Adult Snoballs & SuperPaceline

Last night's outdoor party ended early the same way many such parties end - with everybody running for cover. Fortunately, the rain didn't start for a couple of hours so there was plenty of time to scarf down a good portion of the goodies, along with a couple of Abita TurboDogs. I had just enough time for a nice Plum Street Snoball before the raindrops started to fall. The great thing about having snoballs at parties is that you get to add your own "special flavors." Yum! When it's hot and humid and you're way overdressed because you had to rush there straight from work, nothing quite hits the spot like a snoball.

So I completely wimped out on the track events. Realdo called me last night and tried to entice me to go, but I just couldn't drum up the motivation for some reason. Kind of odd. Anyway, that of course meant I was destined to do the Giro ride. There was a big group this morning, along with an uncommon wind blowing in from the west. As the group headed out with the wind at its back the pace went from fast to faster to fastest in a hurry. After things came back together following the initial adrenlin rush, I found myself in a long circular paceline. For a few miles, there must have been 30 people in the rotation with the speed in the 29-31 mph range. Eventually there were a couple of big surges (I had a max of 38+) that disrupted the paceline, but anyway it was fun. Of course, once we turned around, it was hard work all the way back, even at the relatively civilized pace the group was comfortable with. By the time I got home I was hot, tired and completely out of water. It's Summertime!!

I received a communique from Gina this morning who is presently enjoying the hills in Chattanooga, TN and looking forward to Superweek. Superweek is one of those true U.S. cycling classics, a collection of sometimes loosely organised but highly competitive races spanning two weeks in Wisconsin. This thing has been going on since the early 70s. Somehow I never managed to make it up there. It was one of the first "big" races I ever heard about in the U.S. when I started racing.

I checked Cyclingnews.com when I go home from the Giro, picking up the live reports from the Tour de France about half an hour before the favorites started. I was pretty impressed with ol' Lance. He smoked the course, missing first place by two seconds and putting 51 seconds on Vino in 3rd (and over a minute on Jan). Looks like this will be an interesting Tour!