Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A Tuesday in August

August always seems like "the dead of summer," but don't let it fool you. This morning I marked a seasonal milestone as I popped the clear lens into my Oakleys. At 6 a.m. it is now a bit too dark for the sunglasses, and although I'd love to be wearing them for the ride back when the rising sun is in my eyes, I'd rather be able to see the potholes on my trip over to the levee and not have to pick bugs out of my eyes first thing in the morning.

Today's group was smaller than usual for the long Tuesday levee ride - a combination of the delayed sunrise and a moderate wind, I guess. There were a few people on TT bikes this morning, and we weren't even to the dip before the group quietly split leaving Rob and me to suck the wheels of two TT bikes. I guess most of them turned around at the dip because we never saw most of them again. Eventually VJ caught us toward the end of the outbound leg. The return trip was easier thanks to a moderate tail/crosswind, but as usual the speed just gradually increased the farther we went. Elise jumped in after the dip on the way back, at which point Howard ramped the pace up to about 30, and Luke jumped on at some point around that time. A couple more surges before Howard went home splintered things pretty badly, though. Approaching the Huey P., we had just four riders left and we were going pretty hard when I dropped back and didn't realize that we had lost one of them. With VJ on the front and the unexpected missing wheel, the surprise gap opening quickly, so I decided I was close enough to the end for few extra miles worth of cool-down and rode in the rest of the way solo. Soaked to the skin with sweat as usual.

So on the home front, the telephone and DSL are finally working again, so last night I uploaded the Meridian results to the USCF database, but still haven't started working on the LCCS points updates. Meanwhile, Robin finally got in touch with the Levee Board to confirm the Rocktoberfest course and found out that those jokers have not renewed their liability insurance, which explains a lot, but also means we won't be able to use the otherwise perfect road for the race. I have no idea what their problem is. Anyway, we're investigating another nearby course and there are a couple others that are possibilities, so the race will happen. I'm just pissed that it won't happen on Lakeshore Drive. We're also helping out with the District Time Trial this Sunday which should be a fun event, but there's much to do between now and then. I'm planning on helping with setup and registration, riding, and then helping with results.

2 comments:

Bike Drool said...

Question: Do you guys let people on TT bikes ride when they show up at group rides?

There are always arguments here... concerns about safety. That they won't be close enough to the brakes if something bad happens, etc.

Usually, some unpleasantries are exchanged, but in the end, the TT folks ride along w/ everyone else. And it's fine.

Randall said...

Yeah, we have riders on TT bikes fairly often and nobody gives them any trouble UNLESS they are on their aero bars in the middle of the group, especially if they are new to group rides, in which case they will hear about it quickly and loudly. There have been a couple of crashes in group rides where riders on aero bars probably contributed to the seriousness of the crashes, but they're pretty unusual. One started when a rider in the pack hit an unexpected lump of concrete in the road and the other was when a couple of riders touched wheels. You just can't react quite as quickly when you're driving with your elbows!