I knew it would be a hot one today, and it was. The first thing I did, though, was rip the valve stem pumping up my tire before I even opened the door, so I got to start the day off by changing a flat. It wouldn't be the last. Once I finally got out into the thick air and hit the road I still had plenty of time in hand, though. This time of year I'm always up early and the 7 am Giro start time is an easy target. I wasn't very far down the road when Mark G. rolled up alongside, and then as we approached Canal Blvd. we saw a group of four or five turn onto Carrollton ahead of us. It's pretty unusual for me to run into other riders on my way out to the lakefront, and a whole group is really strange, so I figured something must be up. We caught up to them just as they were turning into City Park to take a look at the criterium course. There is a lot of anticipation building up around here for the district championship criterium that's coming up in a few weeks. So we rode a lap around the course and headed back out to the lake, arriving right on schedule to catch the group just as it rolled out from the parking lot.
Looking around as we rode slowly along Lakeshore Drive picking up riders, I knew it would be fast today. (Those first two pictures show part of the group riding over the Bayou St. John overpass.) With most of the local riders in town and no races nearby, the Saturday Giro was clearly about to become the weekend's de facto race.
Things took off pretty quickly once we hit Hayne Blvd. and never showed much of a sign of slowing down. When Rick suddenly started going backwards through the pack due to a flat, only few riders stopped.
The front of the pack, I'm sure, never knew someone had flatted. Then, as we turned onto Chef Highway, I took a roofing nail though my rear tire. In fact, it went through the tire, tube, rim strip, and into a spoke hole. We almost needed a crowbar to get the thing out. Again, the front of the pack never knew, but a number of people stopped, and once I got the new tube pumped up to maybe 70 psi we took off. We had a good fast paceline going and met the front part of the Giro on their way back about a mile past the turnaround.
The return trip was mostly just as fast as the way out had been. A lot of riders were anticipating the Goodyear Sign sprint, and when we all had to stop for a red light about kilometer before it people were not happy! I never did make it back up near the front for that one. It stayed fast afterward, though, and I ended up sprinting up the Casino bridge and about halfway up the Seabrook bridge before my legs decided they'd had enough for today.
When I got home I settled down and patched about a dozen tubes, throwing away another five or six that weren't salvageable. I should probably swap out that worn-down rear tire for a nice Michelin Pro Race that I took off my racing wheels earlier this year when I bought new rubber for those, but this particular set of Vredsteins have kind of turned into a science experiment for me. I think I might get the rear one down to the cords in another few weeks!
Looking around as we rode slowly along Lakeshore Drive picking up riders, I knew it would be fast today. (Those first two pictures show part of the group riding over the Bayou St. John overpass.) With most of the local riders in town and no races nearby, the Saturday Giro was clearly about to become the weekend's de facto race. Things took off pretty quickly once we hit Hayne Blvd. and never showed much of a sign of slowing down. When Rick suddenly started going backwards through the pack due to a flat, only few riders stopped.
The front of the pack, I'm sure, never knew someone had flatted. Then, as we turned onto Chef Highway, I took a roofing nail though my rear tire. In fact, it went through the tire, tube, rim strip, and into a spoke hole. We almost needed a crowbar to get the thing out. Again, the front of the pack never knew, but a number of people stopped, and once I got the new tube pumped up to maybe 70 psi we took off. We had a good fast paceline going and met the front part of the Giro on their way back about a mile past the turnaround.The return trip was mostly just as fast as the way out had been. A lot of riders were anticipating the Goodyear Sign sprint, and when we all had to stop for a red light about kilometer before it people were not happy! I never did make it back up near the front for that one. It stayed fast afterward, though, and I ended up sprinting up the Casino bridge and about halfway up the Seabrook bridge before my legs decided they'd had enough for today.
When I got home I settled down and patched about a dozen tubes, throwing away another five or six that weren't salvageable. I should probably swap out that worn-down rear tire for a nice Michelin Pro Race that I took off my racing wheels earlier this year when I bought new rubber for those, but this particular set of Vredsteins have kind of turned into a science experiment for me. I think I might get the rear one down to the cords in another few weeks! I just got about 150 megs of photos from Malcolm Schuler from the Tour de La. Probably won't get those up on the website until tomorrow at best. Going to a little work-related party in a couple of hours. Hope they have good wine....
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