As Luck Would Have It

It wasn't exactly the kind of weekend I wanted, but then again, that never really happens, does it? While the Herring boys were cavorting in the Mississippi snow at their annual training camp, which inevitably seems to coincide with the worst weather February has to offer, I was off the bike entirely. That hadn't been the plan. Although I knew in advance that riding on Sunday would be impossible, I was holding out some faint hope that I'd be able to get in some miles on Saturday. Well, as luck would have it, Saturday was a complete wash-out ahead of a solid cold front approaching from the northwest. I sat at home watching it rain for a while and then resorted to doing some more painting on the infinite kitchen project. I have to admit, it was almost a toss-up between painting and riding in the cold rain as far as I was concerned. So by Saturday evening the freeze warnings were out (we have those around here, you know) and by evening I was getting emails asking if the official's clinic was still on for Sunday because they were reporting up to three inches of snow in Mississippi. Three inches. Needless to say, even in Mississippi three inches of snow isn't quite enough to bring things to a standstill. So Sunday morning at 6 am I was on the road to Jackson where morning temperatures were hovering in the mid-20s. By 3 pm we'd made three newly minted USAC officials (at least once their paperwork makes its way up to Colorado Springs). Of course it was dark and getting cold again by the time I got back to NOLA, so I had to chalk the whole weekend up to "doing things other people want" and set my sights on Monday morning.

Since we had the day off from work, thanks to MLK, and the temperature was about 32F when I awoke, I decided to give the sun another hour before heading out for a ride. I figured the turnout at the levee would be slim to none anyway. I put on all my warm stuff and hit the road, eventually finding John, who had been the sole participant in the regular Monday ride, on his way back. I turned around and rode with him for a while, and then headed back up the river, eventually logging a bit over two hours of decent riding during which, for once, I seemed to have gotten the wardrobe right. It was really rather a pleasant day despite the cool temps.

This morning the temperature was about twenty degrees warmer than Monday, and we had the usual cadre of suspects on hand for the Tuesday long ride. I was quite happy to have a working speedometer again, having installed a replacement sensor wire on the Orbea so that I can now swap the computer from bike to bike. That's progress. For some reason I decided this morning to take a few photos of bikes instead of people. The levee group is certainly diverse in the bike department.

I had also shortened the steerer tube a bit the night before and replaced the mismatched aluminum spacers with plastic (aka Carbon) ones. I'm still fiddling with the saddle position a bit, but I'm down to mere millimeters now. It will be interesting to see how the all-steel Cervelo feels (once I get pedals back onto it) after three weeks on the Al/C Orbea.