Summer Heat and Humidity

Friendly Friday rolling out through the park

The title says it all. After narrowly dodging a little tropical storm that spun up a whole lot of damaging tornados, I ventured out on the cyclocross bike late in the morning on Wednesday when I thought there was a small window between rainstorms. It was fairly windy and plenty humid, with an occasional bit of drizzle, but I remained mostly dry all the way out on the levee to the end of the asphalt that was supposed to be fixed by late last year and still shows absolutely no sign of progress. It was about that time that I stopped to take a phone call from the wife, who wanted to know if I needed a ride home.  Apparently it was storming at the house. I got as far as Ochsner before the sky opened up on top of me, but by then I was only a few miles from home. When you need to ride and the weather is questionable, you just have to roll the dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

By Friday things were looking much better and we had a good Friendly Friday ride to which I added a leisurely lap around Audubon Park to ease my mileage anxiety. Thanks to all of the recent rains, the Lakeshore Drive duck pond east of Elysian Fields has been underwater for days, so we've often been doing an extra lap between the two traffic circles to make up the difference. Tomorrow I guess the WeMoRi will loop around the Elysian Fields circle and then add a bit past Marconi and out and back on Canal before returning to the remainder of the route at Marconi. Hopefully everyone will get the message and there won't be any unfortunate incidents. I've arrived back home soaking wet and with empty water bottles every day this week, and not always because of rain. All of which is pretty normal for this time of year.

The Saturday Giro had a good enough turnout of about a dozen, including Norman who is in town again, and Madeline from the westbank. As expected, it got fairly fast on the way out but not quite fast enough to really drop anyone. People were kind of starting to wilt on the way back, and things came apart between the bridges with some continuing straight down Leon C Simon and others turning back to Lakeshore Drive at Franklin - all because of the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive, of course. Fortunately, almost everybody stopped at the store on Harrison afterward, which was nice. It was new chain day for me, not that that's a major event or anything. I've been using the pre-waxed KMC 12 speed chains which are nice because I don't have to strip the factory oil off of them before applying the Silca drip-wax I've been using for the past couple of years. Also, they're relatively inexpensive, which is nice since I routinely replace my chains a little past 3,000 miles. Cleaning the cassette and chainrings takes way more time than installing the new chain. 

Sunday's Giro had a particularly low turnout, probably because the radar was showing a bunch of storms heading in our general direction. As it turned out, most of that went north of us in the morning. Still, we were left with maybe eight when we started, and then Rob flatted on Marconi and VJ stopped with him even though he told us to go ahead and he'd meet up with us at the turnaround (which didn't actually happen). The pace was noticeably slower than Saturday had been, but we still lost a couple more on the way back. Then, as we approached the Hayne Blvd. overpass, Norman turned around to ride another out and back to Venetian Isles, a decision he later regretted after being harassed by speeding cars. I think I went over the Seabrook bridge first, and ended up alone the rest of the way home. He did, however, log over 90 miles.

That afternoon I got delivery of a pair of 140 mm Galfer rotors that I'd bought on impulse. The Cervelo came with 160 mm rotors front and back which worked great, so there was really no rational reason to change them other than cosmetics and entirely insignificant weight savings. I figured that since trying to buy more speed has always been futile for me, perhaps stopping less slowly might help. You never know. Going down to the smaller diameter meant removing the adapter from the rear caliper and flipping the one on the front, and then of course re-aligning them. That went smoothly on rear caliper, but it took numerous tries and some fiddling with the calipers and hydraulic fluid to get the front one lined up so it didn't rub. In fact, it still seems to rub the rotor a tiny bit, so I may be back at it again. I figured I'd give it a couple hundred miles to see if it works itself out first. I really miss rim brakes. Hydraulic disc brakes are really overkill for 99% of the riding I do, but that's where we are now.

So on Tuesday I felt I needed a bit more pressure on the brake levers when stopping, which of course was to be expected, but with the terrain around here and the amount of mass that needs to be stopped, I seriously doubt it will ever be an issue. With the 160 mm rear rotor I kept seeing little skid marks on the tire, so hopefully that will be less common now and I'll be less likely to lock up wheels, especially when it's wet. We had a fairly small group, and with Charles committed to some structured time staring at his power meter, and Maurizio apparently taking an easy day, it was just me and Dave as we hit the lake trail. Dave turned off around Bonnabel, leaving me solo out to Williams into a light headwind and then back to around Causeway where I picked up Charles after his workout, and briefly Russell B. 

One Giro Two Giro

Friendly Friday

The past week was routine, albeit not without its minor annoyances. One example of such is the new roadwork on Norman Francis between Earhart and Washington. There's a bike lane there that I routinely use to get to the overpass on the way out to City Park or the Lakefront. Now that they have torn up the entire northbound roadway, and fenced off the area, I have to make a small diversion to get around it. Bike Easy got involved and there is actually some signage for cyclists, although it's really impossible to figure out exactly what they had in mind. Of course, at 5:30 am it isn't much of a problem one way or the other, but regardless I have shifted to occasionally taking Carrollton, especially now that they finally repaired the big holes just before the underpass. Fortunately, the other side of Norman Francis isn't affected, so it's still the preferred route for riding back home later in the morning when the traffic is heavier and Carrollton is a obstacle course of impatient drivers with cellphones and RTA busses.

One other little annoyance was that someone in a truck or something higher than a car sideswiped the Volvo, and in typical fashion, fled the scene. I ordered a new plastic wheel arch, but the body was dented in such that it would never fit properly. Not wanting to have it fly off on the Interstate somewhere, I texted Woody who sent me to a guy they use for PDR. The dented area had been hit and repaired previously, so I wasn't expecting perfection, and just wanted it to be presentable. I was set to bring the car out to his shop near Veterans and Power Blvd. on Friday morning, but of course first there was the Friendly Friday ride.

This weeks Friendly Friday was well-attended, and I knew from the start it was going to be a fast one, which of course it was. Knowing that I might be riding back from Kenner after dropping off the car, and then riding back out there to pick it up, I tried to just stay in the wheels on that ride, which wasn't too difficult considering how many of them were readily available. After I got back home I had a quick bite to eat and drove out to Kenner with the bike in the back, still wearing my sweaty kit. The PDR guy was there waiting for me, and said it would just take a couple of hours, so I hopped back on the bike and rode out to the lakefront and then to Starbucks on Harrison, then back out to the "western wall." Shortly afterward I got the text that the car was about ready, so it all worked out quite well other than the fact that it was one of the more hot and humid mornings we've had so far this summer. As expected, it wasn't possible to make the bodywork perfect because of the old repair work that involved some Bondo, but it came out looking quite good under the circumstances, and I doubt most people would ever notice it wasn't perfect.

Friday evening Norman Nolan emailed to say he would be in town for the Giro. That meant that either of two scenarios would unfold - (a) people would skip the Giro, thinking it would be too fast, or (b) people would come to the Giro because it would be fast. As it turned out, I think scenario B was more in play than scenario A. As expected, it got really fast once we came down onto Hayne Blvd, and it stayed that way, and as a result of that and one other problem, we lost a few people along the way. Charles had some sort of problem and ended up off the back, riding out Hwy 11 for a change of scenery. Chris had a dead Di2 battery and since he was stuck in the small ring, he turned back early. Somewhere along Chef on the way out a small break went off the front, but the main group still averaged nearly 28 mph out to Venetian Isles anyway. Granted, there was a light tailwind. After the turnaround it took a long time for the pace to ramp up again. It was getting hot and a number of people were feeling the effects of the fast pace, so while the return trip had its fast segments, it wasn't quite a fast as it had been.

That afternoon I drained the old gas out of the Honda generator we bought after the first hurricane but haven't yet had to use. Then I pulled the carburetor and cleaned out the bowl and jets and everything. Somewhere along the way, though, a tiny but critical plastic piece popped off of the float valve, undetected. I reassembled everything, went and got a few gallons of fresh gasoline, replaced the dead starter battery, and fired it up. It ran just fine, but then I noticed the gasoline pouring out of the case. I knew it must be the carb overflow, and figured the float must have gotten stuck or something, so I had to again take it apart. That's when I discovered that the little piece that actually shuts off the gas flow when the bowl is full was missing!  I searched around and found it in the bottom of the case down in a narrow and entirely inaccessible space. After 45 minutes of fishing for it with a piece of bent wire I finally got it to a place where I could grab it with a pair of curved forceps that I've had in my toolbox since I taught frog dissection classes in grad school. What a relief. Then I put it back together, first with the float upside-down, and then with it right side up. Anyway, it's all good now, so that in itself should guarantee we'll have no hurricane induced power outage this year. Meanwhile, I was having a conversation with Danielle who had gotten her scooter out of mothballs to save some gas. She had replaced the battery and it started up OK, so she headed off to the gym only to have the temperature light come on. We never could determine if it was actually overheating or not. It did have coolant (there's a little radiator on that 50 cc thing). She limped back home, stopping occasionally to let it cool down, just to be on the safe side. Could be the temperature sending unit or the thermostat or something.

Sunday morning the forecast was not looking too good and we ended up starting out with only eight, I think. Charles apparently dropped a water bottle and ended up turning back early and I think we lost someone else along the way. It wasn't nearly as fast as Saturday had been, but of course with so few people it's always more work regardless of how much wheel-sucking you do. It was really feeling like summer on the way back.

The forecast for this week is calling for a lot of rain, but the forecasters seem to be pretty uncertain about the details of where, when, and how much. When stepped out the door this morning for the Mellow Monday ride there was a light drizzle falling. I think the temperature was around 80°F, though, so the drizzle didn't feel bad at all. As you'd expect under the circumstances, turnout was severely limited, which is to say there were five of us. Charles, sporting his new power meter crankarm, and intent on following some level of structured training, told us at the outset that he was limited to 120 W this morning, so he dutifully dropped off the back pretty early, not that we ever got going very fast. I didn't make any effort to stay on the front, since I felt like I probably needed a bit of a recovery ride after the weekend. As for what the weather gods have in store for the rest of the week - well, we'll just have to look out the window in each morning and see how it looks. There's a minor disturbance skirting the western edge of the Gulf, so depending on how that plays out we'll either have torrential rain or scattered rain or no rain.

  

Race of Truth

Random leftover trophies for the TT

I had to go back to the NOBC Results website to see how long we've been doing the TT championship on the LaPlace course. Turns out it started in 2009. The event was put on by NBO for the first few years, with some assistance from the NOBC, but time trials on that course go back way farther than that. 

Super-rare photo of me in a TT

In the 80s we did some two-turnaround 40 km and I think some 10 km time trials out there, starting from the Ruddock boat launch, and at one point in 1982 we held a national record attempt there sponsored by the Baton Rouge club. From the NOBC Newsletter, "Brian was shooting for records in the 75, 100, 125, and150 mile time trials, but the 95 degree heat and increasing wind forced him to end his attempt at 125 miles. Nonetheless, Brian set new National records for 75 miles (3.09.18), 100 miles (4:16:42), and 125 miles (5:38:37) before nearly collapsing at the 125 mile turn-around. Brian's first two 25 mile times were 1.02 s, and his 100 mile record represents four 1:04 time trials back-to-back."  That year Brian also set a Louisiana 25 mile TT record of 56:09. This was before Time Trial bikes and aero helmets. Yesterday, at the  LAMBRA TT championships, only ten riders went under an hour. The winning time this year came from Mat Davis with a 53:13, still a bit afar from the course record of 49:32 set in 2023 by Matt Govero.

Thursday afternoon make-up miles. Levee bike path status unchanged.

The week had started off with more rain, ensuring that the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive remained flooded. It's still flooded as I write. Wednesday's WeMoRi route was altered because of that, going around the Elysian Fields traffic circle and then back to the Canal Blvd. spur before returning to LSD and Marconi. It was a fast one. Thursday's weather was not looking too promising, but I really thought the rain would hold off until 9 am or so. It didn't. We got in the Lakeshore Drive part, but somewhere between Bonnabel and Causeway it started to rain. That turned into a full deluge within minutes, but at least it was brief and the temperature was warm. 

Then around midday I was sitting at the computer when the lights suddenly went out. Just some of them. I thought a breaker must have tripped, so went down to the basement and checked them, multiple times, but they all looked fine. Since the lights that seemed to be out were the ceiling lights that still run on knob and tube wiring and for some reason go through a little two-fuse box hidden behind a kitchen cabinet, I thought maybe one of those had blown. Nope, those were fine. I called and set up an appointment for an electrician to come out because I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then of course the lights started working again, so I went out for a ride. When I got back, the house was hot and I wondered if there had been a power surge that had knocked out the a/c. I went outside and saw the condenser fan turning at about 10 rpm. Hmmm.  I called the a/c people to schedule someone for the next morning, but after more investigation I realized that the main problem was that the house wasn't getting full power and that one of the two legs coming into the panel must not be fully powered. I called Branden, who works for Entergy, and half an hour later there was a truck half a block away where a tree branch had taken out one of the power lines. After much tree-pruning they fixed the fallen wire and everything was back to normal except for the piles of oak tree branches left behind. I spent a couple of hours cutting and bundling the ones in front of our house the following day.

Friendly Friday had a big turnout and was therefore predictably fast, but I was mostly hiding out in the group thinking about everything I'd have to pull together for Sunday's Time Trial. I had earlier started up the little generator that I use for races to make sure it was running OK. It ran great for a minute or two, then the RPMs went through the roof and something electrical inside blew up. I knew we could run the race clock and printer from my Jackery power station, so all we'd really lose would be the big P/A system. Fortunately I had two functional megaphones on hand, so no worries there. At one point on Friday the Sewerage & Water Board guys showed up to fix the fire hydrant on the corner that has been leaking since April of 2025. Finally. True to form, they spent about half the time sitting around talking while one guy with a shovel worked and two other trucks loitered nearby.

By the time registration for the Time Trial closed late Friday night we had around 45 riders, which was more or less what we had last year. We've had around 100 in the past, but that was then and this is now. I knew there would be a few late additions, of course. 

We had a good turnout for the Saturday Giro, and with Norman Nolan in town, plus some of the usual workhorses, I knew it was going to be a fast one. It was. The average speed from the bridges out to Venetian Isles, around 15 miles, was just a shade under 28 mph. We lost a few riders along the way, especially along Hayne Blvd. where it practically never dropped below 29 and occasionally surged up to 33 mph. Fortunately I wasn't having a bad day and stayed with the front group, thanks mainly to Todd who bridged me across a gap at 32 mph when a couple of riders ahead of us blew up. As I'd expected, when I got home I had two or three people who wanted to register late, which wasn't a problem since I hadn't put together the start list yet. I finally got that posted and emailed out around noon, and then spent a couple of hours sorting through which things I'd need to bring - clipboards, computer, printer, power pack, stopwatches, signage, tables, tents, megaphones, chairs, medals, and trophies. During the day Branden stopped by to pick up the podium and traffic cones, and Charles came by to pick up a cooler for water and ice. That made packing up the car Sunday morning a whole lot easier.

The trophies I mentioned earlier weren't exactly regular trophies, per se. These were mostly trophies leftover from the 2020 NOLA Motorsports Speed Festival that had been cancelled at the last minute because of the COVID pandemic. There were also a few other trophies from races where people hadn't picked them up or where there had been more trophies than finishers. So we handed those out at random to the winners of the categories and age groups.  I was glad to finally get them out of my basement, and they looked good in the photos, anyway. So on Sunday morning Candy and I loaded up the car and got out to Cajun Pride Swamp Tours a bit after 6 am to start setting up. By 6:30 volunteers and riders started arriving, and by 7:45 we were ready to give final instructions to the volunteers and start the stopwatches. We had 48 riders on the start list, although a few didn't show up. Aside from a couple of DNFs due to flat tires, things went pretty smoothly, and we were back home well before noon, after which I posted the results to the website and sent out notifications to the riders. Ty's podium photos are on the NOBC Facebook Page.

Some time after that I clicked on a text message that Pat had sent earlier. I had assumed it was just a photo he'd taken at the race. It wasn't. Charles had given Pat a ride to the race, and they had both worked the whole thing, heading back home just behind me. Unfortunately, Charles' car didn't make it all the way back. His clutch failed on the Causeway overpass over I-10, leaving them stranded for a while. They were both eventually extracted and the car taken to the VW dealer, but after spending a hot and sweaty morning and being almost in sight of home and air-conditioning and food, it must have been rough.

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.