So despite all of the rain and rainy forecasts, I still managed nearly 300 miles for the week, and even if most of it was lacking in intensity, I'll take that as a win of sorts.

This morning's Mellow Monday was mostly mellow. Lakeshore Drive was still closed off and flooded near the Elysian Fields traffic circle. For some reason they had caution tape stretched between the traffic pylons, so we ended up riding against traffic to get around them. There shouldn't have been any traffic, of course, since it was supposed to be closed off on the other side at Franklin Avenue, but of course there was a car coming our way. After wading across the pond, we found the traffic cones and caution tape over there to have been all knocked down. Anyway, things got a little fast for a while, but I think only a few people were interested in keeping it that way, including me. For what seems like the fifth day in a row, I had to clean off the bike a bit after riding, thanks to the wet roads.

I'll probably be trying to make this more or less of a recovery week, especially toward the end, since I'll be heading up to the Cheaha Challenge with Steve on Saturday and would rather not start that with tired legs. Last night I put a new tire on the front of the Cervelo. It's one of the GP 5000s with the tan sidewall that I somehow ordered by mistake or perhaps got shipped the wrong one. Anyway, it of course doesn't match the rear, but since it already had around 7,000 miles on it I figured I'd best not push my luck descending Cheaha on it.

Cooldown

Mellow Monday

Another cool front, hopefully the last, pushed through Friday night, leaving behind wet roads, 20 mph winds, and dramatically cooler temperatures. I looked out the window at the wet street around 5:30 am, and then at the outdoor thermometer, and decided to wait for things to improve. Although it wouldn't have been impossible to ride earlier, the forecast was calling for a lot of improvement by 10 am, except for the wind of course. So I met up with Charles on the levee around 10:30, by which time everything was pretty well dried out, the sun was shining, and the temperature had inched above the 60° mark. Aside from the relentless north wind, it turned out to be a great day for a long flat 50-mile ride out to the Spillway and back. The effort level was fairly low for most of the ride, unless you count the considerable effort required to keep my Reserve 40 front wheel pointed in the right direction. 

Later that day I bit the $135 bullet and signed up for the Cheaha Challenge century ride, registering for the "non-competitive" 100 mile ride rather than the UCI fondo qualifier because the latter, for my age group, was cut down to 84 miles, I guess because the UCI thinks that extra 16 miles would somehow matter. Go figure. At any rate, I wasn't really that interested in turning it into a race anyway. I've never ridden this particular event even though it's been around for close to 25 years and is within reasonable driving distance. For most of those years, there were actual races this time of year around here, so missing one of those to go do a Fondo wasn't really a serious consideration. A few years back I'd ridden some of the route with Dustin and Julia. The climbing there seemed to come in shorter segments of three or four miles rather than the much longer ones you see at Six Gap. The downhills, at least the ones we rode back then, didn't seem to be too technical or anything, so there shouldn't be any white-knuckle moments in the curves, although not knowing the descents will probably keep me on the cautious side anyway. The new Cervelo, which still seems quite new despite having logged around 6,000 miles so far, has a low gear as currently configured of 36 x 30, which should be essentially the same as the Bianchi when I set it up for Six Gap with a 39 x 32, so I guess that will be fine. I guess I'll find out if disc brakes matter there. My only concern is accidentally locking up the rear since the bike came with a 160 mm rear rotor and I probably have only 75 pounds tying my rear wheel to mother earth - less with the front brake engaged. I haven't made any arrangements for the trip yet, but I guess it'll be a Saturday drive, one hotel night, Sunday ride, and Sunday evening drive back. Would be nice to find someone to go with, though.

Roadkill

Sunday's weather was super nice, if a bit chilly before sunrise. It was the first morning where I didn't feel like I really needed a headlight at 6 am. We had a good Giro turnout, and for some reason the pace never really went supersonic, which made for the kind of Giro where I might occasionally show myself at the front. Other than an odd unexpected stop for people taking selfies with a dead roadside alligator it was a pretty routine ride. 

It was still chilly this morning, and although I left the arm-warmers at home, I did put on a base layer. I did not regret it. I wanted to keep my Mellow Monday as mellow as possible, so stayed sheltered as much as possible. Chris pulled the whole group, with me on his wheel, all the way out to Seabrook. As usual the pace ramped up a bit as we approached Marconi on the way back, but not enough to cause any damage. By the time I was riding home the weather was practically perfect, so I can't really complain about the pre-dawn chill. Other than some typical thunderstorms, the next ten days should be pretty nice with morning temperatures in the mid-60s to low 70s.

Shoes Still Dry

The forecast for the latter part of this week was looking pretty bleak. Lots of rain, with the hourly rain chances jumping around in the way that they do when the effect of the model's random number generator outweighs that of the actual inputs. In other words, nobody really knew when and where and how long it would rain in the way that you do in the Fall when there's this solid cold front marching quickly southeast in your direction. The only way to play this kind of scenario is to get up in the morning, look out the window, check the radar, and make the call. Fortunately - surprisingly actually - the call every morning this week was to go ahead and ride. Somehow I made it all the way to Friday without getting my shoes wet, even though it's now been raining for hours.

The regular morning rides this week have been pretty routine, and as I've mentioned before, the Tuesday and Thursday long rides have had better turnouts than usual. Earlier in the year it seemed like almost everyone would turn off at the end of Lakeshore Drive, leaving just me and one or two others to battle the ever-present winter winds along the lake. Lately, though, there have been a few reinforcements meeting us at Bucktown, which has made the ride along the lake trail a little faster and more interesting.

Tuesday morning

With Tulane classes having ended mid-week and exams starting tomorrow, Wednesday's WeMoRi numbers were buoyed by a nice little contingent from uptown. Despite the numbers, though, a break went off the front, and then another couple in pursuit, leaving only the motivationally undecided dregs of the pack to its own lackluster efforts for the last Lakeshore Drive stretch. Fortunately the ride home provided a bit of excitement in the form of a couple of impatient drivers, one of which was provoked by Ben when he slotted into the draft of the car ahead of it. Comic relief was forthcoming, however, when the male driver's female passenger leaned out the window and basically told him it was all cool, despite the driver's continuing rant. Ahhhh, life in the big city.

Friday morning I looked out the window at the mostly dry street, then checked the radar which was surprisingly clear. It being "wear your ugly jersey day" or something like that for the final Tulane coffee ride of the academic year, I dug out my old "X-ray" jersey from (who else?) Primal Wear, and headed out to City Park. It was significantly cooler than the day before, and also significantly more windy, but not altogether bad. Turnout was a little lower than usual, but we still had a big enough group to keep me more or less sheltered much of the way. As usual, Lakeshore Drive was flooded in that spot near Elysian Fields where the drains have been nonfunctional for the past couple of years. The group slowed down to a crawl there as if it was three feet deep rather than three inches deep, and I ended up having to chase a little to close gaps since I'd been near the back. On the return trip we had a bit of a tailwind, and when we got to the flooded section I just rolled through it, which left me unintentionally in the wind all the way to the other side of the traffic circle where I was good and well streamed by the entire group that was back up to speed. That left me having to try to get onto the tail end of the strung-out line of riders going 28 mph, a task for which I was woefully unprepared. As I dropped off the pace Lisa came past and glanced back to let me catch her wheel, but I was already pretty gassed and dropped off a bit later. 

Afterward three of us rode down Carrollton to the river and met up with the Tulane coffee ride group that was a bit larger than usual since there weren't any classes. That eventually took us to the Junk Drawer coffee shop on Broadway where we hung out for longer than usual. The rain was still a few hours away, so once again I got home with a mostly clean bike and dry shoes. It's looking like it should be OK for tomorrow's ride, although the temperature will have dropped down to around 60° by then, accompanied by a 25 mph north wind, so we'll see how that goes. There's a century ride up in Ridgeland that morning that I might have done, but I think I'm going to go ahead a register for the Cheaha century scheduled for the 17th. There's also a planned 100+ mile northshore ride the weekend before that. 

Rolling with the Punches

Last weekend was a study in flexibility with a bit of gambling thrown in for good measure. The forecast for Saturday morning turned out to be, unfortunately, spot on. Rain as predicted. Also as predicted, it was all gone by 10:00 am. After a flurry of text messages, a few of us settled on a Spillway ride starting around 11:00, by which time the streets were already practically dry. We ended up with four people, besides myself, each coming from a different direction. I rode out to "the pipes" where I saw Seattle Mike waiting. We were soon joined by Charles from the FQ, and Ben from uptown. Along the way we picked up Pirm, and for most of the 50+ mile out and back he and Ben sat on the front at a steady 20-22 mph talking continuously. The weather by then was practically perfect - low 70s with a moderate south wind. The only fly in the ointment in this case was that all but myself seemed to be having difficulty keeping as much air in their tires as they had started with. Ben and Mike punctured, while Charles and Pirm, both riding tubeless, sacrificed some sealant to the tire gods and had to stop only briefly. Back at home that evening I pulled a shard of rock out of my front tire that would have added me to the list if I'd ridden another ten miles. It was a very Zone 2 effort for me, sheltering as I was in Pirm's draft for 90% of the entire ride, but at least I hadn't gotten caught in the rain earlier in the morning, and hadn't missed a ride, which, it being a Jazz Fest weekend, probably happened to a few people who didn't have the time to ride later in the day like I did.

On Sunday there was a plan to do a 70 mile ride from Bay St. Louis. The forecast was again calling for some significant morning rain as a little front came through from the northwest, where all cool fronts come from. Checking the forecast the night before, it looked like the Giro would definitely get rained out, but the chance of rain over in Mississippi was a lot lower. I went to sleep confident that I had made the wise decision to do the Mississippi ride.

Well, by the time I was on the road to BSL, the forecast had flip-flopped. There were just a few of us on hand for the 8 am start, but it was abundantly clear that there would be a serious line of thunderstorms coming through the area around 9:30-10:00. So the 7 am Giro was probably mostly dry, but our own 8 am start turned out to be less well-timed. So once again, we rolled with the weather punches and decided instead to do a short 26 mile loop, getting back to the cars no more than ten minutes before the torrential rain started. It was actually a good ride, mostly in the 22-25 mph range with a few little efforts, but of course nothing like the full 70 miles would have been. The day before I had changed out the steel bolts on my stem for titanium ones, since the steel ones pretty much always start to rust a bit after a couple of seasons of sweat, and of course I could pretend I was making an upgrade, however cheaply. I was glad to see that nothing slipped, although I wasn't really expecting that to be a problem since I'd replaced them to the correct torque spec one at a time. After the ride I sat in my car for another twenty minutes or so until the worst of it passed before hitting the highway for home. Once again, by the time I got home, the sky was clear and the sun was shining like nothing had happened.

This morning's Mellow Monday ride had a good turnout, and it got fairly fast for a while, but that was thanks only to a handful of riders who were perhaps making up some missed efforts from last weekend.