Springtime in January

After a remarkably civilized Giro Ride on Saturday, I was looking forward to Sunday's planned ride in the rolling hills up across Lake Pontchartrain. This was despite the self-inflicted soreness from an afternoon spent painting overhead while balancing on the forbidden step of an unstable ladder. So I was out the door with a little time to spare, for a change, arriving at Starbucks along with a few NOBC teammates and savoring a few minutes of relaxed conversation before heading for the causeway and the 45-minute drive to Lee Road Middle School. As the car got up to speed on the bridge the sun was just coming over the horizon, and I could see that it was going to be a good day.

Since it is January, I was reluctant to trust the thermometer and started off with seventeen other riders wearing knee warmers, arm warmers and two jerseys. After half an hour of easy pedaling under the rising sun I already knew I'd be warm. It was probably over 70 by the time we were halfway into our 60+ mile ride. There wasn't much on today's ride to remind me that it was actually January, especially after I stopped to stash the leg-warmers in my pocket. The pace was fairly steady most of the way out today, but as usual with a group this size thing started to come unglued after the halfway point, especially since that's where some of the best hills happen to be. I was riding the Orbea today, noticing some little things like the fact that the front derailleur needs some serious TriFlow attention. The other thing I noticed, complements of the fast pace and bumpy roads, is that aluminum and carbon frames make different, and generally louder, noises than steel ones. Anyway, after the first long fast stretch the group started to shed riders. First, Rusty and Roseanne took the shorter way back to Enon from Plainview. I think Rusty was in bonkville today, so I was glad I could produce a Powerbar when we met up again farther down the road. A couple of the guys took the Dummyline Road shortcut. Heading back from Plainview, somewhere up ahead were Howard, Jack and Jaro. The group had slowed down to regroup just after Plainview and they had ridden off into the sunset.

So when, after turning back toward Enon on Lee Road, we spotted Jaro, someone next to me said "they must have dropped Jaro." Actually, he'd come off the back of the lead group before the turn, and could only watch as they totally missed the turn and were last seen hammering blissfully west toward Franklinton. So we caught up to Jaro after another mile or two and by the time we knew they were AWOL it was too late to try and chase them down. Since we knew that Jack was familiar with the roads we trusted they'd eventually figure it out anyway. Training ride rule #1: If you don't know the roads and you ride off the front of the group, be sure to stop at the intersections!!

As we rode in the last ten miles the wind seemed to be steadily increasing, making for a kind of hard end to the ride. I hung around afterward with a few of the other guys waiting for Jack and Howard, who did eventually show up after having made a U-turn about five miles past Lee Road.

I spent the entire afternoon once again perched on a ladder painting, which is not really my idea of a good time.