7/7/7

If there's anything to this "lucky 7" thing, today should certainly be the day. Sometimes, though, it pays to take matters into your own hands. With that in mind, I finally threw out my trusty rear tire last night. I could see the cords in two places, so I guess I got my money's worth out of it. I had an older Michelin Pro Race that had been a race tire in its previous life, so now it's doing its duty on my rear wheel. It won't last long, I'm sure, since that nice grippy rubber will definitely wear down faster than the high-mileage Vredstein that preceeded it.

So after taking Friday completely off the bike since my legs have felt like crap all week, I headed out the door at 6:30 this morning for another Giro Ride session. Half a block later I found a nice, shiny quarter sitting in the road -- Heads up -- and remembered that today was 7/7/07. I guess I got my quarter's worth of good luck for the day, and yes, I did stop and put it in my pocket. Riding out to the lakefront I was happy to find that my legs were feeling considerably more refreshed. Nonetheless I was still feeling tentative and my plan was to avoid any really big efforts. I found the Giro Ride on the Lakefront as usual and as has been the case this summer it got pretty fast once we hit Hayne. Part of that was because Tim and Kenny were up the road in matching jerseys and, well, you've just got to chase when such a thing happens, don't you? Realdo was back in the main group and when someone asked him why he wasn't "up there" he laughed and promptly replied "I don't work today, I have to guys up the road." Anyway, things got pretty fast by the end of Hayne and we caught Tim and Kenny, but the pace didn't slow down all that much. Then, when we got to Chef Highway we picked up a nice little tailwind and the speeds ramped up quickly. I was sitting toward the back and out of the rotation, and there were times when we'd be going 30 mph with guys at the back riding side-by-side talking to each other. After a while, though, the accordian effect stated to take over and there would be these frantic surges to close gaps. We were up to 35 mph there for a while during one of them.

Anyway, it was situation normal for a summer Giro Ride today, and indeed there must have been something to that 7/7/7 thing because, for once, we didn't have to stop for any flats. Afterward I met Jay at City Park to go over some alternate criterium course routes, but I think as it ended up he will stick with the slightly modified original version. The alternate that he was considering would have put the start/finish on Roosevelt Mall, which would be great because it is completely shaded by a canopy of oak trees. The problem, however, is that there would have been one section of the course where riders would be going both directions on the same road immediately after turns, and although the possibility of there being two groups that could meet up at that spot were slim, it just didn't seem like it was worth the risk to me. The only bad thing about the original route is that there won't be shade around the start/finish since the city cut down the old damaged oaks and replaced them with little baby oaks and crepe myrtles. Bring your party tents!