A Big Giro

"Meeting at Starbucks on Harrison Ave at 6:30 am." The text message reminded me that a new Giro tradition seems to be developing. I had never yet managed to get out the door early enough to make this pre-Giro meeting. Perhaps it was time. I had just put a shiny new cassette onto the Orbea's wheel, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to head out a little early Saturday morning anyway, just in case a little fine-tuning might be needed.

The morning was warm and humid. I cracked open the basement door and looked up at the pre-dawn sky. Although there was a brisk south wind blowing, the sky was clear. I fished the sunscreen out of my bag and sprayed my arms and legs and dabbed a bit on my nose. It was going to be a hot one. Somewhere over in Italy riders were lining up for the first stage of the real Giro. I arrived at Starbucks just as Woody was walking in the door and he graciously bought a cup of Estima for me. Half a cup of dark roast on an empty stomach is like crack for me, and I'm sure I was a little more animated than usual as we rode out to the lakefront to meet the Giro Ride.

It was a big Giro Ride group today. There weren't really any races nearby, the weather was good, and there are stage races looming on the local calendar, so pretty much everybody was there. It was going to be a fast one.

Sure enough, once we hit Hayne Blvd. the speed quickly shot up to 27 mph or so, occasionally surging up to 32, and pretty much stayed that way all the way out to the turnaround at Venetian Isles. How appropriate to be riding The Giro in Venetian Isles just as the Real Giro was holding its first stage in Venice. There was a pretty significant crosswind on Hayne Blvd., and later on Chef Highway, and with the big group and high speeds there were riders escheloned all the way across both lanes. Thankfully there was hardly any traffic. I'm never really comfortable riding in the left lane, so I got a lot of exercise while jumping from wheel to wheel over on the right. The sprint at Venetian Isles seemed a bit more hotly contested than usual today. When I saw Tim coming by on the left, I latched onto that train, and ended up in the 12 trying to hold his wheel and wishing for an 11. Yeah, I think we had a little tailwind at that point.

So the ride back started out kind of easy but as usual we were going all-out by the time we were halfway back to the service road turn. Also as usual a little break got off the front that the main group didn't catch before the Goodyear Sign sprint. It didn't ease up much after that, though, and we raced down the service road until everybody started yelling about something as we turned left to cross under the interstate. I though somebody had crashed and never really got a good explanation as to what had happened, but anyway we all turned around but by the time we got back there the group was rolling again.

When we got back to the parking lot Mignon rolled up to us with a broken rear derailleur cable, lamenting the fact that she'd have to ride home in the 12. We were able to get her into the 14 or 15 using the limit screw so she headed off to Jefferson with Mark as I turned into the wind for a rather long ride home myself. Later in the afternoon I made the rounds of a few of the local bike shops in order to drop off some of the LAMBRA "Race Your Bike" brochures. That was fun. I always liked hanging out at bike shops, although nowadays the prices of the good stuff are a little depressing. I just finished installing new handlebars on the Orbea. This will be a bit of an experiment. I'm trying out the new 3T Ergonova bars. This is a pretty dramatic departure from my typical conservative approach to equipment. We'll see how it goes. They're supposed to be good for smaller riders. Of course, we're talking about the aluminum ones here, not the expensive and much lighter carbon-fiber ones. While I was at it, I pulled out the seatpost because I've been getting lots of "creaking" noises lately and the last time it turned out to be grit that had gotten down in there from all those rides in the rain. Sure enough, I could feel a lot of grit on the post and inside the seat tube, so I cleaned it all up, smeared on some grease, and stuck it back in there. I hope that cures it, because the next most likely suspect is the headset and I hate messing with headsets.