On and Off

I was three riders short of a 4-man time trial Saturday morning, but I decided to go ahead and drive up to Baton Rouge anyway. I would be riding the 2-man TT later in the day, so I figured I'd help out a little bit and take a few photos. As I left town I took the Loyola exit from I-10 to pick up some coffee at the Starbucks there, only to discover that it had recently been shut down. Damn! I had to wait until I was all the way to Gonzalez before I could get some coffee. When I arrived at the TT location on River Road the sky was blue and temperature was moderate and the wind was blowing like a hurricane! It was not going to be an easy day for anyone. We had only two teams in the Cat. 4s and one in the Women's race today. The faster Cat. 4 team did a pretty good job, finishing with all four intact and placing 3rd. After the 4-man TT we all went over to a sandwich place and hung out there for an hour or so before returning to the course for the 3 pm 2-man TT.

For this one I was scheduled to ride with Jorge, who had ridden with me for the NOBC 2-person TT not too long ago. The 10+ mile course started out straight into the wind, and once we got rolling I knew something was "off." Jorge, however, was definitely "on," and by the time we were midway through the first of two laps I was already taking short pulls and having trouble catching Jorge's wheel when he'd pull through. I don't know what my problem was, but I was definitely riding badly, dropping the pace by a mph or so every time I'd take a pull. Jorge responded by taking longer and longer pulls, which was absolutely the right thing to do. Toward the end of the ride I was starting to feel a bit better, but in the end I had the feeling that Jorge might have done a better time all by himself. As it turned out, we had the fastest 2-man TT time of the Masters and third fastest overall, so perhaps the reason I was feeling bad was just that Jorge's pace was just faster than I could handle. I think he probably pulled about 80% of the distance. After we finished I went straight to the car and downed about half a quart of Gatorade, followed by a cold beer that Mignon offered. Before I left I swung by the start/finish, rolled down the window and asked Norman to give me a go-cup of Beringer Cabernet, handing him the empty plastic cup from the sandwich shop. I think that's the first time I've had wine through a straw.

So tomorrow I'll drive back up to Red Stick for a short individual time trial, mainly just for the exercise. Hopefully I'll feel a little stronger than today. Hopefully the wind won't.