Long Line on the Levee

When I got up this morning it seemed awfully dark, and even after arriving at the start of the Thursday long ride it still seemed a bit too early. Perhaps it was because of the clouds in the East, or maybe the sun is coming up a little later now and it's suddenly become noticible. Anyway, there was a large group this morning and as we headed up the river the line of riders stretched pretty far. Things didn't get very fast for a while, but by the time we got out to the "dip" there were a few at the front pulling pretty hard. I was feeling really tired this morning for some reason and wasn't too interested in ripping my own legs off, although I'll admit to making a hard effort in the last mile or so. A lot of the riders who were there at the start were gone by the time we made the turnaround. The ride back again stayed slow for a long time, and then shifted to a paceline and we criused silently for a while at around 24 mph before it picked up toward the end.

So my friggin' cable is still not fixed. The day after the tropical storm, about two weeks ago, I called, patiently waited on "hold" for half an hour, and was told that the next time they could schedule me was for 5-7 p.m. on the 20th. So after patiently waiting for like ten or fourteen days, I leave work early at the appointed date and time and of course Cox doesn't show up, so then I call them up and after much delay come to find out that they just don't seem to have any record of that. Yeah, right. And then the guy tells me about how they should have been out there within 24 hours. Yeah, right again. So he says someone should be out to fix it "within 24 hours" and I don't have to be at home for that. Why do I have the feeling I'll be calling those screw-ups a couple times more before this is all over?

Anyway, since I got home early I searched around for something for dinner and ended up making up a batch of quickie Gazpacho. My version of that popular cold Spanish soup is rather simple but really nice for a hot summer evening. Basically, you just use a big can or bottle of V-8 Juice and add well-chopped onion, garlic, celery, cucumbers, bell pepper if you have it, and tomoato. Then add some good olive oil, vinegar, Tabasco, and whatever other seasonings strike your fancy. Stir it all up and let it chill for an hour or two. I ate too much of it last night, f'sure. If you can let it sit overnight in the fridge, it gets even better.

Steve put a bunch of nice photos from last weekend's criterium on his website. Pretty nice. I'm hoping to get some more results from last weekend for the riders who didn't score any omnium points. I put in what I got from one of the Biloxi folks, but I know there are still some missing.