Big Ride Weekend

Saturday's weather was nice -- really nice -- especially for the last weekend in May. Since we had a little post-Giro Ride Tour de La planning meeting on the schedule, I took the easy way out and drove the car out to the Lakefront, mainly so I'd have somewhere to stash the bike while we were eating breakfast, but also so I'd be able to wear normal shoes and a regular shirt. The Giro group was quite big; definitely the largest it's been all year. I'd guess there were around 50 riders, and that was before we caught up with the triathlete group as we crossed the Industrial Canal bridge. Once we made it past that group the speed started to increase and pretty soon we were strung out in a big long 30 mph line. It didn't change much all the way out to the Venetian Isles turnaround. As we got closer to the turnaround sprint some of the riders who had been hammering up at the front started to drop back and I found myself up near the front. Even so, I was still hopelessly too far back to really contest the sprint, but I made an effort anyway, just for the training. Just when the lead riders passed whatever sign they took for the finish line (these training ride sprints are a little ambiguous sometimes) I heard a loud "psssssssst." I glanced down to confirm that it wasn't me, and when I looked back up I could see Woody already riding on the rim. Most of the group except the handful who had actually sprinted usually turn around a little early, so I doubt they ever knew about Woody's flat. So eight of us stopped and waited for Woody, then, not 200 yards later, his tire went flat again. It turned out that the plastic base tape had gotten kinked, probably by the tire lever when he removed the tire, and the exposed edge sliced the new tube. We finally got that fixed, but were way too far back to catch the main group even if we'd taken the Bullard Rd. shortcut, but it turned out OK anyway. We got a fast and super-smooth 8-man rotation going and had a good workout all the way back.

Back at home I refueled, showered, and retired to the living room couch for a while, only to be rudely awakened by the mail dropping through the slot. Just to twist the knife, today's delivery included a special invitation from Criminal District Court. All I can say is that if they select me for a trial, somebody's probably going to jail......

On the calendar for Sunday was a ride on the Tour de La road race course up north of Folsom. The sky was clear and even at 6:15 am when I headed over to pick up Sam you could tell that the heat and humidity was making a comeback. Once again, I was surprised by the turnout. There were at least 25 riders when we rolled out just after 8 am. The road course features a lot of low rolling hills and nice narrow tree-covered country roads, so we didn't really feel the effects of the blazing sun until around 10:00. The first three laps were done at nearly race speed, complete with a few attacks and blatant centerline violations thrown in. Keith was out on his brand spankin' new Giant with SRAM Red and spiffy new white shoes.

The last few miles of the third lap were essentially like the last few miles of a race with one rider off the front, a couple of solo attempts to bridge, and finally a small group trying unsuccessfully to pull the rider back before the finish. I spent much of that lap at the back, for some reason. I guess my legs were feeling a little tired today for some reason. The last three miles are probably some of the hardest on this particular loop, but at least I finally got my butt up to the front and did a little work.

After that lap we all turned around and met up at the local fire station, behind which Jason had earlier stashed an ice chest full of cold Gatorade. Most of us did one more lap, this time a bit slower, before finally rolling back to the cars with around 70 miles on the odometers. After running out of spray-on sunscreen yesterday, and having used instead some sort of thick white stuff instead, I made a special trip to pick up a fresh bottle of the good spf 30 stuff after the ride today.