Fort Pike Ride

Saturday was kind of a long day. I was up early for the drive to Brookhaven by way of Mandeville where I picked up Rusty. Along with a couple of our other USAC officials, I was to give the Category C official's clinic and exam to a few new "recruits." When we got out of the car in Brookhaven we were surprised how cold it was. The sky grey and overcast all day in Brookhaven, although back in New Orleans they had a marvelous day for riding, with a big part of the Giro Ride group doing the longer "Fort Pike" extension. The clinic and exam took literally hours longer than I'd expected, so I missed most of the Promoters Clinic that Michael had scheduled for 3 pm. I think the main reason was that USAC had completely re-done the exam, going to more of a fill-in-the-blank format rather than the simpler multiple choice format of last year's version. It took forever for people to take the exam, and grading it was somewhat less objective and a lot more time-consuming. Anyway, I didn't get home until around 8 pm, I think.

Sunday morning the weather in New Orleans looked just like it had in Brookhaven the morning before. Foggy, misty, and cold. Nonetheless, the Giro group numbered about 40, and there were a couple other groups of triathletes out on the road as well. Many of us were planning on doing the longer Fort Pike Ride today. Old Fort Pike, which guarded one of the two entrances to Lake Pontchartrain at the Rigolets, has been a cycling destination for about as long as I've been riding. It isn't particularly scenic, and there's no wind protection at all, and since Katrina there isn't even a place to stop and get a coke, but at least it's a long stretch of smooth road with light traffic and few intersections. Once you cross the old steel bridge at Chef Menteur the rest if the road (Highway 90) out to Fort Pike is on a narrow ribbon of land with marsh and Lake Catherine on one side and Lake Pontchartrain on the other. Before the hurricane it was lined with fishing camps, each sporting a fanciful name. Some of them had survived in that unlikely location for decades. They were pretty much all wiped right off the face of the earth in Katrina, but lots of them are being rebuilt now, mostly up on twenty foot high concrete piers. I only noticed one new camp name sign. It was at the entrance to the drive down to the house, which was sitting out there in a barren looking area. The sign appropriately read something like "All Bayou Self."

On the way out we had a pretty nice paceline going for a long time. Being a veteran of many Fort Pike rides, I am always very cautious about doing too much work on the way out. I've been on more than a few painful death marches coming back down Chef Highway into relentless headwinds with cramping legs and low blood sugar.

I was in a nice little four-person group for a few miles, trading smooth pulls until the rest of the group put in a big chase and reeled us in. For some reason my legs felt achy all day today. Perhaps it was the cold. I was on the bike for around four hours today, and I doubt is was any warmer when I got home than it had been when I'd left. It was definitely more foggy and misty. So anyway, I got in some good exercise on the return trip, if only to keep from getting more chilled, and then spent a long time under a hot shower. I sure am ready for summer.....