Holiday Complications

It's July 4th here in los Estados Unidos, and that means two things: (1) I have the day off of work (unless you count the four emails I've gotten so far that I'll have to deal with later tonight), and (2) there was a Holiday Giro Ride. The "regular" Giro Rides happen every Saturday and Sunday year-round, but whenever there's a national holiday and most folks have a day off from work, there is usually a "Holiday" Giro. So last night I decided that would be a good way to start off the day rather than another ride on the levee. The only little complication was that after doing two rather hard Giro rides over the weekend and then a pretty hard training ride on the levee yesterday, I'd be kind of pushing my luck. Fortunately, I told myself, Holiday Giro rides are usually pretty tame.

Well, I wasn't three pedal strokes down the road this morning before I knew I was in trouble. My legs felt like lead -- stiff and painful lead. Hmmm. So, hoping for the best, I made my way out to the lakefront and met up with a very disorganized group, and immediately knew they must have encountered some kind of complication already. I learned that VJ had a flat right after they'd started so they were waiting for him and a small group that had stayed behind. So when the group got to the traffic circle at the fountain, half went around the circle and half kept going straight. We circled the fountain once, saw no sign of the VJ group, and then I guess some of the guys started to panic that they might never catch the group that had continued, so next thing I know they're hammering away about fifteen seconds ahead of me and I'm in full time trial mode trying, with depressingly little success, to close the gap. Finally they caught the lead group and then everyone made a couple of loops of the Elysian Fields traffic circle. As it turned out, VJ had gone back to his car for more air, so by now we could see the VJ group, but VJ wasn't actually in it. That was about the time when I told Tim "I have some bad news for you." His rear tire was going flat and he had already told me that he was going to have to cut his ride short in order to get back home for something. So shortly after that he and Realdo turned back.

Well, eventually it all came back together and by the time we were on Hayne Blvd. my hopes of a civilized holiday ride were out the window. I guess some of it was attributable to my tired legs and general frame of mind, but I was struggling from the get-go today. All the way out to the turnaround I was sitting at the back behind one of the local triathletes wondering why I was feeling like a sack of lard.

After the turnaround, we soft-pedaled some more waiting for another flat to get fixed. Then it was an all-out sprint back down Chef. When the front of the pack surged and a gap opened up a couple of bike lengths ahead of me, I figured they couldn't possibly keep going that speed for long and it would close. Wrong again. I came around the two people in front of me and made an effort to close the gap, but eventually I blew up and waited for the other two and one of the triathletes towed two of us all the way back down Chef until the main group eased up and we made contact again. A little while later there was another flat. Same guy. Most of the group kept going but a few of us stuck around. Got that fixed, rode another couple of miles, and it goes flat again. This time I personally checked the tube and found the hole on the rim side near the valve hole. I smoothed out the sharp edge of the hole, we put in another tube with only maybe 70 psi, and that got us home. So anyway, the whole ride was kind of disorganized and complicated today with four flats (five if you count Tim's) and lots of splits in the group.

I just felt completely wasted the entire ride, and it wasn't due to lack of food or lack of water. Some days are just like that, I guess. Probably should have done an easy ride on the levee instead.