Interference

After another fourteen or so hours in a rental car on Monday I was kind of looking forward to getting back into my usual routine on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, while I'd been cruising down I-55 drinking Cokes and eating gas station pretzels, my calendar was being filled up with back-to-back meetings starting at 9 am. Don't you hate it when work interferes with riding? So the best I could do was to meet the group at 6:15, turn around early at the parish line, time trial back home and rush off to work. Not to worry, I thought. There was always the Tuesday Worlds out on the Lakefront at 6 pm. Of course, there ensued another little rush to get home in time to change and ride out to Lakeshore Drive, but I was able to get on the bike just after 5:30, so I had enough time to make the training race barring unexpected problems. I was about halfway out there when the unexpected problem surfaced in the form of a flat tire. I found a nice shady spot on Carrollton Avenue, pulled a piece of glass out of my worn-down rear tire, and made a hasty tube swap. A bit too hasty, as it turned out. A couple of blocks down the road I could feel the thump, thump, thump of a tire bead coming off the rim, so I had to stop again and re-seat it and pump it up again with my tiny little Silca Mini, making a mental note to trash the offending tire when I got home. So needless to say I was a couple of laps late for the training race. I jumped in nonetheless, hanging out at the back for a lap before trying to get more into the action.

There were about twenty out there yesterday and although it was fairly active, the lack of significant wind made it feel easier than usual to sit in and harder than usual to get away. Of course the fact that I'd missed two laps might have had something to do with how good my legs felt. Everyone was being especially careful negotiating the Elysian Fields traffic circle where the big cracks remain unfilled, and despite a few good attacks and splits, it was looking like everything would end with a big sprint. In the last mile I moved up into a pretty good position and was all primed for big effort until about 300 meters from the finish when a car got in the way at a spot where they've got one lane closed. So rather than risk life and limb, everyone backed off except Mike who took off down the left side, shortly pursued by Brandon. Brandon was flying down the left edge of the road, up against the median, and as he closed in on Mike I though he was going to have to hop the curb. He ended up nipping Mike at the line without need for acrobatics, however.

This morning it was still fairly cool -- arm-warmer weather -- and we had a fairly smooth ride out and back, staying in the 23-25 mph range pretty much the whole time. We did have one stop for a flat (not mine this time), but otherwise the ride was uneventful. There's really no hint of darkness any more when I ride out to the levee to meet the group at 6:40 am. Don't you just love summer?