Weekend Wrapup

Saturday's 2-Person Time Trial went pretty well, I think. We had a good turnout - fewer than last year, but I expected that - and other than the chilly temperatures the weather was good. I had ridden the entire 40k Friday evening in order to mark the course, and had noticed a bird that was nesting in the crushed rock of the parking lot. Someone had positioned a couple of traffic cones around her so she wouldn't get run over. I walked up to her and saw that she had two or three eggs. When I got too close, she squawked and ran, pretending to be injured so I would chase her and perhaps not notice the well-camouflaged eggs. [I checked this out on Monday and found that the bird is a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). They are famous for the predator-distracting "broken-wing display" that we witnessed. Awesome... ] Saturday morning there were a couple more traffic cones protecting her. Throughout the whole event, with cars and people all over the parking lot, she protected her nest. We could use more moms like that!

After the usual fire drill of race-day registration, Keith and I jumped on our bikes, got in a three-minute warmup and headed for the start line. We were going off first so that we would be back in time to help with timing and results. There was a very light wind at the start that seemed to pick up during our ride. It was pretty clear we wouldn't be setting any records today as our speed was ranging from 24.5 to 26, with occasional sections up to 27 or so. As it turned out, we would have needed sustained speeds of around 27 just to be competitive. We managed only a 59:04. The top time in the Master 35+ class was 54:30 and the top time of the day was a 51:59. Definitely a fast day. Anyway, it was fun and considering that it was my first really hard ride in nearly three weeks, I was happy to have survived at all.

I got home and went to work on the results, and had the results up on the NOBC website by mid-afternoon, then reformatted them and uploaded them to the USCF Results and Rankings database. Today I updated the LCCS rankings, so all that's left is to fix all the problems that I'm sure the riders will tell me about next week!

Sunday morning it was still pretty cool - upper 40s - when I rode out to the Lakefront to meet the Sunday Giro ride, which I had not done in quite a while. One of the bridges on Lakeshore Drive was technically closed, and since there was a police car there I figured I'd just turn around and ride in the direction of the Giro and eventually they would catch me even if they had to go around the bridge. There was just one thing I didn't know. Apparently the Sunday ride has shifted back to a 7 a.m. start rather than the 6:45 start. That's great. Unfortunately it meant that I was thinking the whole time that I had somehow missed the group. I was almost at the end of Hayne Blvd. before the group finally came up from behind, just in time for a tailwind section.

Along Chef Highway things started to get animated as we approached the turnaround. There was a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks. Damn, I wish I had been in better shape. As it was, I was just trying to follow wheels that wouldn't get dropped, and was happy to be able to stay with the small group that split off from the pack over the last mile or two.

BTW, the new guy on the Giro ride is named Brady and is a grad student at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He looks to be pretty good.

I saw that Gina V. didn't make the time split in the Redlands TT. She must be pissed, but trying to do an uphill time trial with an injured elbow is tough.