Sustaining the Enthusiasm

The Dog Days of Summer represent a difficult time for bike racing in the deep South. After a crowded Spring calendar, the hot months of July and August often see a dropoff in race participation all across the Gulf Coast. It becomes more and more difficult to sustain enthusiasm for those hard training rides when the temperatures start reaching consistently in to the 90s and the races are farther and farther apart. On the other hand, for those riders who persevere, it can present some opportunities. Sometimes, the riders who were hot in the early spring are starting to feel rather burned-out by July and just aren't able to muster the energy to race as aggressively as they did earlier in the season. The Tour de France always helps maintain the interest level this time of year, although the consistent allegations of doping, including today's announcement that Vino tested positive for blood doping (is this to be believed?) aren't doing cycling any favors. In many ways, we have two racing seasons instead of one, and as the weather begins to moderate around the end of August there's usually room on the calendar for a few more good races before things really begin to wind down around the end of October.

So in my continuing effort to sustain the enthusiasm, I headed off to the morning levee ride today. It was strangely dark at 6 am, and with a bit of a north breeze still hanging on from the weekend there was just the faintest reminder of Fall. But the darkness was due mainly to a thick summer haze, and that reminder of Fall didn't last very long. At any rate, I rode out to the levee with my sunglasses way down on the tip of my nose, looking over the tops because of the darkness. Realdo was up there for what will likely be his last group ride before heading off to Paris on Friday and then, a couple of weeks later to his new home on Mauritus. His move will certainly be a loss to the local racing community. At least our average level of class will drop a couple of notches to be sure. The ride seemed to turn into a race today, at least on the way out, and I eventually decided to drop back and take a rest while three or four animals continued to pound out a 27-29 mph pace at the front. My legs are still feeling a little bit of Sunday, so I was glad that the group was content to soft-pedal along for a few miles of recovery after the turnaround. Eventually, though, it sped up again and at one point I found myself on Todd's wheel. He sat on the front pulling at a steady 27 mph for at least three miles today. When he finally pulled off, I came through for about twenty pedal strokes before looking for shelter.

So there's an article in the current issue of USA Cycling News about LAMBRA as the "Local Association of the Month." Really, we're still a long way behind a whole lot of other LAs, but anyway it's still nice to have everyone's efforts recognized.

Meanwhile, back on the continent, Vino, who was already hoplessly out of contention for the Tour de France win, tests positive for blood doping? I will just borrow a quote from David Millar that expresses it all rather succintly: "Jesus Christ - there you go, that's my quote. What timing, huh? This is just fucking great." So you can pretty much forget about the press covering any other aspect of this year's Tour.