Alone in the Wind

A cold front barged through town yesterday afternoon, producing enough severe wind to warrant a tornado warning and ultimately blowing loose the facade of the old Texaco building across Canal Street from us. For a while it sounded like a tornado up here on the roof, and a couple of the staff retreated to the 24th floor for fear of their lives. I, on the other hand, pulled out my camera and tried to get some video, but it didn't come out very well. Anyway, suffice it to say we were dumped upon by mother nature for a few hours.

When I got up to ride this morning the temperature was in the low 40s, but until I opened the door I'd completely forgotten about the brutal northwest wind that normally accompanies cold fronts. I pulled on my vest and headed out to the levee rather late, which wasn't much of a problem because I didn't expect anyone to be out there anyway. So it was just me, alone, in the wind, and quite a wind it was, too. There were times when I was struggling to hold 14 mph, and other times when I was consciously leaning against the crosswind just to keep going in a straight line. Somewhere out near Williams Blvd. I saw Donald on his way back, but other than one of the regular morning commuters, the harsh wind had wiped the bike path clean of pretty much everyone else. Still, I had a pretty good ride, trudging along at a moderate pace most of the time and enjoying the one short stretch of tailwind on the way home.

Meanwhile, on the international scene, the Herring team, including for this race Michael O. and Woody, raced stage #1 of the Tour of Belize today. Hopefully there will be results and photos on the website at some point. Kenny sent a report out to the lambra_racing list along with a couple of photos from the team presentations yesterday, but who knows how internet access will be from stage to stage. He said that the local news channel is supposed to be streaming some video, but I guess I missed it today. I hate it when work interferes with following a bike race.