Work and Play, in that order . . .

So I didn't make it to the track Saturday night, which I knew I wouldn't, and Sunday was on the schedule for work around the house. Fortunately, being married to someone who used to race bicycles herself, Sunday morning's priorities have remained intact, and getting in 60 miles or so is still at the top of the list. Still, I had to opt for another Giro ride rather than the long drive up to Enon for what I'm sure was a good training ride with the northshore guys, assuming all of the triathletes stayed upright.

Sunday's Giro was a little odd this week. Things started out pretty mellow as usual and wound up on Hayne as usual, but once we got going down Chef Highway a couple of guys got off the front. That's pretty usual too. The unusual thing was that it seemed, at least to me, like the six or seven guys at the front of the group had completely forgotten how to ride a paceline. It was bizarre. I'd take a reasonably hard pull, give a little "I'm pulling off now" signal with my hand or elbow, pull over and nobody would come through. The pace would slow down, and then someone would go blasting past about three mph faster. Everyone would have to accelerate again to catch the wheel, and then when the guy would pull off, of course nobody had anything left to come through with. It went on and on like that as the 2-man break hovered ahead close enough that four guys working smoothly could have caught them easily within a couple of miles. Eventually it got just a little more organized until finally Howard surged through and closed the deal shortly before turnaround. When we got back to the parking lot on Lakeshore Drive there was cold watermelon!! I rode home with a happy but bulging stomach!

The Track Omnium in Baton Rouge seemed to go well Saturday night. As I expected, they ended up combining the Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 riders. There were a number of Cat. 5s who showed up and a few I think were riding road bikes for the TT. Anything to get some bodies on the track! Will has some photos and results on the TCF blog.

I spent most of Sunday trimming foliage around the house, and then, instead of finishing off the garage roof, I decided that the 2-foot diameter, 20-foot high palmetto that's been growing on the fenceline between the houses had to go. I fired up the new electric 16" chainsaw and went to work, finally bringing it down without hitting anything. It'll probably take me a month to finally dispose of the trunk! I'm thinking it will be a lot easier to cut up once it dries out a little, though.