Dripping Wet

There was a big crowd this morning for the Giro Ride. After a short delay on Lakeshore Drive because of a flat, things picked up pretty quickly. I thought the ride was quite fast today, which suited me just fine. After the turnaround it usually slows up for a while, but with a light tailwind we were soon rolling back down Chef Highway at a fast clip that only increased as we neared the Goodyear Sign Sprint. I was still pretty far back when things ramped up for the sprint and before I knew it there was a small group off the front. As I came by Jason I motioned for him to get on my wheel and then proceeded to do my best imitation of a leadout train. I knew we had started too late, though, when I looked down to see that I was going 36 mph and we still weren't going to catch them in time. I pulled off and Jason made a run for it, passing some of the guys who had blown up but not quite making it to the front. Anyway, Tim and Realdo were kind of making sure the pace never slacked off too much today, and on the way back down Hayne Blvd. Realdo took a really, really long pull with me just hanging onto his wheel for dear life. A couple of people came around but they didn't last long. We were really flying when we hit the Casino bridge and just before the top I checked my computer and it was showing 29 mph. That's when Jason jumped. The whole time I was just dripping sweat and as we rolled in on Lakeshore Drive I was thinking that it's about time to break out the large size water bottles. Well, maybe at least one of them. Any time I put a large one in my seat tube cage my legs hit it and it drives me crazy. I got a ride home with Jason because he had discovered a leftover "bike race ahead" warning sign from the Tour de La out on the TT course and had picked it up so he could return it.

When I got home I found The Daughter and The Wife getting ready to go for a ride, so I scarfed down some food and went out with them for a ride on the levee. We didn't get too far before The Wife's front tire exploded with the tube blowing right through a dry-rotted patch in the center of the tread. I think those Continental tires are a good five or six years old, easy. Old enough for the sidewall rubber to have become brittle and nasty and the casing to stick to the rim. Luckily I had a boot in my kit, so I fixed her up and sent her home while The Daughter and I continued on. We rode about 20 miles and got rained on at least three times. By the time we were halfway back I could feel the water sloshing around between my toes and the salty sweat getting washed out of my helmet and down my face. I was totally soaked and dripping wet by the time I got home, but on the plus side, it wasn't hot!

I saw a little while ago that Mike O from MMW won the Masters 30-34 Nationals road race. Mike was 2nd in the Tour de La (Cat., 1,2,3) a couple of weeks ago. He even got his photo in the USA Cycling article. Looks like the race was in the pouring rain because he's dripping wet. Sounds like he won with style, too. Over in France, though, I don't know what the hell's going on at the Tour de France. I mean, I can see letting some guys who are way down on GC roll down the road and all, but 29 minutes and the jersey? That was just unnecessary.