Fast 1

It was still nice and cool this morning and by the time we got rolling past the Jefferson Playground there was a pretty good-sized group for the long Tuesday ride. The wind was still a significant factor, but for the outward trip it would be more at our backs than in our faces. It didn't take long for things to get out of hand, though, and after Robin took a particularly fast pull the group started to disintegrate. For a while there I felt like I was in a race for which I was not well prepared, and was out of the saddle a couple of times closing gaps to keep from being dropped by the front group. We probably had eight or nine guys left by the time we were half-way out, and the pace was holding a steady 27-28 mph most of the time, but at least it became a little more consistent and I didn't feel like I had to save a little bit after taking my pull to be sure I would be able to get back onto the tail end of the paceline. My legs were feeling OK today so the fast pace felt good, although I was being careful not to do too much work at the front.

There were a lot of peds and pups out walking around as we approached the end of the bike path, so we had to back off a bit early. I coasted down toward the turnaround and when I looped around I felt that familiar squishy feeling. Yeah, the rear tire was flat. It was another piece of white clamshell. A long stretch of the road has been covered with pieces of clamshells lately and this is the second flat I've had in a week because of it. Todd and I changed the tube pretty quick, but I think Rob K and maybe one other rider didn't wait around.

The ride back was relatively civilized but still fast, and when Robin stopped to pick up a big piece of glass (actually it was the broken neck of a Vodka bottle), Woody and The Howard kept rolling. For some reason, they decided to make us chase after that and so the pace picked up a lot despite the occasional headwind. We finally caught them somewhere in Jefferson Parish after Robin took this long suicide pull at 30 mph. That was the last I saw of Robin, in fact.

Anyway, it was a good training ride, I thought, even though an hour later when I was standing up on the commuter going up the Broad St. overpass with a big messenger bag over my shoulder and my Bass Weejuns bending under my feet, my legs were hurting.

So I can tell we're getting close to Tour de La time because I've already gotten my first e-mail from a new rider who wants to make it his first race. I always get a few of those as we lead up to the TDL. A fairly competitive stage race like that is really not the ideal choice for a rider's first race. The Cat. 5 field will be about at its 50-rider limit and will include a number of guys intent on getting upgrade points. The master's race will usually have a few really fast Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 guys who will keep that race fast too. I always try to get the new racers to do one of the other races in the area first so that they at least have an idea how the road race and criterium will go and don't get surprised by the pace or the attacks and end up getting spit out the back right away. Still, bike racing can be an unforgiving sport and at some point you just have to dive in the deep end and see if you can swim with the big fish or end up being shark bait.