180º

Talk about opposites! Yesterday we had a strong Southerly crosswind and the temperature was around 70F. This morning there was an equally strong crosswind out of the North and it was in the 40s. I went out in two jerseys, arm-warmers, light shoe-covers, gloves and vest and was never inclined to unzip anything. Again, I spent much time balancing between a wheel and the edge of the road, which was liberally sprinkled with dead road worms after yesterday's downpour.

On the way back The Donald went zooming past the paceline for some reason and then hovered four or five bike-lengths ahead. Every time we would close the gap, which we did very gradually, he would get out of the saddle again and surge ahead. He repeated this four or five times. This was with a pretty good crosswind that made you want to seek shelter at the back of the pack whenever possible. Maybe he was just tired of trying to salvage whatever bits and pieces of draft were available in the strong crosswind, or maybe he was just being anti-social. I dunno. I've long ago given up hope of figuring out cyclists, including myself. Meahwhile, The Howard, who one might have expected to be pushing the pace, was busy getting used to his Power Cranks. Until your neuromuscular system figures it all out, you're usually riding huge gears with those things in order to keep your cadence down enough to keep your feet in sync. Robin was out this morning. He's got the timing down to the nearest second now, so that as the group comes past the Jefferson Playground where he parks he's just closing the hatch on his car. This morning he was riding his Bianchi track bike and after the turnaround I think he and someone else dropped off the back and came in a bit slower than the rest of the group.

After I come off of the levee, it's a couple of miles through the Carrollton area to my house, and I usually ride down Oak Street. Oak Street was once the business center for the town of Carrollton, prior to its being annexed by the city of New Orleans long ago, so it's an interesting street with various businesses and buildings with awnings overhanging the sidewalk. It's home to the Maple Leaf and the hardware store and a few small restaurants, shoe stores, and a number of antique shops. This morning there was a movie crew that had taken over about two blocks and looked to be filming something at one of the antique stores. As usual (this happens every now and then around here), there were large trucks parked all over the place and their big catering crew was busy setting up food services in a nearby building. I guess it is for the movie that they have been working on for the last few months. They did a bunch of filming on the Tulane campus, some at my old high school's gym, and some at the Maple Leaf itself.