Where'd Spring Go??

After a couple of days of decidedly Spring-like weather, I woke up this morning to what felt a lot like November. Not that it was particularly cold, but the skies were full of those low-hanging unsettled grey clouds and there was a gusty wind blowing out of the Northeast. As often happens under such conditions, there was only a skeleton crew out on the levee for the morning ride. Although we would be plagued by crosswinds much of the ride, there was definitely a bit of a tailwind component on the way out, but for some reason only a few of us seemed interested in embracing it. After Robin chastized me for surging from 23 to 24 mph when I took a pull, a few riders came through and next thing I know we're doing 25+ and the group has split. It was just Big Richard, Luke on his TT bike and me the rest of the way out, and as it turned out all but The Donald had turned back early. Quite a nice training ride anyway, despite the gloomy skies and buffeting wind.

I got another phone call a few minutes ago by a triathlete asking if his Cervelo TT bike would be legal for this weekend's 2-person Time Trial. It's kind of funny how the Tri guys have re-defined the term "road bike" to mean exclusively a bike without aero bars. Despite the fact that they don't seem to understand that for USCF events a "road bike" means a bike that isn't mountain bike or a recumbent, they have all somewhere heard about the much more stringent UCI bicycle specifications and are now totally confused.

So I'm still waiting for the info I need to finalize the LCCS standings, which is damned frustrating, and when I talked with Robin yesterday he informed me that he had not yet received the USCF event permit for Saturday's race, so I'm about to call the USCF to find out which crack it, and our $100 check, fell through.

I wrote up a race report for The Racing Post on the recent Rouge-Roubaix race and sent it along to the editor. I almost never actually see the publication, which is based in Texas. I presume some of the New Orleans shops must get copies, but since they went to a new format last Fall they haven't figured out how to put copies on their website. I think I'll write Christian and tell him he needs to at least put up a list of shops that get paper copies, though I'm sure he'll just suggest that I send him the $15 subscription fee instead! Anyway, here's a teaser:

"I hear a crunching sound to my left as Frank Moak looks down at his derailleur which has exploded and calmly says “I’m done.” Three riders lose traction and are off their bikes running up the hill. I’m over on the right in the tire track stuck behind a couple of riders who I’m afraid are going to lose it at any moment. A group of four or five riders shoots past up the hill on my left but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’m in my lowest gear and all over the bike, riding very ugly as I try to keep enough weight on the rear wheel to keep moving. I see a photographer up near the top of the climb documenting the agony. I latch onto the back of a little group of six or seven riders as I come over the top and this group is definitely not throwing in the towel. I am having serious trouble now on the climbs and almost lose it in the loose gravel."