Lonely on the Levee

It just started to rain, my feet are cold, and the forecast for the next 24 hours is not looking very encouraging. In light of the weather predictions and my slack mileage numbers this week, I'm glad I made it out for a ride this morning. In fact, I was rather happy to see that the temperature was, however slightly, above the 40 degree mark when I awoke. Granted, the wind was pretty significant, but since it was a Friday and I was expecting to be doing a moderate pace at best, it was safe to wrap myself up in a couple of layers of warm and fuzzy stuff. Heavy sweating was not part of the plan anyway.

It was kind of lonely on the levee today, thanks to the cold wind, but I was happy to be out there anyway. I waited for a few minutes at the pump hump, looking back over my shoulder searching in the dim light for the silhouette of another rider, but the bike path was empty as far as I could see. At least, as I waited, I was treated to a nice fiery sunrise that looked even better a few minutes after I'd put away the camera, as always. I wasn't too far down the road when I came across one of the guys who turned around to ride with me. That was good because it's always nice to have someone with whom to commiserate on these sorts of days. We actually kept up a pretty decent pace throughout, probably because in the backs of our minds was the menacing possibility of a washed-out Saturday. Kenny just posted some video from the Herring Gas winter training camp, complete with snow. And yes, that's Woody in there gearing up to ride with them in Belize.

So there has been some increasing discussion about the upcoming Rouge-Roubaix race with no shortage of advice coming from all quarters. I never really know what to tell people about that. Although everybody likes to focus on the dirt and gravel sections of the race, you always have to keep in mind that most of the race is on asphalt and even without the gravel it would be a pretty long race for most riders. The first order of business is to be able to survive 100 miles of rolling hills in March. The second thing is to try and have something left for the last 25 miles so you can stay with a group -- any group. As for the gravel, well it changes every year, so what worked one year may not work the next. I think perhaps the key skill to have is the ability to apply very smooth, even in-the-saddle power. Well, that and a good helping of dumb luck.