Sweet Fall Ride

We were promised classic Fall weather for Sunday's training ride, and, for once, the Weather Gods delivered. I drove over to Starbuck's and picked up a coffee before heading over to the Morning Call where we were to meet. The little cup of Cafe au Lait from the Morning Call just doesn't do it for me sometimes and the fact that they have the nerve to charge the same amount for a lot less than even Starbucks kind of rubs me the wrong way too. As usual, my kidneys and I were on a caffeine high for the next couple of hours.

Nobody there.

There was a group going up to St. Francisville for a training ride the same day, and of course the holidays have disrupted a lot of riders' training routines, so I headed out to the Causeway for the 24-mile drive across the water alone. The tape player in the Volvo is on the blink lately, having recently devoured a couple of inches of The Doors Greatest Hits, so it took a while to find something on the radio on a Sunday morning that wasn't another lame public service talk show.

At Abita Springs, we had a nice group of 9 0r 10 riders by the time we started, and I bundled up a bit against the 47 degree wind, knowing that the vest, at least, would soon be in my pocket.

This group was really in easy paceline mood today, and as we rolled through the Fall countryside the conversation stopped as riders were content to soak in the sunshine and scenery. There hasn't been a freeze on the Northshore yet this Fall, so there was still a lot of green. We did a few little town sign sprints and that sort of thing, of course, but in general the pace stayed in the low 20's, low enough to keep our one woman in contact except when we would surge for a mile or two. Everyone was happy to ease up and wait a few seconds at the intersections so she could latch back on, though.

We finished up with around 67 miles and back at the car I kept looking for Christine to come around the corner, since she had come off the back for the last time with only about 7 mi. to go. "She should have been back by now" one rider said as we loaded up the cars, and it was another few minutes before she finally appeared, having taken a wrong turn and done a few bonus miles near the end.

There's an article on the VeloNews site about Joey D. at http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7245.0.html discussing the drug testing situation. Interesting. For the past month or so I have sensed a slight shift in attitude among many cyclists. Perhaps the USADA and WADA aren't infallible after all (duh!).