And So It Begins Again

Yet another early meeting on Friday interfered with my morning routine, and the best I could do was a quick hour on the levee in remarkably chilly weather. This latest cold front is proving to be formidable, especially considering that it's already March. Later in the evening the temperature really dropped and the wind picked up to the point where the weather service issued a wind advisory for the area. By morning it was still pretty windy, but the sky was clear and so I decided I'd ride out to the Giro Ride. The plan was to ride with the group out to the end of Hayne Blvd., and then to turn around and spin back home. Lakeshore drive was still showing the effects of the strong north winds from the night before, with lots of dirt and mud having been washed onto the road out toward the eastern end. Anyway, the plan worked out pretty well, actually. I must admit, though, that I really found it hard to make myself turn around and watch everyone else ride off into the distance. As I headed back was glad to have Robin and Keith, who had turned around shortly after me, to keep me company. Keith was still debating whether or not to ride, so naturally I told him he should. I mean, if you can, why not? You'd be out doing a long training ride anyway, right?

By the time I got back home I was starting to get kind of cold. Anyway, the whole idea of turning around early was to avoid any possibility of starting tomorrow's Rouge-Roubaix with sore legs. Since it will be in the 30s for the 8 a.m. start, and I haven't ridden much more than 70 miles at a stretch this year, I figured that under the circumstances I may as well start with fresh legs.

And so it begins again. Season #37, I think. As I usually do, I'm approaching the 2008 "Rouge" more as a hard training ride than as a race, although I know from experience that it will kick my butt anyway. In a way, that's the whole point of this race. So last night I put my trusty old Rolf road wheels on the Orbea so I could ride them on that bike once before "The Rouge." then, when I took off on them this morning, they started making all sorts of scary creaking sounds for a while, which was probably caused by those aluminum spoke nipples awakening after a few winter months of quiet corrosive contemplation. A few miles later everything settled down, though, so I guess they're good to go for tomorrow. Later in the day I went out in the car in search of HammerGel. My usual source out in Metairie didn't have any in stock, so I stopped by Bicycle World and found one dusty bottle of cappuccino flavor on the shelf, so that will have to do I guess. I really like the orange flavor the best, but this should at least keep the bonk at bay. With DST starting tonight, tomorrow morning's 4:30 a.m. alarm is going to feel really bad, I think. I'll be picking up Viv and Brandon shortly after 5 a.m. from a Starbucks that won't open for another hour and a half in order to make the two hour drive up to the race. Ordinarily, I'd probably have pushed for an even earlier departure, but since it'll be freezing cold up there in the morning I figure we'll cut it as close as we can.