Saturday's Giro Ride was a little odd. I had gotten up a little early and arrived at Lakeshore Drive with plenty enough time to ride all the way down to where the group starts across from the (still very closed) Acme Oyster House. Along the way I passed a huge group of triathletes getting ready for a group training ride after swimming in the lake. There were a lot of riders around, but when I got to the parking lot there was only a handful still there. One of the guys had a tire that was about to blow out, so another rider offered a spare he had. Unfortunately when he inflated it, the tube blew out (probably the tire wasn't seated properly, so they had to change the tube again. In the meantime George P. arrived, in town from Houston for the holidays, and so we waited for him to get his act together. By the time we got started, most of the group had given up and they were already way down the road. I was figuring we'd just meet the main group after the turnaround, but as luck would have it, somebody in that group flatted on the service road, so we were able to catch up. The ride turned out to be pretty hard. Three or four times George came by, said "come on Frenchman," and next thing I knew we were off the front and going 30 mph. By the time I got home I was pretty tired and not too thrilled when the wife wanted to drive up to Baton Rouge to visit her mother. Such is life. The nursing home is a very wierd place. You have to know the code in order to get in or out and most of the people living there are suffering from some form of Alzheimer's or senile dementia. One woman would periodically get up and go to the window, saying "I can't see my car." Then she would say she couldn't find her keys. One of the men there also had a thing about his car keys. They all pretty much live in their own little worlds.
So Sunday I stepped out the door around sunrise to 80 degree temperatures and 100% humidity. Surprisingly the group was really big today and included Gary and Traci R. who used to live here but moved to West Virginia a few years ago. Quite a change in both weather and terrain for them! The ride was pretty good. Perhaps a bit slower than yesterday, but still a good ride. Although my legs were a bit stiff at the start, they eventually loosened up and were feeling pretty good. On the way back down Chef Highway I decided to move up toward the front and maybe go for the "Goodyear Sign" sprint. I ended up riding on the shoulder through a lot of rocks and stuff at about 30 mph, and just as the sprint started I felt something mushy. My front tire was almost flat so I had to pull out and stop. A few people stopped with me, so after I got it changed we had a nice steady ride back, although a couple of us did go kind of hard over the bridges.
Talked to Tim a bit this evening. He's up in Tennessee at the Soto stage race. He said that the Pro,1,2 road race today got nullified because of some dangerous thunderstorms that came through in the middle of it. Bain had a good TT and is currently in 9th on GC, and Frank had a good placing in the Crit. The last stage is tomorrow.
Tomorrow? Tired legs and Red Bluff!
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