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.
No comments:
Post a Comment