The Wednesday evening training race had a decent turnout yesterday. I skipped out of work promptly at 4:50 to give myself just enough time to get home, change and ride out to the lakefront. As luck would have it, when I pulled my bike down from its ceiling hook, I found the rear tire was flat as a pancake. A long sharp piece of shell had stabbed it so that a couple of millimeters were poking though on the inside of the tire. It took a little while to extract the damned thing, and by the time I put in a new tube and pumped it up I was running late. I missed the start by maybe five minutes, so I rode along the lakefront and made a quick U-turn at Franklin Ave. to join the group part-way through the first of four laps. There was a tailwind in that direction and they were flying. I did a lot of work, but didn't make any attacks. There were plenty enough attacks! It was actually easier on the headwind stretch where riders seemed pretty reluctant to put themselves in the wind. On the tailwind stretches, however, all bets were off. Since it was the usual crosswind/tailwind thing, people kept getting gapped off when the speeds got high with the tailwind. I think Branden said he got gapped off three different times, and I was on the ropes a couple of times myself. I was trying to spend some more time out of the saddle accelerating. I felt kind of sluggish last weekend whenever I needed to respond to an attack, which is probably a result of a little too much smooth paceline on the levee and not enough jumps and sprints at the lakefront.
For the last stretch before the finish, it was down to maybe eight or nine riders. There were a couple of attacks and things split up a lot, resulting in some high-speed chases, but ultimately it came back together as the group went over the first levee at Pontchartrain Beach. Robbie, visiting from Dallas, took advantage of the sudden slow-down and jumped while the rest kind of looked at each other to see if anyone was going to take up the chase so far from the finish. He made it to the finish first, though, followed by Howard, Branden and me. My legs were not feeling all that bad, but it was still a long ride home!
This morning's levee ride started late. I don't know why, but people have been getting out there later and later. We ended up with about ten riders, though, and on the way out Donald was pushing the pace along with one of the Tri/Road guys whose name I forget. You know - that short guy with the two water bottle holders attached to his saddle. He was pushing the pace on the way back too. I had decided early that I would be taking short pulls today, and that's what I did, but anyway it was a good fast ride both ways.
I think I will have to take my dog in to be put to sleep tomorrow morning. He's about 15-17 years old, I guess (he came from the pound, so I don't know for sure); a Lab / Doberman mix with a big Lab's head attached to a thin Doberman's body. He's been living outside in the back yard for the last year and a half, since he pretty much lost bladder and bowel control. He would still be waiting for me at the gate when I'd come in from riding until a couple of days ago, but he can't lift himself up off the ground now, so I'm afraid it's time. Not really looking forward to that, but its got to be done.
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