Windagain!

The cold front that came through yesterday left us with clear and sunny skies, once the sun came up, for this morning's long training ride. Although a few of the usual suspects were absent, we had ten or so riders for the first section. The fierce North wind and resulting eschelon granted shelter to only the first three or four riders, and the rest hugged the edge of the bike path searching for the scraps, but the rotation was good and most of the guys were civilized today, so the suffering was limited. Even The Howard's pulls were relatively steady, which is to say that he only surged by a couple of mph when he came to the front.

At the upriver end of Kenner, a bunch of riders turned around, leaving only Rob, Bob, Justin and myself to make the whole trip out to Ormond. Actually, it rather improved things to have only the four of us because the pace was more even and we could get some decent shelter from the crosswinds at the back. There were lots of times when I was getting the best draft with my front wheel about even with the guy in front's crankset.

The return trip was a good workout, and it was hard to maintain 22-23 most of the time, although there was one nice section where the river turns South where we finally got a good tailwind. Anyway, the old legs were feeling it every time I'd hit the front today. Small guys and strong winds don't mix very well and I spent a lot of time down on the drops because I feel a lot more stable in that position.

For all those science geeks out there (and I know you're out there), check out this new collection of blogs from a bunch of particle physics labs called the "Quantum Diaries."

So I think The Daughter is heading down to Raleigh, North Carolina for the Hearts Invitational meet this weekend. I hope they do well!