This huge high pressure area that's been hanging over the city for the last few days has really been keeping the temperatures up. When we started out for the morning's training ride with only a handful of riders I thought that perhaps the combination of the heat and late sunrise might be starting to get to people, but by the time the pace got going it looked like we had somehow acquired the usual number of riders. Today's ride was a little more civilized than some of the recent Tuesday rides, although Todd and maybe a couple of other guys did keep temporarily pushing the speed up to 29-30 mph. For the most part, though, the group was happy at 25-27. Even though I 
had taken yesterday off the bike, my legs were still feeling the effects of last weekend, and combined with the moist but warm morning air, the ride was something less than refreshing. Right now in NOLA the temperature is around 90F, but with a relative humidity of 64% it feels like 103.
As often happens, the pace started to ramp up a couple of notches as we got close to the Jefferson Playground where the morning festivities traditionally end. So I take a pull at around 26-27, pull off, and Donald attacks! Well, since it was only about a mile to the playground, that was pretty much it for most of us. A few guys like Todd went after Donald, caught him, and then he attacked again just before the end. The rest of us took a little while to get reassembled and just rolled in at a more civilized pace.
Once the pace eased up and most people turned off or turned around to go home, I rode with Todd back toward Audubon Park. He was telling me about his experiences at the Texas State TT and Team TT championships last weekend. The TT story was classic. They have over 400 riders for the individual TT, so they're going off at 30 second intervals. He arrives about a minute before his start, then he rolls up to the line and one of the officials sees that he's folded the top of his number over and starts unpinning it. The clock is ticking. His start time passes. The official finally tells him to go. He goes. They blow the whistle at him and make him come back to the start line and put his foot down and start again.The official is telling him that the rules require him to put a foot down. Meanwhile his 30-second man has already gone so he's lost at least half a minute. That was really wrong, wrong, wrong. As usual, this "rule" was a figment of some official's rather fertile imagination. You know what they say, everything's big in Texas. Apparently that includes their imaginations (George W. would qualify as a good example). These guys need to read the rulebook, and they also need to realize that in this case a simple warning about the number folding thing would have been more than sufficient since it was in no way going to affect the outcome of the race, while the 30-second delay most certainly did. But there has always seemed to be a tradition among some Texas officials about these sorts of things. I remember when some of our hot junior riders went over to Texas for a big race back in the days when advertising on jerseys was regulated. The officials got out their tape measures and measured the "Betat" lettering and declared it to be too big and wouldn't let them start. This was back when the jersey, in fact most jerseys, had a simple white panel on the front for the sponsor's name. The letters were sewn on or embroidered individually. I guess things haven't changed all that much. Anyway, Todd, VJ and a couple of other guys did the Team TT the next day and although they were left alone by the officials, the fickle finger of fate was still pointing in their direction. Todd blew out the tire on his disk just before the start and then VJ flatted at the turnaround. Despite all their tribulations, the still turned in some impressive times in their age groups.
had taken yesterday off the bike, my legs were still feeling the effects of last weekend, and combined with the moist but warm morning air, the ride was something less than refreshing. Right now in NOLA the temperature is around 90F, but with a relative humidity of 64% it feels like 103.As often happens, the pace started to ramp up a couple of notches as we got close to the Jefferson Playground where the morning festivities traditionally end. So I take a pull at around 26-27, pull off, and Donald attacks! Well, since it was only about a mile to the playground, that was pretty much it for most of us. A few guys like Todd went after Donald, caught him, and then he attacked again just before the end. The rest of us took a little while to get reassembled and just rolled in at a more civilized pace.
Once the pace eased up and most people turned off or turned around to go home, I rode with Todd back toward Audubon Park. He was telling me about his experiences at the Texas State TT and Team TT championships last weekend. The TT story was classic. They have over 400 riders for the individual TT, so they're going off at 30 second intervals. He arrives about a minute before his start, then he rolls up to the line and one of the officials sees that he's folded the top of his number over and starts unpinning it. The clock is ticking. His start time passes. The official finally tells him to go. He goes. They blow the whistle at him and make him come back to the start line and put his foot down and start again.The official is telling him that the rules require him to put a foot down. Meanwhile his 30-second man has already gone so he's lost at least half a minute. That was really wrong, wrong, wrong. As usual, this "rule" was a figment of some official's rather fertile imagination. You know what they say, everything's big in Texas. Apparently that includes their imaginations (George W. would qualify as a good example). These guys need to read the rulebook, and they also need to realize that in this case a simple warning about the number folding thing would have been more than sufficient since it was in no way going to affect the outcome of the race, while the 30-second delay most certainly did. But there has always seemed to be a tradition among some Texas officials about these sorts of things. I remember when some of our hot junior riders went over to Texas for a big race back in the days when advertising on jerseys was regulated. The officials got out their tape measures and measured the "Betat" lettering and declared it to be too big and wouldn't let them start. This was back when the jersey, in fact most jerseys, had a simple white panel on the front for the sponsor's name. The letters were sewn on or embroidered individually. I guess things haven't changed all that much. Anyway, Todd, VJ and a couple of other guys did the Team TT the next day and although they were left alone by the officials, the fickle finger of fate was still pointing in their direction. Todd blew out the tire on his disk just before the start and then VJ flatted at the turnaround. Despite all their tribulations, the still turned in some impressive times in their age groups.
1 comment:
Tisk, tisk, tisk naughty boy Todd!
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