It's 5:50 a.m. and the outside temperature is around 65F. I check the calendar. Yep, it's still January. I head down to the basement, already running a bit late, and find my rear tire flat as a pancake from yesterday's wet ride. I find the big piece of shell that has punctured the casing, pry it out of the tread, and slap in a new tube. It's 6:10. The ride leaves at 6:15. I'm gonna miss it.
Out the door into the semi-darkness and it's not as foggy as it's been. I hit the levee and just keep on going, figuring the group must be at least 10 minutes down the road. Up ahead in the early morning darkness, I can see a single rider moving at a pretty good clip. Must be another one of "us" who missed the start too, so I up my pace as I hit the perpetually foggy Oschner Hospital bend in the river. As I emerge from the fog on the other side, I'm surprised to see the group riding easy just ahead and within a mile I catch. They must have left pretty late this morning. I hear that Rob is somewhere off the front, and soon the pace starts to pick up a bit. A little while later, I see Rob coming back toward the group. Must have gotten lonely out there.
We have a little tailwind and the group is comfortable at about 24 mph, but Rob has apparently had one too many expressos this morning and he can't stand it. He keeps going to the front and ramping the pace up. We're up to 26 or so now and I hear Luke somewhere behind me saying "this is crazy." Every time the pace slacks off, Rob rolls to the front and picks it up again. Finally he surges a little too hard and a gap opens. I'm feeling pretty good, so I close it quickly, but we're up to 27 or 28 now. I take a quick pull and drop back, but there's nothing but air on Rob's wheel, so I latch on, thankful that I'm small enough to get a draft off of him. I'm in the 53x15 now, and we trade pulls for a few miles at around 27 mph. I never looked back, but I knew there was plenty enough horsepower behind to keep us in check. Eventually Rob eases up a bit and soon I can hear riders coming up from behind. The group starts to stream by on the left and Rob and I work our way into the line. Rob starts to roll up the right side just as Donald slides over in front of him. Rob mumbles something and pounds on his handlebars. Everything stays together for a few more miles and then as we near the turn-around it surges up to 29 and 30.
The return trip starts out at an easier pace as the group reassembles itself. Some riders eased up about a mile before the end to give themselves a little recovery time and so its a couple more miles before everyone is together again. There's some conversation as the group bunches up and things stay a little more steady, around 24 mph mostly, for a long time, but eventually Rob starts pushing the pace again. The second half of the return trip has six or seven riders rotating at the front with everyone else sitting on the back. Ronnie is the gatekeeper. Everytime I drop back, he opens a gap and tells me to get in. He's doing that with each rider as he drops back. The pace fluctuates a bit, from 24 to 26, but it's good. Rob is still kind of hyper, riding up alongside guys who aren't pulling fast enough and getting frustrated because The Donald is riding too far over to one side or the other. By the time we get back to Jefferson Playground it's not quite 8 a.m. yet and we've about made up all of the lost time from the late start.
Thanks, no doubt, to the warm weather, today's long levee ride was pretty fast and I really enjoyed it even though I could hear that little voice in my head telling me it's too early to be going this hard.
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