Up at Northbeast

Last weekend I tagged along with four of the Tulane riders for a trip to north Georgia. It was our second trip to the Northbeast Cycling Classic, put on by the Piedmont cycling team, coached by Jamie Carney who would also be riding the 55+ masters race in which I would be racing 65+ (he finished 3rd, essentially half an hour ahead of me). I have to admit I was less than enthusiastic about doing this race because, after a nice long stretch of unseasonably warm weather, the forecast was looking a lot colder than my physiology likes. Of course, it's barely March, so I really shouldn't be complaining about upper 40s temperatures, but anyway, I am. Also, I am no fan of gravel riding, and neither is my neck. Still, I figured it would be a good workout and a nice change from another Giro Ride.

The group had managed to commandeer the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology department's 12-passenger van, so we were able to get all five people and bikes into it for the long drive to Cornelia, GA. They picked me up around 11:00 or maybe a little later (people had classes to attend), so we didn't arrive until 9 or 10, which was fine. The drive was uneventful, which was also nice. All four, Dylan, Josiah, Ben, and Liam would be riding the Collegiate Cat. 4/5 races. USAC recently changed from the A,B,C style collegiate categories to numeric ones like regular licenses have. They haven't revised the upgrade policy or anything, so it's all kind of a mystery to me, but it looks like the bottom line is that most collegiate races will have two races, a 1/2/3 race and a 4/5 race. This is actually a little better for the newer riders, I think.

So Saturday morning it was, of course, cold and dark when we arrived rather early at the school parking lot for the race. It was the same place we'd been last year, but the course itself was quite different. The start of the 6 mile circuit was a bit down the road from where we were parked, and it featured a fast downhill, an interminably (for me) long gravel climb, and then a very steep 0.6 mile climb to the finish. I probably would have loved it twenty years ago, in the summer. 

Some old guys

My race started at 10:00, after the Cat. 4/5 race and was mostly 55+ riders plus five or six 65+ riders. At the start I pulled off my knee-warmers and handed them to Ben. I was still shiverring a bit from the cold, but knew I'd warm up quickly. Fortunately, nobody attacked from the gun. The first half of the circuit was mostly just low rolling hills, almost flat, ending with a long and winding downhill. It would be the first fast downhill on the new bike for me, and combined with my still-shaky arms it felt a little sketchy once we got up over 40 mph, so I was staying near the back of the group. When we got to a straight section the speed got up to 47 mph, at which point a rider in front of my suddenly got a speed wobble. I dragged the brakes and moved over in case he lost it, but somehow he recovered, although it opened up a big gap. After the downhill there was a right turn, and then a mile later the gravel. I about made contact again by the time we hit the gravel, but by then I was pretty gassed, and as usual for such conditions was having what you might call exercise induced asthma, which always seems to happen when it's cold and dry and I am at my limit. So anyway, most of the group rode away from me a that point as I trudged through the gravel climb that had grades up to about 9%. Once back on the asphalt, there was a bit of downhill that petered out a kilometer before the end of the lap. The final climb was pretty steep, with a little bit above 10%. I definitely gave the Di2 derailleurs and the 30-tooth cog a workout. Most of the rest of the race was essentially a moderate time trial for me. I caught and passed a few people, finishing 4th out of the 5 65+ riders, for whatever that's worth. It was nonetheless a pretty intense and badly needed workout for me.

TTT Start

For two of the Tulane riders, Ben and Liam, this would be their first actual road race. Dylan was still coming back from a bout with Giardia, and Josiah was not really in shape yet. Ben and Liam were doing great and staying with the lead group, which was quite impressive. Unfortunately someone ahead of Liam kind of lost it in the gravel on one of the laps and clipped Liam's front wheel causing him to crash. Fortunately they were going pretty slow at the time, but unfortunately he went down on the drive side and bent the derailleur hanger. He limped to the start/finish where I was standing and had to DNF since the shifting was all screwed up. At least he hadn't shifted into the spokes and ripped the derailleur off the bike. We were able to bend it back into shape in time for the after noon team time trial. Ben finished 11th out of 35, about a minute off the lead but still in good company, which was pretty great. Dylan and Josiah finished 21 and 22, also pretty respectible on such a hard course.

For the afternoon time trial they decided to do the team TT. For the "B" group the finish time would be taken on the 2nd rider, so the plan was for Josiah to burn himself out first, followed by Dylan doing a suicide pull, after which Ben and Liam would finish it off. It went more or less to plan, although I think they were disappointed not to have made the top three (they were 5th). None of them had ever done a team TT before, so it was actually a pretty good result. We had a great dinner at a place called Kabobalicious in Clarksville where the owner gave us some of his special hot sauce once he found out we were from New Orleans.

Sunday morning it was slightly warmer for the 8:00 am Cat. 4/5 criterium that had 40 riders on the line. The course was a silky smooth asphalt rectangle with mostly wide turns around a huge high school. It was only about half a mile around, so I was expecting a lot of riders to get lapped. The TU guys lined up right in front, which was good because one rider attacked hard from the gun and ended up lapping the field. 

Josiah and Dylan hung in as long as they could, Ben was looking reasonably comfortable in the front group, especially considering it was his first ever criterium, and Liam, who was coming down with a cold, was holding his own near the back of the front group. When they got down to about five laps to go Ben managed to move up into about 5th wheel, which was looking perfect, and I was fully expecting him to finish in the top five. As they came around the final corner, however, a rider dive-bombed the turn on the inside and made contact with Ben's front wheel. It was a miracle that he didn't go down, but of course that took him totally out of contention for the sprint since it was maybe 150 meters from the corner to the finish line. He finished 13th out of 40, so still an excellent result, with Liam finishing just behind him at 16th. I think Josiah was pulled along with about half the field, placing 22nd with Dylan 25th. Although I wish we'd had more riders make the trip, it was still a great start to the road season for everyone.

With bad weather predicted for that night, it was good that we didn't have anyone in the 1/2/3 race so we could leave early enough that they could take showers before checkout time. We got back to New Orleans around sunset, and well before the cold front that eventually came through around 2 am. The dog was pretty nervous about the lightning and thunder, so we were up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night.  This morning the temperature was around 40° and there was a 30 mph north wind with much higher gusts. Although the streets had almost dried up by 6 am, I don't think anyone rode. Around noon the sun came out, and with the temperature up to around 50, I went ahead and ventured out, quite over-dressed as it turned out, for a short ride on the levee. The wind was still around 20 mph, so it was mostly a battle with the handlebar since there was a crosswind for much of that route. Despite having ridden Saturday's race mostly at my own pace, I could still feel it in my legs Monday morning. The next two mornings are going to be quite cold, so I don't really know how that's going to go attendance-wise, but at least the wind will have died down a bit. I will be so happy when it gets warm again and I can breathe normally.

In the Dark

Springtime in the dark

Photos in my Strava feed are few and far between right now, at least for those who ride early in the morning. The change to DST always comes inconviently a the time of year when the group rides are finally getting large enough to actually merit the "group" appellation. Although morning's WeMoRi ended with a little glow in the eastern sky, most of it was contested in the dark. Everyone (I hope) is constantly scanning what little oval of roadway the headlights illuminate, hoping to spot the next crash-causing pothole, rock, tree branch, or dead possum in time. As a result, in-ride picture-taking drops pretty low on the priority list. This photo was stolen from Jason N's feed, so kudos for pulling out the camera as we crossed Toussaint.

For some reason I awoke a little early this morning, and as I was nearing the lakefront I glanced down at the time and realized that I migh, possibly, get there ahead of the group that starts at 5:45 am from West End. I guess I hit Lakeshore Drive around seven or eight minutes after that, and although it was certainly possible that I'd just missed them, I thought the odds were better that I was ahead of them as I turned onto the Bayou St. John bridge. Sure enough, a few minutes later the group streamed by and I jumped onto the back, which immediately increased my heart rate by at least 30 BPM. That always takes a little while to get used to, especially when the group is going fast, which it was this morning. Going around the Armory loop I moved up closer to the front where Rob had already opened a big gap and the other riders were apparently still contemplating the wisdom of launching a chase. I therefore ended up taking a few brief pulls just to keep the speed up as a handful of other riders rotated through at the front, eventually closing in on Rob, only to have him ride away from the group again - on his track bike. The pace still remained pretty fast, but it seemed like there were only five or six who were interested in taking pulls, and as a result things nearly came apart along Wisner until someone took a hero pull and closed it up just before the overpass. Rob was still fifteen or twenty seconds up the road, but I was pretty sure he was going to turn off for home on City Park Avenue. Indeed, he eased up and we caught up to him as he waved goodbye, continuing straight as we turned right onto Marconi. We had a brief lull, but the pace picked up again here and there, ending with a pretty fast segment from the bridge to the "finish" at Marconi. I went ahead and did a little sprint from about ten riders back at the end since the left lane was clear.

Yesterday Charles brought over two bikes - his older Bianchi, and Jeff's Willier. Neither was shifting properly. He had tried to go out to the inaugural 2026 Loops ride at 6 pm, but had ended up turning back because the chain on his Bianchi wouldn't stay on the big ring. He had recently brought the bike over and I'd noticed that the limit screw was set so that it wouldn't go into the small ring, so I'd adjusted that, but in the back of my mind I knew there must have been some reason it was like that. Back at the house, I couldn't figure out what the problem was with the Bianchi, but narrowed it down to a problem with the shifter itself, which was just not pulling the cable more than a couple of millimeters for some reason. I ended up locking it into the big ring with the limit screw so he could ride it, which of course all explained why it had been that way to begin with. I mean, the small ring is basically just decoration for most of the group rides anyway. I suppose that pulling the shifter off the bike to do some exploratory surgery might reveal the actual problem, which may of may not be repairable. The Willier was also perplexing in that the only way the chain would go onto the big ring was if the SRAM eTap shifter was positioned so far out that it was rubbing the inside of the crankarm. Later that evening I revisited it and got the derailleur cage straightened out (literally) and re-aligned and positioned, so it seems to be working fine now. I think the cage might have been slightly bent.

I signed up for the NorthBeast road race coming up next Saturday up in Georgia where I expect to be with a few of the Tulane riders. The 6-mile circuit features a short uphill dirt road section that may or may not be interesting depending on conditions. For me it'll just be about getting some exercise sandwiched between two nine-hour drives, but it'll be nice to get out to some unfamiliar territory. Naturally it will be chilly in the morning, but hopefully not uncomfortable by the time I have to race. Indeed, we will be seeing some cooler temperatures around here by tomorrow morning. It'll be in the low 80s today, but tomorrow morning should be back down to around 60° and 48° by Friday morning. Don't put away the arm-warmers and knee-warmers just yet!

Wet Wheels

The weekend weather was forecast was anybody's guess. The forecast was calling for rain Saturday afternoon, overnight storms worthy of severe weather alerts, a clearly unpredictable Sunday morning, and rain all Sunday afternoon. The Tulane riders who were planning on racing the NorthBeast races up around Piedmont the following week were planning a northshore ride for Sunday that got wisely moved to Saturday because of the forecast.

I picked up Liam on Broadway around 5:40 am via a circuitous route to avoid the ever-changing road closures, unpaved sections, and water main explosions, and four of us arrived at Abita Springs in time for our planned 7 am start that had been designed to minimize our chances of getting rained on, based on the forecast. The sky was cloudy and there was some occasional light rain - maybe you'd call it a heavy mist - falling, but at least it wasn't cold. The first hour or more of the 61-mile not-very-hilly route was on roads wet enough to produce some significant wheelspray. Ben's route took us in a kind of unusual direction down Hwy 36 with a detour because of road work that took us eventually to the new section of 3241 that now looks like an Interstate with a 65 mph speed limit, silky smooth asphalt, and little traffic (at least until it is eventually connected to I-12). We then looped around to 40 and an out-and-back on Isabel Swamp for a store stop, before returning via a more direct route on Ben Baxter, 1083, etc. back to Abita.

Along the way there were a couple of very short prescribed leadout practices that were kind of fun. For some reason, my neck was hurting the whole time, so I felt like I was not firing on all cylinders. Still, it was a reasonably good workout, and by the time we were on the way back the roads were pretty dry. That evening we had a Teams meeting with Pirmin, who was in Germany, to go over plans for the races next weekend up in Georgia.

As predicted, there were some impressive thunderstorms overnight, and as not predicted it continued to rain most of the morning, which rained out the Sunday Giro. Earlier, it had looked like the morning would be better than the afternoon, rain-wise, but quite the opposite turned out to be the case. So by 2:30 or so the streets had dried out and I headed out for a few junk miles on the levee. It was a little windy up there, but then again I was just out for an easy spin so it didn't really matter.

Monday morning the temperature was around 70° with a bit of wind for the Mellow Monday ride. As I crossed S. Claiborne on my way out there, I saw some flashing lights down around Carrollton and figured there must have been an accident. I would later find out it was quite something else entirely.

There was a good turnout for Mellow Monday, and as usual the pace started creeping up after we came over the Bayou St. John bridge. Also as usual, the road was flooded between Elysian Fields and the levee where the storm drains have been non-functional for the past couple of years. We traversed that section, which wasn't as deep as it sometimes is, and the pace quickly ramped up again, and stayed nice and brisk for most of the rest of the ride. Charles was still riding Jeff's bike, waiting for the shop to finish building up his new Bianchi frame. After we got back to the museum for the post-game commentary I learned that there had been yet another water main rupture on Panola Street near Carrollton that had inundated the entire neighborhood starting around 3 am that morning. On my way home I rode around the area to see where the break was, but didn't go quite far enough down Short Street to find it because everything was still wet and covered with sand and mud and leaves all the way to S. Claiborne, and from Carrollton down to Burdette. A lot of cars were flooded, along with gound-level apartments, and I guess Riccobono's as well.  

Of course, everyone points the finger at the Sewerage and Water Board, and/or the City, but the reality is that nobody has wanted to deal with the 100-year old plumbing and replacement costs/inconviences under those streets for decades. In this case, a big leak had already been reported at that location and they had started excavating the site a day or two before it all exploded. So once again we are under a precautionary boil water advisory. I think the plan is to replace the entire water main incrementally in 20-foot sections, one emergency overtime disaster at a time. On the plus side, we have plenty of water pressure at the house.

The Seventies

Friendly Friday

Not the decade, but the temperature. We're just barely into March but have been treated with a few days with early morning temperatures around 70°F. For the moment at least riders have been coming out of the woodwork, and I'm not even sure where my arm-warmers are. Wednesday's WeMoRi had a good turnout, of course. As I was waiting for the group on Lakeshore Drive, I unexpectedly found Charles. He was on a borrowed bike (new bike build still a work in progress) and had been plagued by flats. He would eventually discover a tiny metal wire to have been the culprit. One of the Tulane riders has also had a flat, so a few of them had started late, but got back into the group out around Franklin Avenue where, but the way, they've got one lane blocked off and are doing some kind of road work that will undoubtedly turn otu to be a problem for us. Anyway, despite there being a lot of horsepower at the front of the group, it wasn't too hard to slip in as it went by. After the turn onto Wisner, however, it got really fast and someone rather unexpectedly blew up and let a gap open, effectively sealing the fate of everyone behind the front group of three or four - Steven, Jaden, Maurizio, and I think Rob. They were hammering hard enough to drop Steven on the overpass, so we eventually picked him up along Marconi. Anyway, it was a good workout.

Thursday's ride was also a summer kit ride and otherwise unremarkable. After the bulk of the group turned for home there were just four of us left for most of the out-and-back along the lake trail. I felt sorry for Big Rich since the other three included Matt and Jeff on their TT bikes and me, which means he probably wasn't getting any draft from the knees up. I think Charles was still having tire problems.

This morning it was around 72° with a moderate ESE breeze as I headed out to meet the 6 am group. This being the last week before we shift to DST, and back into morning darkness, it was nice to have a little light in the sky even if it was a bit overcast. As I expected, we had a good-sized Friendly Friday group on hand, and although it got a little fast here and there, I was a little surprised it wasn't faster. Afterward I made my way down Carrollton and met up with the Tulane group on the levee. Thanks to the warmer weather, they had a bigger group than they've had lately, which was nice. We stopped at the new coffee shop on Broadway afterward.

Tulane crew on the levee coffee ride

It looks like we may have an early northshore ride tomorrow. The TU group had originally been planning on doing that on Sunday, but the current forecast is for some rain that morning, so Saturday is looking like the better option. They are planning on going up to Georgia for Piedmont University's Northbeast Cycling Classic race weekend the following weekend. I am hoping to tag along for that so I can get my ass kicked by the 55 year old youngsters in the masters road race. I'll probably have to skip the criterium on Sunday since all of the collegiate races are early and nobody will want to hang around for an extra two or three hours ahead of the long drive back.

On the home front, I finally have all of my health insurance stuff set up, and I think the La Teachers Retirement stuff from when I was at LSUHSC is now all in the works, so that's good. We're still in the midst of rolling over what I can from TIAA retirement into a managed retirement account at my bank. That has proven to be extraordinarily complicated with RMD requrements and multiple accounts from 35 years of institutional changes, and we've gotten conflicting information about the process depending on who we talk to at TIAA, but I think we might be on the right track now.

Weekend Mishaps

The weekend weather was better than you'd expect for the end of February. Rouge-Roubaix was on Saturday up in St. Francisville, and as usual I'd decided to pass on that one for the usual combination of fiscal and musculoskeletal reasons. I had been thinking of making the trip anyway, with a plan to ride, on asphalt, up to the Pond Store for some photo opportunities and the change of scenery, but decided instead to ride the Giro and then a little group ride over in Bay St. Louis on Sunday.

We had the usual smallish group as we rolled out from Starbucks at 7 am. with the temperature comfortably in the low 60s, and I was expecting a nice medium intensity ride. As we came over the top of the overpass that comes down onto Hayne Blvd., I heard a commotion behind me and was able to make out the word "flat," so I slowed to a stop to look back. Just before the crest of the overpass, JC was stopped on the side of the road, having flatted, so I turned around and started back toward him. He quickly waved me on as I approached, saying that he wasn't planning on doing the whole ride anyway and that I should just go ahead. When I turned around again, the group, except for one other person, was already rapidly fading into the distance and there was zero chance I'd be closing that gap. So when I got to Read Blvd. (actually thinking it was Bullard) I turned right to take a bit of a shortcut over to Chef Highway. I didn't think there was any way it would be enough of a shortcut to put me back into the group, but at least I'd be able to make up a little time. When I got to the intersection with I-510 I didn't see anyone, so assumed that my group was a bit ahead of me, so I figured I'd turn around early and get swept up by the SaMoRi group that leaves half an hour earlier than the Giro. When I got to the Dong Phuong bakery I made a u-turn and then immediately saw the Giro group coming the other way. Unfortunately there was too much traffic to allow me to get back over to that side of the highway in time, but at least I knew where they were. So I continued outbound, but was afraid that some or all of them might turn around when they met the SaMoRi group coming the other way, so when I saw that group I made another u-turn (that's three in case you are keeping count) and got in with it. As I later learned, a few of the SaMoRi riders had turned around and gotten in with the Giro group, so I probably would have done well to have continued out to Venetian Isles. On the plus side, they apparently have one lane closed off somewhere out there for road work, so at least I missed that drama. Anyway, when I got back to Lakeshore Drive I turned around again at Marconi and rode back out to Seabrook in time to meet up with the Giro group as it was coming off of the bridge. It wasn't a bad ride, just a little complicated.

So on Sunday I headed over to Bay St. Louis for the 8 am 74-mile ride that Steve and Charles had lined up. It was a little chilly at the start, but definitely warmer than previously advertised, and I ended up being a little over-dressed. I think we had nine riders for this one. The pace was just a notch higher than usual for these rides, which was fine with me. Around 42 miles in we had a pretty long stop at the famous Beer  "Beer Chicken Vapes" store where I picked up a Payday bar.

Just as we were about to leave, Charles looked down at his crankset and frowned. The drive side Ultegra crank was coming apart. This was the failure mode that had precipitated huge 2023 Shimano recall of 680,000 cranksets, and I guess Charles had never gotten his checked out. We were still a bit over 30 miles from home, and the chances that the crank would hold together looked to be 50-50. Peter and I went into the store to see if they happened to have any zipties or wire of something that we could use to MacGyver into a temporary fix. Fortunately the cashier found a couple somewhere, so I put those on there to at least reduce the chances of the whole outside of the crankarm catastrophically separating from the rest of the bike. At any rate, it was fortunate that Charles had noticed the problem because having it come apart while standing on the pedals on an uphill would not have ended well. After a few miles Charles and Steve decided to take a slightly shorter route back to the cars.

Meanwhile, our group kept up a pretty decent pace all the way back, eventually coming apart a bit on the bridges just a couple of miles from the end. Back at the cars, I was glad to see that Charles had made it back in one piece. For background, he was riding his old Bianchi that day because his Ventum had developed a crack around the bottom bracket. He had just the day before gotten delivery of a new Bianchi Oltre frame. The Ventum was already disassembled while he waited for a few parts to arrive so he could transfer most of the components over to the new frame. Bad timing indeed.

This morning was a little bit cooler but still somewhat foggy, so I went out with knee and arm-warmers, knowing it wouldn't be fast enough long enough to get very overheated. I think this is the last week before we shift to DST and the morning rides get plunged back into darkness for their full duration. I hate that.

Over in St. Francisville on Saturday they had pretty great weather for Rouge Roubaix. A number of Tulane riders were on hand for that. Pirm stayed mostly with the front group, I think, placing 6th behind Sam on the 100+ mile long route, and Josiah, Ben, and Liam finished pretty much together in the top 40 of the 98-rider group. Will apparently had a minor fall and finished a bit behind them, while Donata crashed hard and hit her head, so Dylan, who was volunteering, picked her up and eventually sent her to the local hospital for a scan to be on the safe side.

Missing the Rain

5:25 am. Shut off the alarm and peek through the blinds at the street below. It's wet but not soaked. Check the weather radar. Line of rain moving this way from the northwest. Looks like it won't get here until 7:30. Decide to take the cyclocross bike since wet streets incompatible with keeping air in road tires. Head out in the dark. Two miles later streets are dry. Meet the 6 am group. Work 20% harder because the 'cross bike is 20% slower. Get home at 7:17 am. Rain starts at 7:40. Sometimes it all works out. 

Long Streak

It had been a long time since I skipped a day. A week ago, the day after Mardi Gras, I felt great riding the WeMoRi, but by evening I knew something was wrong, and by Thursday morning I knew I had picked up some kind of Mardi Gras virus. Although it was looking like we'd have a couple more days of warm weather before the next cold front came through, I was in no condition to enjoy any of it by then. It was the first day I hadn't been on the bike since September 9 (yeah, I checked). I had a headache, low-grade fever, post-nasal drip, and scratchy throat. I dug the last of the zinc lozenges out of the medicine cabinet, and was pretty miserable Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I ventured out for a short ride on the levee, which served mainly to confirm that I was still a little sick. At least it was still warm. 

The weather was so bad on Sunday that hardly anybody rode, but by Monday morning I was starting to feel a little better. Unfortunately, the weather that morning was featuring a 23 mph north wind and a temperature in the low 40s -- not exactly ideal weather. Throwing caution to the wind, I bundled up and went out anyway. Three days of confinement had taken their toll and I needed to get back on the bike, if only for psychological reasons. Consistent with the psychological theme, the only other person at the 6 am meetup was Colin. This was both good and bad. On the good side, at least I wouldn't be alone and tempted to turn around and go home. On the bad side, having only one person to hide behind on such a day wasn't going to provide a whole lot of relief. The ride along the lakefront with a stiff crosswind, in both directions of course, was as hard as it was slow. The hardest part was keeping the front wheel pointed in the right direction. The wide Reserve wheels on the Cervelo are supposed to be engineered to be more stable in crosswinds. I'd hate to be riding 44 cm wheels that weren't, because even these were quite a handful. Anyway, we survived, albeit mostly well below 20 mph, completing the normal Mellow Monday route. It didn't kill me, so I guess it made me stronger??

I was still not feeling exactly great by Tuesday morning, and went out into the 37° darkness debating the wisdom of that decision. Fortunately there were a few people on hand for the ride, and by then the wind had died down a bit. I was still moderating my efforts quite a bit since, if the color of my snot was any indication, I was not fully recovered. As we finished up the lap of Lakeshore Drive where some riders usually split off for home I was secretly hoping everyone would do so and I could follow without feeling guilty. Instead, Charles and Rich continued, so I dutifully tagged along, again questioning my life choices. It turned out to be OK since the pace stayed steady, and I got by with taking shorter pulls for the most part.

This morning I went out to the WeMoRi. With a light south wind and the temperature rising into the mid-60, I was a little over-dressed but pretty comfortable. Still dealing with some upper respiratory sequeale, some of which was dripping from my nose, I was again planning on limiting my efforts. As usual, when I saw the lights coming down Lakeshore Drive around 6:10 am, I turned onto Marconi and waited to be swept up by the group. First, though, Rob and Maurizio came flying past, well off the front of the group. Of course, I made no effort to go with that. I figured Rob would probably turn off for home on City Park Avenue anyway (he did). The group came by maybe fifteen or twenty seconds later. Not surprisingly, since Rouge Roubaix is this coming Saturday, it was smaller than usual. Also not surprisingly, there did not appear to be any interest in closing the gap to the breakaway. Fine with me, considering. So it was a somewhat subdued WeMoRi - basically just paceline at like 23 mph. Maurizio picked up Lisa for a while after Rob turned off, so we didn't see really until he met back up with us on the cool-down. So I'm not feeling fully back to normal yet, but at least I think I at least avoided pneumonia this time. Earlier I'd been thinking about a last minute entry into Rouge Roubaix, but the combination of having been sick, and the $150 entry fee, killed that pretty quickly.

On the home front, I should now be all set up with Medicare and Blue Cross and Humana for health insurance starting next month, so that's good I guess.