Man, it was hard to get out of bed this morning! Don't really know why, except that I was up kind of late last night and kept going back for just a little bit more wine.
The temp this morning was about 40 F, but at the last minute I put on my light Pearl vest to cut the wind for the first few miles, planning on stuffing it in a pocket before the group ride stated. You have to understand that this is kind of an old vest and the zipper has seen better days. In fact the tab that you hold onto is missing altogether. It's usually not much of a problem, but this morning I got some fabric caught in it as I was stepping out the door into the darkness. Just then, I heard a familiar voice. It was GiVo, who had stopped by on her way to work to pick up some stuff she had left at the house. She pulled some fabric out of the zipper (it was up around my neck so I couldn't see what I was doing) and I thought I had it cleared, but when I got out to the levee and tried to unzip, I couldn't get the damned thing to budge a single millimeter. Almost tore the zipper right out trying to wrestle with it up around my neck where I couldn't see. It was just partially open, so I tried pulling it off over my head, but my head was too big (as I've heard many times). Eventually, the ride started and , considering the clear skies, I resigned myself to a very warm ride. All I can say is I'm glad I've never had this happen with the zipper on a pair of pants at an inopportune time after having a couple of beers!
Once again, Rob had already ridden off down the road by the time we started (a few minutes late), and once again he looped back and met up with us around Jefferson Playground. There was a fair amount of horsepower in the group today, and as usual The Howard was there, surging up into the high 20s when he would come to the front.
I wasn't feeling too sharp, but I stayed in the paceline all the way out, taking my pulls but not lingering at the front very long. The ride back was pretty fast too, but a bit more cohesive, and I think some of the riders who had hammered on the way out were looking for a little recovery time on the return trip. I skipped a few pulls myself on the way back and there were a number of times when the lead rider would pull off and nobody was there to come through. Still, the pace stayed around 24-25 most of the way back.
Back at work after two missed days, I was greeted by a ton of e-mail, much of it having to do with the proposed changes in the LAMBRA categories and the LCCS points series, and I really haven't had time to sift through all of it yet. Not that it stopped me from putting in my $0.02 of course. Somehow, requiring promoters to have a separate Cat. 1,2 race in a 2-state district with a total of 29 Cat. 1 or 2 riders seems a little optimistic to me. I'm sympathetic to the plight of the Cat. 3s, but I really think that most of the 75 Cat. 3s in the 2-state area should be able to compete with the Cat. 1,2 riders. It would be great to have some separate Cat. 3 races, of course, but I think that making it a requirement is a bit premature.
We shall see.
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