Raining and Wrapping Up

We did an easy ride this morning up on the levee with Wes and me spending most of the time discussing last weekend's Tour de La. On the way back, we saw George Pou flash by on his TT bike. I had heard he was in town for the holidays. Thanks to the recent turn in the weather and the overcast skies, it wasn't very hot for a change. As usual, though, I can feel the effects of a full weekend off the bike. To make matters worse, I'll be off the bike all next weekend too when I fly up to Iowa City and then drive back down the river to New Orleans with The Daughter. When I got home and checked my email, I was reminded how nice it is to have an event like the Tour end just before a holiday. There were only a few work-related emails, and even though we are not off today, I knew it would be quiet since many people would be taking a day of vacation to make a 4-day weekend. Just as I was about to ride to work, it started pouring down rain. I took the laptop out of the messenger bag and put it back on my desk to wait until the rain stopped. It didn't. As I had a dentist appointment at 11:30 way across town, I finally called The Wife and got her to bring me the car. It's about 4:00 now and the anesthetic has about worn off and now there is just a dull ache where the temporary crown is glued to what's left of one of my molars.

I talked with the rider who had the head injury at the Tour and he's doing fine. Although he doesn't remember much of anything about the crash or the trip to the hospital, they released him that evening and he's back home in Houston nursing some facial road rash. I can relate. Some years back I crossed wheels in the Lakefront training race and landed hard on my head. It was pretty much the same scenario. Broken helmet, loss of consciousness, memory gap, and various scrapes from face-surfing on the asphalt. The trouble with landing on your head is that once you're unconscious you just slide along on whatever body part happens to be on the ground until friction brings you to a stop. Normally you would move and roll and spread out the damage a bit more. Anyway, I'm glad to hear he's recovering.

So I guess tonight I'll get a start on the Chief Ref report, post-event payment report, USCF results and rankings upload, Report of occurrence, Annual and One-day License forms, LCCS rankings, etc. It'll take a few days, easy. We had some complimentary feedback from the Tour today. One of the Texas guys wrote on the TxBRA forum,

"Tour de LA proves that you don't need a lot of glitz to put on a great race. A few simple things like hundreds of bottles for a neutral feed zone in the road race. Loads of watermelon at the finish for the racers. Those folks know how to put on a great little race. The roads in the new road race course were some of the best I've ridden on. The crit course on a soaking wet road was eventful, but those guys were out there with a leaf blower trying to dry the corner with the paint. Well worth the trip from the metroplex."

That was nice. The watermelon was a surprise. I presume that Robin came up with that. About mid-way through the road race after we'd been standing on the side of the highway for a couple of hours, he walked over with a couple of cups of cold vanilla ice cream for Shane and me. Man, that tasted good. After he sets up the road race course, checking corners, putting up signs, patching asphalt, and doing whatever else is needed, Robin sets up the start/finish area with water, sports drinks, gel packs, cookies, etc., and then makes a trip or two around the loop to help keep the corner marshals alive with cold drinks and food. Then he and Brian and whoever else is still there get together to tear everything down, pick up all the trash, and make a last trip around the course to remove the signage. He basically works his ass off from Friday through the end of the criterium while I have the much easier task of officiating and working out the results.