The "Lance Effect"

I woke up just a bit late this morning and so I had to ride out to the lakefront at better than my usual casual speed. As I passed one corner where there is always a newspaper stand on Sundays, the guys there cheered as I rode by. 6:30 a.m. and New Orleanian newspaper salesmen are cheering a cyclist. Will wonders never cease? This incident was, no doubt, a direct result of "the Lance Effect." Every time the Tour de France makes the news in the U.S., this sort of thing starts happening. Anyway, the Giro ride turned out to be quite fast today, despite it being a Sunday, which usually means a slightly more civilized pace. Along the way I spotted Rob Konrad in the group and rode up to ask him how the track events went yesterday. He said they got in the morning session, but the afternoon session was rained out shortly after Tim Reagan crashed and broke his collarbone! Bad luck for Tim for sure. This happened in the sprints, and Rob didn't know what exactly happened. He said it looked like he just went down all by himself coming through turn 4. Maybe he unclipped?

Anyway, I'm off for a drive across the lake to spend the night at a friend's house up around Mount Herman, so I've got a copy of the map we used for one of our early Spring "Bob Hodges" training rides up there. Hoping to get in a little ride tomorrow morning.

I'm still trying to figure out how those guys in the TDF can average 34 freaking MPH for 19 km. Tailwind or not, I've never even been in a paceline that approached that kind of average speed. I wonder what the average speed of the guy in past place was. I'll bet it was close to 30 mph. Like I've said before, the pros are a whole different species. It's amazing they can interbreed!