Finally a morning without significant fog! The temperature this morning was in the upper 60s, but for some reason I was feeling cold anyway, which is probably not a good sign. I am hoping that I didn't catch some sort of airplane bug last weekend. There was a big turnout today for the long ride, and with guys like Rob, Todd and Eddie pushing the pace it stayed fast. For some reason I am still feeling a little sluggish since my trip, so although I was taking my pulls on the way out, I was keeping a low profile this morning. We had a new guy on the ride whose name I never got. Looked like a pretty good rider who I understand moved here to attend Loyola Law School recently. He was nice and stable and comfortable in the paceline.
The "base" pace today was around 25 mph, although depending on who was on the front we were spending significant time at 27+ too. When we got about a mile from the turnaround Eddie came to the front and put the hammer down. I was on the "new guy's" wheel, who was on Eddie's, I think. Rob might have been up there too. When the pace got up to about 30, the rider in front of me started to crack and eased over out of the paceline. The gap wasn't too big yet and I thought I could just gradually close it, but I think Eddie and Rob were still accelerating. I finally blew after a little while at 31 but by then the rest of the pack was shattered too so I just spun in the last bit with Bob B. who had also gotten surprised by that final surge. Still, there was at least a dozen riders that made the whole ride. The return trip was pretty fast too, but I think a bit more steady, and I didn't complain when I dropped all the way to the back and ended up out of the rotation for a while.
I finally got the Louisiana/Mississippi LAMBRA points series standings updated. Whew! I spent about two hours fooling with it last night and then another hour or two this morning. Once I get the results from the race promoter, I have to plug those riders and their placings into a big spreadsheet to tally up their LCCS points and rankings, along with totals for the club standings, and then convert the Excel workbook to HTML format. After that I have to make separate HTML summary pages for each Class/Category, and update the home page with the top three in each group, and then upload it all to the server. I'm sure it will get faster and easier the more I do it, but I was wishing for a spiffy database application like the TxBRA has.
After negotiating with my dentist this morning about payment options (this guy doesn't take credit/debit cards and as far as I know doesn't even have a computer in the place - just a little old lady with a black appointment book and a telephone), I'll be heading out to have yet another worn-out tooth ground down and ultimately capped. Damn, I hate going to the dentist. I may soon decide to dump this dentist, who I've been seeing since some time around 1975, because Tulane's new FSA arrangement gives me a debit card to use for these sorts of expenses, which means nothing out of pocket until I use up however much I put in at the beginning of the year. With this guy, I will have to pay him first, then submit the bill for reimbursement, which they won't do until whenever the next monthly paycheck comes out. Seeing as how The Wife pillaged my bank account last weekend buying things for The Daughter, which isn't really something I can complain about too much, this can be a problem. Not to mention that I still need to get my '05 USCF racing license and official's license, hopefully before the first race, and pay for my jersey and helmet, etc. Good thing the USAC finally got online licensing working!!
Now the next big decision: Do I enter Rouge-Roubaix or not?? The "Rouge" is a 100-mile race with quite a few miles of dirt and gravel roads. If you don't know about it, you should definitely check out some of the photos from last year. A few riders went up there last weekend and rode the course, and reports were that there is a lot of sand this year. This is one race where you always consider how hard it will be to run, or walk, uphill in your riding shoes.
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