Morning Lights

For the past couple of weeks it's seemed that every morning it has been noticeably darker at 6 than the day before. It always feels that way this time of year, and it always brings me down a bit. The basement door faces southeast, and when I opened it this morning the brightest light, aside from the amber streetlamps, was the planet Venus. With blinky lights flashing, I started off in the direction of the levee, but there was something different today. My hand reached for my jersey zipper and I realized it was actually, legitimately, "cool." OK, so I knew it wouldn't last another hour, but even so, it was the coolest it's been since Spring for sure. As I approached the meeting spot on the river I could see all of the other blinky lights as they converged from every direction. You know, it's amazing enough that I manage to drag myself out of bed so early in the morning on a regular basis, but it's even more amazing that so many other people do too and that most of them have to get up a lot earlier than I.

So the long Thursday ride was pretty good today. I guess we had upwards of fifteen riders for much of the distance out to Ormond, and with a little bit of a tailwind, the pace going out there stayed rather brisk. On the way back we were really feeling the effects of a crosswind, which always makes for a difficult ride on the narrow and unprotected bike path, especially when there's oncoming traffic and we have to yield to the centerline rule.

It was a busy day at work today and I felt like I spent most of it putting out little fires and basically spinning my wheels. Deadlines that didn't exist yesterday loom overhead and overdue reports are being postponed. The one interesting thing was an email from a rider in D.C. named Lothar who will be in town for a few days in November (naturally I will be out of town -- in D.C. -- at the same time). He's a "Randonneur," that odd breed of cyclist obsessed as much with distance as the racers are with speed, although both seem to share the same sick relationship with suffering. They all seem to like wearing vintage style jerseys and riding in the dark. His wife, who is an MD,Ph.D, is considering a position at Tulane and I presume she'll be in town for interviews and meetings and also to see if its a place where they would want to live. That's always a big consideration for prospective faculty these days. It's only natural for people, and especially the media, to simplify their images of the city, and so for every story you read about the unique and wonderful atmosphere along, for example, Magazine Street or St. Charles Avenue, there are twenty about the lagging recovery of the 9th ward, the murder rate, or retold stories of the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. I'm certain there are people who think there's still water in the streets. Anyway, this guy did Paris-Brest-Paris this year, which is the holy grail for long-distance riders. You should check out the photos and ride report and consider whether you'd take on the challenge of riding 1,227 km in the rainy French countryside with a 90-hour time cut hanging over your head.

Yeah, I heard about the Landis decision. I can't say I was surprised. I'm disappointed on many levels. Take it from someone who has lived his whole life in a city often referred to as a "banana republic;" there's a heap of big ego political crap going on in the background among UCI, WADA, USADA, and much of it falls into the "personal vendetta" category. Surely they must realize that their chest-thumping and bickering is setting the stage for the emergence of an entirely new rival pro racing organization.

On the local scene, there are a bunch of photos from last weekend's time trial, and Kenny sent me a few more of the Herring guys, none of which I've had a chance to link to from the websites. I've still got to update the LCCS points as well and make the police arrangements for Rocktoberfest, but at least the post-event reports will be in the mail tomorrow, the results have been uploaded to USAC and posted to the websites, and I've inventoried the medals to make sure I have enough for the TTT. The team time trial is in a week and a half and everybody I've checked with is either already on a team or unavailable. That's the thing I hate about team time trials. Nobody ever wants to ride with the short guy!