Leaning on the Wind

When the alarm goes off at 4 am, it can be hard to get moving when all you have to look forward to is a long drive and officiating duty. At least I'd gotten everything ready to go Saturday night. Down in the basement the race clock and my big plastic tub of race officiating stuff was queued up at the door, along with the laptop and a few traffic cones. Ray arrived right on schedule, just as the coffee maker finished, so we were quickly on our way over to pick up Ed at his house and Rick at Lakeside Shopping Center. Even so, I had not left myself much extra time for the three and a half hour drive to the LAMBRA time trial championship site. We made good time, though, and finally arrived at the start with over an hour to spare. The temperature was pretty cool - in the low 50s or upper 40s, but there was little wind, so it didn't feel too bad. We got everything set up for the start and started handing out the pre-assigned race numbers, and I wasn't too surprised that there were a lot of no-shows. Most of those had probably registered for the original date but hadn't told me they wouldn't make this one, so they were still on the start list. Anyway, there were fewer than 30 riders, which is about par for the course at this time of year. Donald Davis had come in from Pensacola and clocked the fastest time of the day at 56:02. It was quite impressive since the course is not a flat one. Overall, it was a rather calm and relaxed little race that marked the end of the 2008 road season, and although the turnout was rather dismal, I guess we were lucky that we were able to pull off the rescheduled event at all. The weather all day was nothing short of perfect, and although I never made it out to ride, at least I got to spend a lot of the day outside. I got the results posted and uploaded to the USAC, so once I can get the final LCCS rankings updated and the post-event paperwork submitted I can start thinking about the annual LAMBRA business meeting.


So this morning I was pretty surprised to find the wind just howling through the oak trees at 6:30 am. I guess another little cool front had come through overnight, because it was quite chilly. Despite the crystal clear sky, it was still dark when I hit the levee, and I wasn't surprised to find I was the only one up there. I don't think I saw another rider for half an hour as I battled the strong gusty crosswind. There were times when I could feel myself leaning heavily on the wind just to keep the bike in a straight line. Along one stretch on the way back, where I had the wind fully behind me, I was rolling along with little effort at 26 mph and still couldn't feel very much wind in my face.


NOLA.COM had a nice little article on the official opening of the Wisner bike path this morning. I had to laugh when I saw the photo, however, because it really shows how ridiculous they got when they laid the thing out. I mean, the oak trees are all in a neat straight row, but the bike path curves around like a poorly drawn snake. What were they thinking?? Maybe someone thought that if they made it curvy enough it would keep the riders down to walking speed. All it will really do is increase the chances of collisions and, even worse, of inexperienced riders dropping wheels off the edge and crashing on their heads. Still, aside from its extravagant curvaceousness, the path is definitely a step in the right direction and if I were commuting out to or from the lakefront every day I'd certainly be glad to have it.