Just Too Fast

Man, this morning's long levee ride was weird. It is still very, very dark at 6:15 when we start, but today there was a pretty big group. After a mile or so I dropped back through the group to the back where I was blinded by all of the blinking red LEDs. We had to ask a couple of guys to turn theirs off because it was making it too hard to see the road. As we went, we picked up more and more riders and the pace kept increasing. I can't say how fast we were going because it was still too dark to read the computer very well, but somewhere out past the country club we saw a couple of riders, or to be more precise, we saw a couple of blinking white lights, coming our way. As we met, they slowed down to turn around and latch onto the group, and so a number of riders in the group eased up a bit. Unfortunately the riders at the front didn't. So suddenly there's this big gap and the small group up ahead is not showing any sign of slowing down. The riders at the front of our group make little effort to close the gap, and I can see that the lead group is already going too fast for a solo rider to make the bridge very easily. Finally, Eddie C comes around and starts to accelerate with a couple of us on his wheel. He pulls us up to what must have been 30 mph. I come through and take a short and slightly slower pull and then pull off to the right. Just then, Howard comes blasting past on the left on his TT bike. So I'd been expecting a little draft but instead I have to pull out all the stops to try and catch Eddie but they're already going too fast and I can't get into his draft. I'm guessing that they hit 33 or so. The gap ahead of me opens quickly and I'm alone. I glance down and I'm still going 29 mph. Since I make it a rule never to try to chase down guys on TT bikes (as if...), I ease up a bit and wait for the rest of the group to catch. We end up with six or seven guys and hold a fairly steady pace all the way to the turnaround. When we get there, Rob is already on his way back. Eddie has turned off early and gone home. A few of us catch up to Rob and we form a little group plugging into the headwind for the return trip. I look back for the rest of the group, but they are way, way back there and showing no interest in catching, so we just keep taking long pulls all the way back at 23-24 mph. Then, shortly before the playground, Howard and Luke, both on TT bikes, come past on the left and we increase our pace a bit to latch on. A mile or two later and Luke turns back to look for someone and Howard turns back for home. Rob's already ridden up the road somewhere and I end up riding in the last couple of miles with one other rider. Strange ride.

So I was up late last night working on LCCS rankings, and got about half-way through last weekend's race before I had to call it quits and hit the sack. Maybe I'll finally get it all caught up tonight so I can find a little time to clean up and update the websites. Yesterday I got the official incorporation document for LAMBRA, so we are finally an actual corporation, registered with the Louisiana Secretary of State and all. Guess I can check that one off the to-do list.