Warm Weather = More Riders

It was at least 60 F at dawn today, with a nice humid southeast wind. I stepped out the basement door onto the sidewalk into the 6 am darkness, the only sound I could hear was a steady drip of morning dew as it bypassed the sagging roof gutter and fell directly to the ground beside the house. I might have ridden today in little more than shorts and a jersey, but I had pulled on the leg and arm-warmers anyway. I hate being cold for those first couple of miles.

As I approached the levee I could see a swarm of blinking red lights up on the bike path. A couple of minutes later we were rolling. Looking around, I could see it was going to get fast sooner rather than later, and after two or three miles the pace suddenly started to ramp up. I looked over at Tom and said, "Here we go!" With Tim, Woody and Rob at the front, I knew it would be fast, at least until the Dip. At one point on the way out something briefly disrupted the pace and a gap opened as three or four riders started to disappear down the road. I put my head down and tried to make the smoothest possible bridge up to them. It took a little while, but I finally made it, confident that I'd pulled the rest of the group across. A few minutes later I took a pull, dropped back, and was shocked to find myself at the back of a 4-rider group. This was not exactly what I'd planned. My legs were still feeling the prior evening's Spin class. I really like the instructor who does the Monday spin class. It's much more like cycling than the others - more smooth pedaling and less jumping up and down. Just before the class started I was talking with Lawrence, who teaches the earlier class, about all of the triathletes who are suddenly showing up for the Saturday training ride. The girl next to me looked over and asked, "Are you doing the Ironman?" How come nobody ever asks me "Are you doing Rouge-Roubaix?" Anyway, I noticed a couple of people in that particular class who looked, or at least pedaled, like they were cyclists.

A few more miles and we were joined by a bunch of riders who had made the bridge. It must have been hard, because we weren't going all that slowly ourselves. Nonetheless, I guess that close to half the original group was gone for good.

With a nice little headwind all the way back, the group was pretty good about keeping a smooth circular paceline going. My legs felt remarkably good today. They always seem to like warm weather.

Back at work, there were a couple of things that came up unexpectedly, keeping me pretty busy. Tomorrow should be the same, I think.