Standard Time - For a Flat

Predictibly, I woke up this morning precicely an hour early. So I stumbled around the house for a while killing time and headed out to meet the Giro ride at the Lakefront a little earlier than usual. It was a good thing I did.

It's about 6:30 a.m., so the sun's not quite up yet, but it's plenty light enough, even with my sunglasses on. As I'm riding down Carrollton Avenue I look over to check out some construction they're doing to a little shop along the road and manage to roll right over some big rock. Almost came off the bike. Huge pinch-flat. You could hear the air escaping a mile away. Changed out the tube real quick and pumped it up with my nifty little Silca mini pump, and then had to hustle the next few miles to avoid missing the group. We had kind of a low-key Giro ride this morning, although there were a few fast stretches and I did make a couple of big efforts for two of the sprints, since I was feeling pretty fresh. One young guy who has been showing up for the Giro rides lately on an old Schwinn is starting to impress me. This is an early 80's Schwinn, complete with friction-shifting, center-pull brakes, suicide levers, steel rims and reflectors. We're doing 29 mph down Chef Highway, and he's right there in the paceline. Talked to him a bit after the ride. He's hoping to get a new bike (Giant TCR-1) in December. Man, that will be a big step up!

Rode back with Kenny B., who is in the process of writing an article on doping for The Racing Post. I'm supposed to send them a little writeup on Rocktoberfest. I guess I'd better get on that.

Just finished handing out about a ton of candy to the local trick-or-treaters. Our street is pretty big on halloween for some reason, and people come from all around. I guess it's all the big old spooky oak trees. We mostly hang out on the front porch until we're out of candy, which happened this year aroung 7:30.

An Early Start to the Off-Season

At some point in the middle of last night, it came to me. I was going to jump the gun and officially start my own personal off-season a day early. I know. It's a shock, right? The switch back to standard time comes at midnight tonight, and it seems that it has become the de facto end of the road season over the years. Well, I got a little jump on it this morning by sleeping a bit longer and heading out about half an hour later than usual. I didn't even need a light, although my sunglasses stayed stuck in my helmet until I got to the lake and it was bright enough to put them on.

I wanted an easy ride today, if for no other reason than to give that little twinge I've been feeling in my left knee a little break. So I rode out to the lake and along the Giro ride route probably 20 minutes or so behind the group. Along the way I came across a rider fixing a flat. He was a tall guy with a nice road bike who was just getting back into road riding after many years. I waited for him to finish fixing the flat and gave him the scoop on the local training rides. When he was ready to ride, I told him I was heading out to pick up the Giro ride on its return trip, so he decided to come along. As we go to where figured we'd see the group soon, I warned him that we'd need to turn around ahead of them and be ready for an effort in case they were going fast. Shortly afterward we saw a little group of three coming at us at a pretty good clip, so we turned around and I gradually increased the pace to about 24. The trio was going around 26, so it was easy enough to latch on, but when I looked back, the new guy was nowhere to be seen. We eased up right away and waited for the group to catch, which took a surprisingly long time, but I never saw the new guy again. Cycling can be cruel sometimes!

I rode the last part of the Giro ride with Jeff LaBauve. Jeff's originally from New Orleans, but spent a number of years in Frisco, Texas at the velodrome as part of the big EDS team, and later as part of the National team, concentrating on sprints. He had some pretty good results in international competition, but retired about a year or so ago. He's still living in the Dallas area and is thinking about getting back into racing a bit next season. I sprinted against him a couple of times at the Baton Rouge Velodrome. Of course, I was completely outclassed, but he was a gentleman and took it easy on me. The first time, I pulled the lead position and surprised him with a trackstand as we started the second lap. He had to take the lead, and as he went by he laughed "I can't believe you did that to me." So we get to turn 3 and he starts a trackstand way up on the steepest part of the banking, which BTW, is definitely not recommended procedure. Well of course my front wheel let go and I slid down the banking. Jeff was high enough that he was able to grab the railing! We had a good laugh about that one, then of course, he beat me after a restart.

I'm looking out the window of the back room of my house right now, which overlooks S. Claiborne Ave., one of the larger streets in the city, and there are a few people out on the neutral ground (that's what we call a "median" around here, BTW) holding up signs for some candidate in the upcoming election. They've been out there for hours. Occasionally, one of the passing cars will blow it's horn in support. I have to confess that I don't like either of our presidential candidates enough to stand out in the hot sun all day for him. There is also some sort of big motorcycle event in town, so there have been big noisy motorcycles all over the place today.

Yes, I said hot. It's still feeling like Summer around here. A cool front is promised for Tuesday, and at this point everyone is looking forward to it.

I figured out something about my Campagnolo cyclometer today. Lately I've noticed that it will sometimes stop showing the gear indicator on the screen. It just seems to come and go. I figured out today that if I push down lightly on the thumb shifter, the gear indicator will come on, and if I push lightly on the paddle behind the brake, it will go off. I think that indicates that something inside the lever is cracked or broken. Still shifts fine, though, so I probably won't go diving into all those tiny parts and springs and stuff until I really really need to.

Just finished cutting up a big palmetto tree that's been growing on our backyard fenceline for the last 15 years. I try and cut it back every year or so. It's a real bitch to deal with and it grows like a weed. I will need a chainsaw to really solve this problem!

So anyway, I'm thinking maybe I'll go out for a little easy spin this evening. Maybe just around Audubon Park or something. It may be hot outside, but it's pretty.

Same Old Same Old

Rode the usual easy morning ride this morning, which was enjoyable enough, but I'm starting to think about dusting off the old mountain bike or going out for a levee ride on the track bike or something like that to break up the monotony. I've even been thinking about where we might be able to put on a cyclocross race around here. Having essentially NO hills, it is difficult to find courses that will force the riders to run for any distance. I have the winter training rides to look forward to, starting in a couple of weeks, so that's something!

I'm kind of thinking about trying to pick up a cheap carbon fork with an Al or steel steerer to put on the track bike so I can hook up a front brake and do a little fixed-gear work on the road this winter. I sure wish the velodrome was in New Orleans instead of Baton Rouge. Of course, I can always go ride the levee brakeless if I'm careful, but it would definitely freak out the guys on the group ride if I showed up for one of those on the track bike without a brake. Can't say I'd blame 'em either. Anyway, it's a thought. There must be tons of old threaded carbon forks floating around that people have upgraded, and since my frame is small they could all be cut and threaded to work. Heck, it might even be worth going threadless if I could get a really good deal, 'thou I'd have to buy a new headset and stem, at least. Maybe I should ask around locally first and see if I get lucky. The other things on my current wish-list are a new saddle, new bars before the ones I have break from the corrosion, badly needed new headset, new chainrings, at least one new cassette, and a few other miscellaneous items. Probably looking at a good $400 even if I shop around. Well what the heck, I came out $5 ahead with my winnings last weekend. As usual, I probably won't get any of it until what I have actually breaks. Such is life.

I was quite surprised yesterday when The Wife asked when the winter rides were starting and said she might go out and ride one of them, or part of one of them. It's been at least 10 years since she's done that. I think that may officially make her a "recovering mom." Of course that is very likely to ultimately result in a need for a new bike, or at least some new equipment, since hers still has friction shifting and a 6-speed freewheel and is, I think, over 25 years old. Good ol' Reynolds 531 tubing. Man, that stuff wasn't very stiff but it sure did last. If she starts to get back into riding, at least it'll be easier to find her christmas presents.

The Tulane bicycle group, which is really more of a campus bicycle safety and education group, just started a list on yahoogroups.com (search for bike tulane), no naturally I planted a seed there for a collegiate cycling team. We'll see if it sprouts.

Just finished commenting on a neat research proposal that one of our faculty is getting ready to submit. That was a nice break from the routine!

Pretty (and) Dark

It was just a tad cooler this morning. Enough for me to zip the jersey up another notch. Not all the way up, you understand, just a little higher than usual. We're not expecting to get back to normal temperatures around here until around Monday or Tuesday. When I went to turn on my little Vista rear light this morning, all that was there was the back part of the clip! It must have flown off on my way home yesterday. Damn. I had two new NiMH rechargable batteries in that puppy. Well, only a couple more dark mornings before the time change, so I'll get by without it for now.

We had a great view of the eclipse last night. I took a bunch of photos with my digital at a bunch of settings, but didn't get anything very good. The moon was strikingly bright and large before the eclipse, since it was still just above the treetops. It was still bright this morning as I rode out to meet the group on the levee. We rode a good 10 miles before it was light enough for me to read my computer. There was a low mist coming in from the river, curving over the top of the levee in places. When I was at the back of the group the sight of the long line or riders in the pre-dawn light with the mist was really pretty. I was wishing I had a camera, but at the same time knowing that I'd never be able to capture such an image. That will just have to be one to store away in my head. The ride was pretty steady at around 24 mph most of the time and I was feeling kind of disconnected. My left knee has been feeling a little odd since the races last Sunday. I probably made one too many hard over-geared efforts and should give it a little rest.

The Daughter's gymnastics team had their banquet last weekend. We didn't make the trip up to Iowa this time - it's a long way to go and a lot of money to spend, and we'd do better to save it for the meets. Not that The Wife didn't plead her case, of course. The Daughter was awarded MVP for last year, which was a real surprise since she only competed two events in most of the meets. It will be an interesting season this year.

I'm still trying to wrap up the Rocktoberfest paperwork. As soon as I get the check for around $300 from our treasurer for the insurance surcharges and 1-day license fees, I'll attach that to the Chief Ref report and accident report and copies of 1-day licenses and forward the whole mess off to the USAC. We ended up with police expenses, including the 2-hr minimum costs for the cancelled date a couple of weeks ago, of somewhere around $1,000. Along with the other usual costs of portable toilets and numbers and pins and that sort of thing, my guess is that we'll come out just a tiny bit ahead, which is all we really ask for. This race does have the potential to be about three times its present size, however, and perhaps we will move in that direction.

Searching for Fall

We're expecting a high of around 90F today. Geez! I mean; it's the friggin' end of October. You'd think I could power down the a/c by now. This is supposed to be the first month with a low electricity bill! Fall around here is usually a pretty brief and sporatic affair, and I'm by no means wishing for really cold weather, but where are those crisp, cool mornings we're supposed to be having? The weather man isn't offering any hope for another week yet. Tomorrow night there will be a lunar eclipse, so at least this high pressure that we've been suffering under should give us a reasonably clear night for that!

I am trying to shift into off-season mode now. This morning it was pretty dark until we were way down the levee. It's hard to tell who is in the group until the sun starts to come up. I was feeling kind of contemplative today, thinking about winter training rides and wondering why my legs still feel a little sore from last weekend.

I talked for a while last night with Kevin, the guy who crashed badly in Sunday's race. They won't be doing surgery on the collarbone - they'll just let it heal, which is pretty typical. He said he's got road-rash pretty much all over, and the neurologist wants to do another CAT scan. I've always found it a little disturbing when the doctor in the ER reads the CAT scan, and then later when an actual neurologist takes a look at it the next day he sees stuff that makes him want to do another one. Kevin's wife is a little worried about his face. He had some fairly deep cuts up around his forehead where I think he got clipped by someone's pedal and/or chainring as they were rolling over his head. My experience has been that face skin heals pretty well and I told him so.

It sounds like someone started to go for the finish rather early, as Cat. 5s often do, and a couple of guys streamed past on the left. Kevin latched onto the train, but right about that time the guy in front of him suddenly slowed down - either he blew up or he had to avoid something - and Kevin clipped his wheel and went over the bars. He sounded really disappointed because he felt strong and was in a good spot with a clear shot at the finish line when it all went down (pun intended). After he fell, we kept him on the ground until the ambulance came, which took probably 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes or so for them to strap him down and load him up. We were talking with him the whole time, although he was definitely a bit confused. He asked about his bike, told us what hurt, etc. Well, he doesn't remember any of that. All he remembers is "waking up" in the ambulance, which means his short-term memory wasn't working for probably 20 minutes to half an hour. Anyway, it was nice of him to call around and thank everyone who was there making sure he got taken care of.

Especially considering that he's taking some heavy-duty pain meds right now.

Rocktoberfest Race: Great Racing and a Hard Crash

The rescheduled Rocktoberfest race was this morning, and we were happily blessed with good weather this time. I arrived around 6:15 a.m. to help set up, and deal with all of the usual "I forgot my racing license" issues that race officials have to handle. The day went sort of like this: load up the car in the dark; drive out to the lakefront; help with race setup and officiating; race in the masters race; officiate/judge the cat. 5 race; help with the crash victim until the ambulance arrived; officiate/judge the Cat. 4 race; rush over to the car, pull out the bike, slap on shoes and helmet and get to start line of Cat. 1,2,3 race; race again; help with tear-down; drive home; post results to the e-mail lists; wonder why my legs were aching.

Here's how the races went:

The Masters race was pretty much between our team and another local team, NBO. From the start I took off at a moderate pace, but nobody came past for mile or so. Bad sign. Things got pretty animated with Charlie Davis of our team and Howard Luna of NBO trading attacks for a while. A 3-man break got away that included Charlie, but it wasn't going away very fast and I didn't really like the odds for Charlie in that one since the other two riders would be riding against Charlie. So that one got chased down after a few miles. Another 3-man break went shortly afterward that included our rider Mike and that looked pretty good to me, but the other two riders weren't working and so that one got caught too. It came down to a sprint. The pace ramped up a lot in the last kilo and the sprint started at about 300m. I got Mike's wheel and he pulled us clear with about 100m to go. I thought Mike had the win easy and I actually eased up for a second to make sure I didn't come past him. Right about then, I heard Howard coming up on the right really fast. He really surprised me and, as it turned out, Mike was starting to die. I was already in the 12 and couldn't accelerate in time, so Howard got the win with me second and mike third and our teammate Rick in 4th., so not too bad.

The Cat. 1,2,3 race was fast and hard. The first two laps of the 3-mi. circuit were at around 30 mph with one attack after another. I was seriously on the rivet. A break of 5 or 6 got away and the NBO guys for some reason started blocking. All of the Herring guys except one were in the break, and the two NBO sprinters were back with us, so it didn't really make sense. Anyway, I had to do a TON of work to keep them within range. We had Charlie in the break, but since he had already raced once that morning I wasn't expecting him to hang in for very long. My teammate Branden was back with us and I really wanted to get him back into contention, so I was working my arse off at the front a lot and helping to bridge him across a few gaps. I knew the Herring guy would try to bridge, and I was right, but one of us was on his wheel each time. Meanwhile, the break was starting to disintegrate under the strain. Charlie came off and ended up DNFing. A couple more came back to the pack. Then the Herring guy, Kenny, launched another attack that got us up into the 30s for a while. That got us close enough to the break to smell blood and we caught right after that. However, one of the Herring guys, Troy the Aussie, launched before we caught and managed to stay out in front to the finish a couple of laps later. Coming into the last kilo, I rolled up to Branden and told him to stay on Frank Moak's wheel "no matter what" because I knew Frank would get 1st or 2nd in the sprint. Things ramped up fast and with about 200 meters to go, Frank slipped through a little hole on the right up against the curb and the door closed on Branden, so he had to back off a little and go around the long way on the left. Sure enough, Frank won the pack sprint, but Branden did a great sprint and go 3rd in the pack (4th overall), so that was a real good result for him since he just upgraded to Cat. 3 recently. I kind of backed off in the sprint and came in 7th.

Overall, I had a blast. I just wish one of us could have won that Master's race!

I'll try and get the results up on the NOBC website some time tomorrow, and should have some pictures up there in a few days.

The Cat. 5 race had a pretty big field and the race ended up in a big field sprint. About 400 meters from the line one rider went down hard. One of the other riders then rolled over his head or something. So we had to call the ambulance out for that one. He ended up with a mild concussion, broken collarbone, very deep scrape (you could see the tendons) on his hand, and road-rash on his forehead, around his eye, on his chin, both knees, the backs of both hands, elbows, etc., etc. When I got to him he was just a little confused - not as bad as I've seen before with head injuries. His helmet was broken in a few places. We happened to have a neurosurgeon at the race, so he came over and checked him out. He's back at home now after a few hours at the ER and in the CAT scanner, and will see the ortopedist tomorrow. He'll be off the bike for a few months, most likely. We saved the helmet that we had for the random drawings for him instead. As a rider I once raced with used to say:

"Live by the sprint; die by the sprint!"

Missed all the Excitement

Well apparently I missed all the excitement yesterday on the morning training ride. Apparently Howard and someone else (I forget which one) were battling to see who could inflict more pain on the group. Then at some point The Donald dropped his chain. As he was coasting along trying to coax it back onto the chainring with the front derailleur, it must have come off the lower jockey wheel in back. So, when he got it back on the chainring and stood on it, the derailleur went into the spokes, the wheel locked up and riders behind him headed for the grass. The Donald then skidded to a stop, wearing through his rear tire in the process and blowing out the tube. He was lucky, too. Usually when that happens, the derailleur rips the derailleur hanger right off the dropout. In this case, the derailleur exploded in to four pieces instead, so the hanger was only slightly bent. He ended up needing a new tire, a few new spokes, and a new derailleur. Luckily, nobody went down and the guys at the shop were able to bend the hanger back into alignment. He was out riding with us this morning and commented that it felt like a new bike with the crisp new derailleur and all.

It was a relatively fast ride this morning, for a Friday. Don't know what got into everybody, but we had a nice steady ride at 23-24 most of the way. As I was waiting for the ride to start this morning, chatting with Margaret, a runner came by on the path. He asked us "how far does the pavement go?" It took both of us a little by surprise, and we had to chuckle when we replied "about 20 more miles." I wonder how far he went?

It's getting to be time for me to tear down the Cervelo and do some much-needed maintenance. After the ride in the rain the other day, the right brake lever is sticking pretty badly. Yesterday I sprayed the heck out of it with Triflow, but it didn't help. I pulled the cable out real quick this morning, but it looked fine, so I just wiped it off and put it back. The lever itself seems pretty stiff, and there's always a lot of drag in the cable as it follows the curve of the handlebar under the tape, so I think I'll have to tear it all down and clean it all up to get it working right again. I think that the return spring on the left shifter has recently broken too. The right one broke about a year ago and so I've been using a little rubber band to keep it up against the back side of the brake lever. I'm sure they both succumbed to the combination of sweat and humidity. I think it's finally time to rebuild both of those levers and shifters. I shouldn't complain; they've gone around 36,000 miles or so without much attention. It'll all have to wait until after Sunday's race, though. I learned a long time ago not to go messing with my bike right before a race unless absolutely necessary.

Science Junkie

No training ride today, as I had to be at work early for a fun day of meeting with faculty members and one of our grant proposal consultants. No, really. This is fun. For a frustrated science junkie like me, what could be better than having a steady stream of (mostly young) faculty members coming in to discuss their draft research proposals and how to improve them? Our consultant comes in every few months and does this for our faculty, and I just love to sit in on those meetings. Sometimes you can just see the light bulbs go on above their heads when they start to figure out how the review process works, what they need to say, and not say, in their proposals, what the reviewers are likely to think about them and their research projects. I wish everyone could spend some time in a research lab and get to understand the way scientists think, and maybe get a small glimpse of how important their work is to all of us. The thing that is most important for our national defense isn't how many smart bombs we have or how many security guards there are at our airports, it's our science and technology capability. And yet, our politicians don't have the slightest clue what that means. I'm sure they would all have happily criticized the guy who was studying the enzymes in bacteria living in hot springs. I doubt if any of them realize that those discoveries laid the foundation for all of the DNA "testing" and many of the technologies that modern biomedical research has come to rely upon.

So anyway, I figured I could use a day off. I'm planning on racing Rocktoberfest on Sunday - at least the master's race. It looks like the weather will cooperate this time around, although it will probably be warmer than usual. It's been quite a while since most of the area riders have raced, so I hope that too many of them don't chicken out this weekend. I think we should have a good turnout, but you can never tell this time of year. The Rocktoberfest course isn't really my kind of course. It's basically two 1.5 mi. sections of straight, flat, fast road with loops at either end. The fast and strong riders like it. Although I won it a few years ago, and have made it into the lead breaks a few times since then, I usually suffer when the speeds get real high like that. It's actually better for me when it's windy on this course because I can benefit from my experience and it doesn't come down to a drag race. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to it because it has gotten to be kind of the official end-of-season race around here. It's the last race of the LCCS points series too. It looks like the Tiger Cycling club from Baton Rouge has the team trophy pretty much in the bag this year. Being a new club, they had a lot of enthusiasm and got a lot of people out to all the races. The LCCS series really does reward consistency and participation more than results, so the team with the most women, juniors, and/or masters usually does well.

Socked In

It was pretty foggy this morning and it kind of kept the speed down for a while since it was really hard to see the miscellaneous pedestrians, dog-walkers and other riders on the path. We were still going a bit over what one might consider a safe speed, but we had at least stationed the guys with the flashing lights in front. As usual, I eventually had to take off my clear glasses, as they kept getting clouded up from the fog. After yesterday's wet ride, my computer has decided to freak out. It's one of those Campagnolo ones. I've never quite figured out what exactly it is about riding in the rain that causes it, but it will invariably start cycling through all of the modes as if I was relentlessly pushing the mode button. I know it's not the computer itself. I put a plastic bag and rubber band over it earlier this year for a road race that started in the pouring rain and the same thing happened. It's got to be either the little buttons in the brake levers or one of the pickups. It always resolves itself after a week or so, but it's rather irritating until then. It came with the bike (I'd never actually pay that much for a cyclometer!) and has something like 36,000 miles on it by now and I have to admit that I really like the way it mounts in the center, ahead of the handlebars, but the chances of me ever replacing it with a new one are essentially zero, considering that a new one is close to $200.

One of the guys was riding an old Trek Carbon/Aluminum frame that he had recently gotten for free and built up with mostly spare parts. It was day-glo lime green and, I think, pink or something. Very 80's. Got me thinking that I need to find an old 80's frame in my size for cheap so I can build it up with the old Campi parts off my broken Cinelli. Maybe I could even go single-speed or fixed with it just for fun. I'd just need to rebuild a couple of the many tubular wheels I have into clinchers. Most everything else would likely just swap over.

Anyway, it was a decent morning's training ride.

All Strung-out and Gritty

"Another easy ride" I thought as I waited atop the levee in the dark this morning. There were only a couple other guys there and it was windy and humid and I was thinking we'd probably end up turning around early.

WRONG!

Just after we headed out I could see a cluster of flashing white lights coming our way from the Jefferson Playground where a lot of the riders meet up, and soon we had a nice-sized group. After about a mile, "The Donald" rolled past me, his characteristic heavy cologne hanging in his draft, and soon we're up around 27 mph and all strung out in a single-file line. The Donald then proceeded to tow the whole bunch at 27 mph for at least three or four miles. It was still pretty dark and let me tell you it's kind of sketchy at that speed in a paceline when there's a crosswind and you can't really see the edge of the road. When he finally pulled off, I thought the pace might slow for a while, but right away Todd of The Bicycle Connection takes over and surges up to 29 or so. A gap starts to open and for a while I'm on the rivet making the bridge. He settles down to around 27 and I rotate through a few times as the sky starts to lighten up a bit.

We've just missed a rain shower and the road is quite wet, so the whole time I'm trying to strike that delicate balance between getting a decent draft and having gritty water sprayed up my nose. I look back and the pack is a good 20 seconds back, so we keep up the pace for a few more miles and then Todd looks back and says he's shutting it down soon. He got no complaints from me. The rest of the group catches up and we ride the remaining few miles out to the turnaround. As we go under the grain elevator, it's practically raining grain dust and the wet road is covered with it as well. Most of it ends up stuck to our legs and bikes. The return trip starts out fairly easy, but eventually there are only about five guys pulling and the rest sitting on. I look down and see that I'm plastered with dirt and grit from the wet road. It looks like I just finished a 'cross race.

It was a good training ride, though. I kinda needed that.

Joe and I

Yesterday's Giro ride was fairly tame since a number of regulars were missing and everyone seems to have switched into easy mode. Some were doing a mountain bike race up in Baton Rouge, but I suspect some others were just enjoying the last morning of nice weather before the return of the muggies later in the day. So, I was a little surprised this morning to find only Joe up on the levee when I arrived. Mondays are always sparse, but this was rather extreme. In fact, there were notably fewer people, cycling or otherwise, on the levee this morning. So, there were just Joe and I for this morning's ride.

Joe F. isn't exactly just one of the regular guys. Joe is a transplanted Cajun who has been in New Orleans most of his adult life, which has been considerably longer than mine. Joe's around 75, I guess, and has been an athlete of one sort or another since high school. Riding with Joe is usually a bit of a history lesson. When he was old enough for high school, Joe was shipped off to the big city to live with relatives and attend Jesuit High School (my alma mater, my brother's alma mater, my father's alma mater, etc.) where he was on the track team. He continued running after high school, and practically never stopped. The last ten years or so he's been riding. I started riding with him some years back when I would meet him out at the lakefront early in the morning. A few years ago he went down in some loose sand and broke his hip. He was back on the bike in a few months. He's never done much racing other than time trials, but he rides with the levee group many mornings and sometimes does some of the Giro rides on the weekends.

So this morning Joe latched onto my wheel and I took us down the levee path to the turnaround, keeping the pace around 20-21 mph most of the way. After we turned around, we headed back into a light wind at around 16-18, with me staying on his left side, since that's the side that he had his hearing aid in, chatting about all sorts of stuff from bike components to construction, all sprinkled with a bit of history. For example, as we rode into the morning sunrise, Joe commented that it made him think of a particular song. I didn't recognize the name until he pointed out that some of it was used in a TV cigarette commercial back in the 60's. He hummed a bit of it, and sure enough, I remembered it. When that brought the conversation around to smoking and other addictions, I said something about the neurobiology involved with addiction, and in typical style, Joe responded with in French "Il est tout dans votre tête," or something like that, somehow reducing that last 20 years of addiction research to a French colloquialism.

I hope that in 25 years I can still do a few training rides with the group.

Don't we all?

Practically Perfect

Oh man the weather this morning is practically perfect. Clear blue skies, low humidity, light breeze, temps in the 60s and 70s. Just got back from the Giro ride. The Giro group is definitely winding down now - more conversation; less hammering. We had a few good fast sections, but in general it was what I'd call moderate. Afterward a few of us went with Tim and Eddie down Canal St. downtown and then up St. Charles Ave., adding a few miles to their ride back home in the Western part of the city. Naturally we were making a nuisance of ourselves weaving through the slow traffic and all. Along the way, we linked up with Kenny who was just heading out for a ride. I turned off near the house with 70+ miles or so, kind of wishing I could ride all day. The rest of the group headed out down S. Claiborne to hit Jefferson Highway - not a very nice ride there, but Troy and his wife were in town and he had to be back in time for something or other and Jefferson Hwy. was the shortest way back. In a day or so we'll be back to the usual warm and humid weather I guess, but that only makes days like today seem even better. There's a lot of stuff going on in town this weekend, including the Voodoo festival in City Park that is developing into a pretty big deal, and I think we're supposed to do something with a couple The Wife's sisters who are in town.

Weather Wuss

I really felt like a Weather Wuss today. This cold front came through last night and right now it is absolutely beautiful, but this morning it was around 54F at the house when I awoke. I spent quite a while hunting around for arm-warmers and gloves (I still can't find those blasted Pearlizumi ones - I know they're around the house somewhere), and spent five minutes staring at my closet trying to decide what to wear. I finally settled on two summer jerseys, arm-warmers, and thin defeet gloves. At the last minute, I stuffed a sheet of paper between the jerseys to keep my chest warm on the way out, and was glad I did. Still, I was FREEZING. I know that in a couple of months this kind of morning will feel absolutely balmy, but I always have trouble making the transition from warm to cold weather, especially when it happens overnight. I would have worn my vest, but I knew the other guys would make fun of me for that! Well, everyone was enjoying the fine weather, and, being a Friday, it was an easy spin-n-grin type of ride. I doubt we ever got over 25 mph. Been a lot of those lately! I know I'll wake up one morning in November and suddenly wonder where the hell all that summer fitness went all of a sudden, but in reality I've been working on losing it for about a month now and the job will be about complete in a few more weeks - just in time to start up the winter training ride series. It's kind of interesting to go back to that webpage and look at the "Virtual Training Ride" that I put up there way back when I first started the website around 1995. I've cleaned up the page a couple of times since then. I think that I did the original one with a text-editor, before I even had an html editor. It was pretty crude, as was my ability to scan in the photos. I should probably re-do the whole thing this year with some updated photos. I'll have to think about that. Anyway, it looks like our little taste of Fall will last only a couple more days before we're back to highs in the mid-80s. The Giro ride should be fun tomorrow, though!

In the Clouds

Left the house this morning for the early training ride and was greeted by a light drizzle. Drat! I knew I should have watched the weather last night instead of doing a few updates for The Brother on his daughter's Crew website. It was way too dark to be able to look up at the sky and see how bad it looked, so I went ahead and rode out to the levee. Turnout was a bit low this morning, of course. The streets were a bit wet, but it was more like we were in the middle of a raincloud all morning rather than under one, and although we rode for about an hour and a half in a misty light drizzle, it never got bad enough to soak through my socks. You never feel like you're really wet until that moment when the cold water finally gets through your shoes and socks and you feel it hit your feet. Once that happens, it's usually all downhill.

It seemed that Donald was determined to do the whole "long" ride this morning, but I think he was the only one. From the start, there was a motion on the floor to turn around at the Destrahan chemical plant, and as we approached that point the rain got briefly heavier as if to remind us. Indeed, everyone turned around there and we headed back, pushed along at 25-26 mph by a light tailwind. Of course the first of the inevitable flat tires came just after the turnaround. There's something about riding on wet streets that increases the chances of a flat tire by about 300%. So we waited up, circling around until it was fixed. About a mile later, I could hear the guys at the back yelling something again, and I knew it was another flat. This time, though, Donald just kept on rolling and we never saw him again. The rest of us stopped again, and by the time we started back up I was getting rather cold because I was basically all wet. Luckily, the temperature was around 70F, so it never got too bad - just enough to be uncomfortable.

It's noon now and as I look out of my office window it looks foggy and hazy. Heavier rain is expected soon as a cold front comes through this evening, and we're promised morning temperatures in the mid-50s for tomorrow.

Looks like tomorrow will be the first arm-warmer day.

Under Control

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
Mario Andretti

I saw the above quote this morning in Kenny D's "Multisport Report" e-mail and thought how well it describes riding in a Criterium. That is so absolutely true about a fast criterium. Usually, the second you think things have finally settled down to something you can handle, somebody else attacks and all hell breaks loose again and you're careening around the inside of a corner with the curb on one side and some bug guy leaning on you on the other side, trying not to panic because somebody three bikes ahead is letting a gap open. There is something about being at the limit of control that seems to appeal to certain people. You know the type. They're the ones whose wheels you're hanging onto thinking "we can't possibly make it through this wet corner at this speed." But you do it and come out smiling. Turns out you're probably one too!

I was missing that feeling on this morning's ride, though. I guess it had something to do with the cooler weather. It was the first day so far that I've put on two jerseys. First that ragged old team jersey that you wouldn't normally wear in public, and then a nicer one over it. One of my favorite things about winter is that I get to use all those worn-out riding clothes as base layers. Like those shorts you always liked where the chamois is still in good shape but the elastic in the lycra has deteriorated around the chamois so that they're practically transparent.

Anyway, there were about 20 people on the ride this morning, and ordinarily that would mean that it would get pretty fast, but for some reason everyone seemed content to ride along in a double paceline at an easy 21-23 mph almost the whole way. I was feeling a little more frisky this morning, but I controlled myself and went with the flow so as not to seem too anti-social.

The best thing about a double paceline is that you get to actually carry on a conversation with whoever is riding alongside you. This morning it was Danny, who works in a lab here at Tulane and was a swimmer back in college. So we talked about swimming and Tulane's new women's swimming team, and how the girls nowadays swim faster times - in meters - than we used to swim - in yards.

The cool weather got me thinking about winter riding clothes. I go through this debate with myself every year. If I lived in Michigan, it would be simple, but here it's possible to basically fake it all winter with just the bare essentials. A pair of long tights, arm-warmers, a vest and gloves can be teamed up with multiple layers of summer jerseys and you can handle 95% of the winter weather. You might be a little cold now and then, but it only lasts about three months. So the debate is always whether it is worth investing in that warm Pearlizumi Kodiak winter jersey or one of those fine winter jackets, or just suffer for a while and save the money for tires and other bike stuff that might actually make you go faster. I usually end up buying nothing but a new pair of gloves or something like that, knowing that by the end of February I'll be wishing I had bought a pair of those fancy new tires for my racing wheels or that new headset I've been needing (ever try "indexed steering?).

So right now everything seems to be under control.

I should be worried.

Just the Facts

6:15 a.m. - getting really dark;
No rain!
Coolest it's been so far - upper 60s;
Very light wind;
Normal levee ride group;
44 miles;
21.3 mph average speed;
Lots of time around 26 mph;
33.1 mph top speed;
Good ride.

Rocktoberfest Reloaded

The crack NOBC team sprang into action first thing this morning and set a date for the re-scheduled Rocktoberfest (Oct. 24). We have already gotten the OK from the Levee Board for the road use and I've revised the website, created a new Active.com online registration site, e-mailed the new date to the LAMBRA list and the NOBC list, etc. We still need to work out the event permit details with the USAC where most of the staff is apparently on vacation because of Columbus day today. [Hold the presses! Just got an e-mail from Tinker at USAC saying that they changed our date in the database and the person handling it will be back in the office tomorrow. Excellent!] We had to pay the police and some other costs for the cancelled race, of course (around $350), so that's going to sting a bit, but I'd hate to see us not have Rocktoberfest. Everyone who pre-registered will get to race the Oct. 24 event without re-registering and we have added a drawing for a free bicycle paint job by the local Creative Cycle Works guys. Robin said he is going to try and hunt up some additional sponsorship too.

So, after three whole days off the bike, I finally got out for a ride this morning, although I overslept and missed the group and had to chase almost all the way out until I met them on their way back. I feel kind of sluggish after three days of eating chips and watching the rain fall. On the plus side, the ride in to work this morning felt great. I guess I had a little tailwind, and the temperature a little lower than usual. If I hadn't had to resort to the sidewalk to go around a couple of school busses that decided to completely block the road, it would have been perfect.

I'm looking out my window right now and can see the big U.S. flag atop one of the tall downtown buildings and it's showing me a North wind! We're expecting a bit of cooler weather around here this week.

Now what did I do with those arm-warmers last Spring??

Wash Out!

They were SO wrong. I went to bed with an 8 a.m. forecast of 30% chance of rain and 12 mph winds. When I woke up around 5:30 a.m. to head out to the Lakefront to help set up for the Rocktoberfest race, I could hear the rain falling and the wind blowing, and I knew we were in trouble. A quick check of the hourly forecast showed that the folks at weather.com had changed the 8 a.m. conditions to 100% chance of rain and 30 mph winds, leaving little room for optimism. As I was sitting there in the dark staring at the computer screen, eating a granola bar, I felt something odd in my mouth. I had lost one of the many old fillings in my teeth. It must have been an omen.

When I arrived on the lakefront, I was greeted by horizontal rain, waves occasionally coming over the seawall, and a screaming SE wind. This was not good riding weather. This was not even bad cycling weather. This was Andy Hampsten Giro d' Italia weather without the snow. For a while all the power went out and all the streetlights went out. I could already imagine the Cat. 5s tearing down Lakeshore Drive at 35 mph, the wind at their backs, and trying to make it around the wet, slippery traffic circle at the end of that stretch. It would have been a bloodbath. Then the survivors would have been blown apart by the headwind on the way back. It would have been ugly.

Soon the rest of the club's race workers showed up, and we kind of stared at the tropical storm that we were obviously right in the middle of and discussed our options. It was pretty clear that there was no chance of being able to put on any race until at least 9:30, and since we only had the road until noon, that would only allow us to do two races - assuming, of course, that the standing water covering much of the road drained off, and the weather did, in fact, improve. It was looking pretty bleak.

At 7:00 a Levee Board police officer rolled up and he and Robin had a brief conversation, the result, like I didn't already know it, was that the race would have to be cancelled. We needed to make a committment by 7 a.m. on the police, so that was it. Man, I hate it when races get cancelled. Especially ours! But I guess sometimes you just can't fight mother nature, and to have raced under those conditions would have been brutal at best and dangerous at worst. So we got on the cellphones and started calling the pre-registered riders. Soon, riders started to trickle in. They mostly knew we wouldn't be racing today, but they were there anyway, just in case. I was impressed, in a way. We considered giving any rider who showed up an automatic 2-year suspension for drug use. After all, you'd have to be on drugs to think we'd be racing that morning. A few had driven in from Alabama and Mississippi. A few of them said that they were glad that they had gone to the French Quarter last night and had a good time, figuring that the race would likely be a wash-out. I really hated to give them the bad news, but I don't think any of them were really looking forward to trying to race under those conditions, especially with the diminished turnout we were bound to have. Actually, I was pretty surprised at how many riders showed up. I mean, this weather wasn't just "iffy." There was apparently a news crew down on the other end of Lakeshore Drive filming the water flooding over the seawall, and there were sections where the water covered the two lanes closest to the lake.

So anyway, we will try and reschedule in a couple of weeks if we can get the OK from the Levee Board. By the time I got home, I was soaking wet and freezing cold. It's almost 4 p.m. now and the strets are finally mostly dry and the sun is starting to come out. Good thing, because I don't think I could take any more rain.

One good thing, though. I won an Ebay auction for a new (old) pair of Sidi shoes for The Wife! $40 seems pretty good for shoes that are normally $110. Sometimes it pays to have small feet!

Sweating Out the Pre-race Weather

One of the races that the NOBC puts on each year kicks off tomorrow morning. The handful of us who are pulling this thing together have been tying up loose ends the last couple of days and things are pretty much in place. This isn't nearly the level of oranization that we achieve for the Tour de La., but then this is more of a local, fun type of race.

The one little problem is the Tropical Storm that has been heading straight for us. It's been raining all day, we're under a Tropical Storm Warning and a Flood Watch, and I've been answering e-mails and phone calls from riders wondering if the race has been cancelled. I decided around mid-morning that we would go forward as planned, and so now I'm sweating out the weather and hoping that we get enough riders to avoid losing too much money. We have $500 in sponsorship earmarked for prizes, which means that all of the expenses will have to come out of entry fees, which is pretty much impossible for a race of this type at this time of year. But then the club's not here to make money, and it's usually a fun event anyway. The forecast is actually looking better now, at 10 p.m., than it was this morning, so that's encouraging. If it wasn't for those six Levee Board cops we will have to pay, it wouldn't be a problem, but as it is, we'll probably lose a fair bit of money on this one. At least it will be good P.R. for our police department relationship. I can't really say I'm looking forward to being wet tomorrow. The only thing worse than racing in the rain is officiating in the rain, and I'll be doing both.

The masters race is up first, and I'll probably ride that one unless we are really short on help. Then I'll officiate a couple of races. If the other guys think they can handle officiating the Cat. 1,2,3 race, then I might race that one too if I'm not too wasted. Hopefully by then the chances of rain will be lower. I've seen everything from 30% to 80% as the chance of rain tomorrow. Now, that's helpful, isn't it? Needless to say, I'm planning on being wet. Along with all of the usual race-officiating stuff like megaphones, clipboards, tape recorders, etc., I'm packing a couple of extra pairs of socks and a big rain cape, and of course my famous officiating hat.

They're Tryin' to Wash Us Away . . .

It never fails. I decide to take a rest day, and then a day or two later I'm off the bike anyway because of the weather. It started raining early last night and hasn't stopped. Every now and then the rain pelts my office window. I suppose we're also still under a flood watch. In reality, we're under a flood watch every time it rains, which is just SOP when you live in a city that is mostly below sea level and every drop of rain that falls has to be either absorbed by the soil or pumped uphill into the lake. Anyway, I'm already feeling kind of fat and lazy and wanting to curl up on a couch with a cup of hot coffee. I suppose that if we get a break in the rain this evening, as unlikely as that is, I might be able to go for a quick ride or maybe just a little 3-mi. walk to Audubon Park with The Wife.

This year's racing season has been pretty bleak for me. After missing a bunch of races in the Spring, I kind of lost that momentum that I need. It's not that I wasn't training. I'm sure I'll log somewhere around 11,000 miles this year. But all the training in the world just can't substitute for real racing. Once I get on a roll - traveling to races every week or two - I always improve and start getting good results. The other thing that I missed out on a lot this year were the Tuesday/Thursday training races. Although I made it to a few of them, they were mostly poorly attended and since it's such an effort to get from work at 5:00 out to the training race at 6:00, I started to blow it off pretty regularly. Big mistake, of course. If there is one thing that is virtually guaranteed to give you some fast fitness gains and generally make you a better bike racer, it's having one or two days a week where you do a double workout. Over the past 30 years or so, my best racing years have always, without fail, been the ones where I was doing the evening training races pretty consistently, after having done an easy or medium-paced training ride in the mornings. I'm thinking that the club might try and put together a real (event permit, entry fees, prizes, etc.) training race series next year if we think we can handle it. It would be a great thing and would surely improve the general level of racing around here.

We have our annual Rocktoberfest race scheduled for Sunday morning, and the best the forecasters will give us is a 40% chance of rain, so we'll be really lucky if we stay dry for this one. OTOH, if you had to race in the rain, Lakeshore Drive wouldn't be a bad place for it. We should have a complete road closure for the 3-mile circuit that is mainly out-and-back along Lakeshore Drive with a traffic circle on one end and a nice little loop on the other. The only sketchy part will be traffic circle which is notoriously slippery in the rain because of all the oil that drops off from the busses. I need to remember to get some Turkey bags. You know, those huge plastic bags they make for cooking Turkeys. They are a standard piece of equipment for race officials because they're big enough to put a whole clipboard, complete with the official's hand and pen, into. That way, you can be standing in the pouring rain and still be writing down rider numbers, finish order, whatever. Still, I guess this weather will put a real damper on the turnout considering that this is mainly a "fun race" type of event with minimal prizes and mostly local competition.

We'll see.

Tropical Wave

Looks like it will be a wet mess around here for a few days. The first hint came yesterday evening. I'm sitting in bed, just having finished my salad and wine dinner, when - CLICK - the lights go out. No thunderstorm, no strong winds, no cars crashing into telephone poles - nothing. I look out the window and a few of the neighboring houses are dark too, so I walk around to the front door and see two trucks from the power company with their flashing yellow lights, blocking the road a few houses down.

Wandering down the street I meet up with a little cluster of neighbors watching the power company guy in his cherry-picker and get the scoop. Power should be back in a few minutes. The loud unexplained explosion we heard about this time the night before was one of the power lines shorting out because of the tree branches that have grown all around the transformer. The neighbor whose house was near that transformer (along with the rest of us) still had power for lights and stuff, but one phase of his 3-phase airconditioner was out so he had had a hot night. They were just now fixing the problem, and it was interesting to see the hydraulic acrobatics involved in moving this guy around amidst all of the power and telephone lines and tree branches. The transformer wasn't just near some tree branches, it was practically IN the tree. I could barely see it from the ground. I met one of the neighbors who is renting one of the many apartments along the street (lots of 1920's and 30's doubles around here). She is on a pediatrics fellowship at Children's Hospital and has recently moved here from somewhere like Kansas. She was wondering if and when the leaves would change color. Ha. Had to give her the bad news that if she's not careful, she could sleep right through Fall, and there are only a few species of trees here that actually change color significantly before Winter.

Anyway, I digress.

The weather here continues to be humid and rainy. We got in our 45 miles this morning, but it was a long ride back from the turnaround, mostly into a 20 mph headwind. The outbound leg was fast but easy with such a nice tailwind, and we spent quite a long time at 29-30 mph. The ride back was not so nice, however. We got an erratic paceline going, with the speed hovering around 22 mph, but with the winding road and blustery winds, it was anything but smooth. The wind had even the normally stable experienced guys looking instead like Cat. 5 riders on their first group rides. Somehow, nobody crossed wheels and went down, and we all made it back OK.

When I got home there was a message that the race numbers hadn't arrived yesterday as expected, but after calling and tracking, it looks like they'll arrive tomorrow, so no problemo there.

I made the ride into work just ahead of a little rain shower, and it's looking like the weather will do nothing but get worse for the rest of today and tomorrow. It makes me want to be curled up in one of those soft chairs at the coffee shop.

Down Time in the Big Easy

Some time yesterday evening I decided to skip today's training ride. Time for a little down-time. My legs and back have been feeling kind of stiff the last couple of days, and although that's not likely due to my training routine, I took it as a sign. I learned long ago that trying to schedule rest days into your training schedule here in New Orleans is doomed to failure. It's really the weather that has control of that aspect of my training, and it typically works out pretty well, keeping me off the road once a week or so. Problem is - we haven't had a rainy morning around here in a month. Anyway, if I'm going to get my butt kicked this weekend at Rocktoberfest, I may as well start out with legs that don't ache. We've had a fair amount of pre-registrations for the race - almost all Cat. 5 and Cat. 4 riders. For some reason, the Cat. 1,2,3 riders only pre-register for the really big races. Hopefully the rainy weather predicted for Saturday will be all cleared out for the Sunday morning races.

So, instead of riding in to work as usual, I drove in with The Wife instead. I love being in the city on weekday mornings when everyone is fresh and heading to work, the school children are walking to school or to the bus stop (why don't they ride bikes any more??), the college students stroll along on their way to class with cups of PJ's coffee, or sometimes, heaven forbid, even the Wal-Mart of coffee shops - Starbucks. Everyone has a purpose in the morning - a mission - and nobody has yet been beaten down by the routine or the frustrations that will have them watching the clock by 4 p.m.

I've been working on an analysis of Tulane's research standing in comparison with other AAU-member institutions, and once again the Prez wants that on a per-capita basis. As I've explained many times before, that's really not possible to do accurately, because of the many inconsistencies among universities when it comes to reporting faculty, what they define as faculty, what kinds of faculty they are, how then aggregate or disaggregate multiple campuses, etc., etc., but naturally the details are lost on these folks and they keep asking for it again. So, they'll be getting the best I can come up with, albiet with lots of footnotes and caveats listed at the bottom of the page. Anyway, it's tedious and rather unrewarding work that I know won't really answer anybody's questions or provide useful guidance to anyone, but for some it will at least provide what these sorts of things - reports and consultants - always deliver: The Illusion of Progress!

Tommorrow: Back in the saddle . . .

Not Cool

I should know better. It happens every Fall. The forecasters tease us with an approaching cool front. Then they start pushing back the date. Eventually they admit that by the time it gets here, if it does, we won't get that much of a change. The air here has been thick with haze for two days now. So much so that you don't really want to be breathing the stuff. Now, it's looking like we won't see any cooler weather until next weekend, if then. I'm just hoping we get a good day on Sunday for Rocktoberfest, since I'll be racing and officiating there all morning. I had been looking forward to turning the air-conditioner off for a while, but I guess that won't happen for a while yet.

I was thinking about that this morning on the long levee ride as the sweat was dripping onto the inside of my Oakeys, making it hard to see. I was a little bit irritated too. At the start of the ride, Donald gets on the front and pulls for a long time at a pretty good clip. That's nice. Finally, we get some nice rotation in the paceline. I take a pull or two, and at some point drop most of the way to the back of the 20-rider paceline so that everyone can get a pull. We're going maybe 25 mph. I look up and Donald is letting this big gap open in front of him - intentionally. Again. He does this all the time. It's like, if he isn't the one setting the pace, then he doesn't want to play. Well the guy on his wheel is starting to get a little nervous. You can see that he can't quite decide if he should bridge, or if Donald is going to close it himself. Someone from behind me comes past and starts to bridge. The gap is growing, and it's not because we're slowing down. The group ahead is speeding up. Luke pulls past Donald with me on his wheel, but he's not making much headway. I come around Luke and look back to make sure he latches on, then I gradually pull us up to 29 mph for a while. We're closing the gap, but not fast enough. I pull off and Luke comes past to take his pull. I take one more pull and we finally catch as the pace up front eases a bit. Next thing I know, Donald is back on the front. Geez! On the way back we had a fairly fast paceline going at the front with a bunch of people sitting on at the back. Didn't see much of Donald, though.

Man, the discussion on rec.bicycles.racing about Joey is getting totally out of hand. This one anonymous jerk who uses "Crit Pro" as his ID, writes this rambling manefesto accusing Joey by innuendo of all sorts of things from drug-dealing to adultery, based entirely on what he could find on Google plus a lot of his own rather warped fabrication. This guy needs a life. I mean, why spend your time trying to further discredit someone you don't even know when they guy's already been suspended from racing for two years?

A Sure Sign of Fall

Another sure sign of Fall. It’s clean-up day around here. Of course, others might just call this routine housekeeping, but I married a bike racer, and vice-versa, and neither of us get particularly excited about vacuuming and cleaning and those sorts of things.
The Giro ride was nice, kind of a repeat of yesterday but a bit faster. I hung around afterward talking with a "new" rider with a nifty LeMond Carbon. I noticed during the ride that he looked quite at home on his bike – stable, strong and safe – and I wondered aloud to Robin if he might be visiting from out of town, since I didn’t recognize him. Robin immediately rode up to him and asked him his name (which as usual I immediately forgot). Turns out he’s been doing a lot of riding with the triathlete group, and decided to give our ride a try today, since he’s thinking about riding the Rocktoberfest race next weekend. It will be his first race. He looks like he has a lot of natural talent, and I’d like to see him continue racing with us next year.
After visiting with a couple of The Wife’s sisters (one is in town from Houston) last night over dinner, which involved both the consumption of much wine and the inhalation of much nasty cigarette smoke, The Wife, owing at least partially to the combined effects of alcohol and anoxia, invited them over for dinner at our place tonight. I was already struggling to keep my eyes open, what with the nonstop conversation about who did what to whom – typical girl talk, I guess – and was just too wasted to come up with a viable alternative.
Well, as usual, when I returned from the Giro ride this morning, one thing led to another and before I knew what hit me I was down on my hands and knees cleaning the front porch floor. Eventually, hedges were trimmed, plants were planted, floors were vacuumed, etc. You get the picture. So the place looks a little more clean and organized than usual today, which is nice.
I had originally been planning to work on the old Triumph GT-6 (yes mine is that color. no, it doesn't look this good!) that is rusting away in my garage, to install some new carburetter bits and see if I could get it started. As it turned out, it was really too hot to be working under that tin roof anyway today – it got up to at least 90F, and even now around 5 p.m. it’s still 89. Oh well, "best laid plans . . ."

A Mellow Ride and the Drug War

Today was the first day of the popular MS Tour, which I skipped again this year. It's a lot of fun to do, but I never seem to get started on raising the required $200 in pledges, and certainly can't afford it myself. A few guys I know were planning to sneak in anyway.

So instead, I headed out to Lakeshore Drive for the regular Giro ride. Since a number of the big dogs were up in Hammond getting ready to turn the MS Tour into the MS Race, the group was a little smaller than usual. As we started down Hayne Blvd., a couple of us rolled off the front, and since we were going only about 22 mph, I was fully expecting to the paceline to come flying by at any second. Well, that never happened, and after rounding the bend at Paris Road, we sat up and waited; and waited; and waited; and finally turned around just before the group appeared. I thought maybe they had had a flat, but it was just that everyone was feeling lazy. A few miles later, after we were on Chef Highway, going slow as we regrouped after a little sprint, a car came past the group so close that its side-view mirror hit on rider's hip. Snapped the mirror right off, and the car continued on with the mirror hanging by its cables. It was lucky the mirror hit the rider's hip rather than his handlebars, or he would have gone down for sure. On the way back on Chef Highway, we had a really nice circular paceline going until one guy took off and things got fast for a while. Anyway, it was a nice enough medium-paced day at the Giro.

I'm really looking forward to some cooler weather that's expected in a day or two. I'm not really a big fan of the cold, but I guess I'm ready for a little bit of Fall weather anyway, or maybe it's just the change that I'm looking for.

For most riders, the new year really starts around mid-November when the regular racing season is over and a fresh training plan has been fleshed out. By mid-October, the rides will start getting a bit slower and it will get harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning. I'll do more solo rides, looking at the scenery more and at the computer less. In November, we'll start our regular winter training rides, although most of them won't feel like "winter" until late December. By January, riders will typically be finishing up a couple of months of LSD rides, and will be trying to add in a bit more intensity. January and February are really the hardest months. It can be pretty cold, even here in New Orleans, and there's always a strong North wind. Add to that some rain, dark mornings, and wet streets, and it's not too hard to convince yourself to skip a day .... or two.

The best part of Winter training is that, once again, anything is possible and you haven't had a chance to really screw up your training program . . . yet.

Meanwhile, there's a Drug War going on in the Pro/Elite cycling world. It's the drug testers against the drug users. I'm not a fan of drug use in sports, but yet I'm a little leary of the drug testers and their "holy war" attitude. I fear innocent people getting caught in their net. I've never seen so may positive drug tests among riders who I know or read about. I mean, Tyler Hamilton? Joey? In the last couple of weeks I've learned a lot about WADA, USADA, EPO testing procedures, and all sorts of related stuff that I never thouht I'd need to know. The LAMBRA e-mail list has a running thread on Joey's suspension, although I think I may have to create a statute of limitations on that soon. There's a lot of bad information going around, spread by people who understand neither the science nor the methodology. For anyone to say that a test is 100% accurate is absurd. The probablity of a false positive may be vanishingly low, but it is not zero, especially if humans are involved. From what I've learned about the EPO testing, I can't really fault the science, but I have some issues with the policies and assumptions that presume to eliminate the chance of a false-positive resulting from sample handling, technician error, population diversity, etc.