An Odd Giro

Miles: 62
Powerbars: 1

The effects of the prior night's party were clearly evident when I awoke five hours later to head off to the 6:45 a.m. Giro ride. It was chilly and dark and windy, and my legs were stiff as I rode into the wind toward the lakefront. I was running late and couldn't even afford the luxuy of an easy ride out there. My phone rang just as I was leaving. Gina leaving me a wake-up call. Things started out as usual as we headed down Hayne Blvd., although it was clear that a lot of riders were not planning on going hard today. I got into the front paceline a few times, but I was thinking about doing a longer ride and so I dropped farther back to seek some shelter from the relentless wind. After the group made the turn onto Paris Road the headwind became a nice little tailwind and the pace picked up quickly, but soon someone from the back of the pack yelled something about a flat. Most people eased up and coasted, but a Brett and Rob kept going. It turned out to have been a false alarm, (amazing how much "car back" can sound like "flat"), but the damage was done. Eventually most of the pack got back together, but it wasn't long before Luke and a few others wanted to stop for a nature break on the service road. Gina were near the front and I eased up for a while, but there were some riders ahead of us who didn't and next thing we knew we were in chase mode. We were hoping they would ease up so we could catch, but no such luck. We battled the headwind, struggling to maintain a speed above 21 mph, and for a while we were gaining on the two riders ahead of us, but we couldn't sustain it and ended up in no-man's land with four riders about a minute ahead and the pack a couple of minutes behind. So we eased up a bit until the turn-around where we found that Rob and Brett had kept going to do a longer ride. The others were turning around to wait for the group. We debated doing a long ride too, but the combination of wind, sore legs, and no other riders willing to "go long" made it rather unattractive. The extra distance would have given us something like 85 miles. The ride back was pretty slow. Painfully so, if you know what I mean. By the time we got back to the service road, I was standing on the pedals to ease the pressure. Riding easy may give your legs a break, but it really takes its toll on one's nether regions. So I was glad to latch onto Matt's wheel when he appeared as we turned onto Hayne Blvd. He had started with the group, but had to turn back to deal with some sort of gastrointestinal issue, and had come back out on his track bike. It felt like I was motorpacing as I sat on his wheel and he pulled me down the road at 27 mph. Matt was riding kind of a high fixed gear and I was impressed with his power climbing the overpasses. Back on Lakeshore Drive, I eased up and waited for the remains of the group to catch, riding back uptown with Gina where I was finally able to take a good look at her brand new team-issue Fuji. She had gotten it built up a couple of days ago at Adam's with nice Shimano Dura-ace and Velomax wheels. It has those new FSA cranks and the hollow axle that goes all the way across so you can see through to the other side. Very nice stuff. Mark at Adams did a great job of getting her handlebars low enough - always a challenge for a small rider on a "compact" frame. He substituted the regular top headset piece for a much shorter one and installed a stem with a slightly negative slope, so her position looks pretty good.

I was surprised that I didn't feel better today, especially after having such a good ride yesterday. I think all that wine last night had something to do with it, though.