Raindrops and Haze

Fooled again! I left work on Wednesday with plans to ride out to the lakefront for the 6 pm training race. As I rode north on Pine Street I could see the huge black clouds up ahead, and as I neared the house I felt a few cool downdrafts coming from the thunderstorm. The radar looked bad, and by 5:30 the raindrops were already falling, so I cancelled the training race plan and plopped down on the couch, a bit irritated but at least thankful that we were finally getting a little rain. It looked to be impossible that the lakefront would escape the downpour, and at any rate, I would have had to ride through the rain and lightning in order to get out there anyway. Well, as I found out later, it never rained on Lakeshore Drive and the six or seven who showed up had a nice little workout.

Thursday's long levee ride turned out to be a pretty hard one, at least on the way out. The first ten miles or so felt more like a race than a weekday training ride, but it eventually settled down. Then, on the way back, someone flatted at The Dip, and although he told the group to keep going, we had already slowed down and it took a long time before the pace picked up again. This morning's ride was a nice typical Friday ride with six or seven people and a steady speed in the 20-22 mph range. Thanks to some more rain yesterday, the humidity level was pretty high, making for a hazy sky and balmy air. You know, normal weather.

The next week will be very busy for some folks. There's the big Memphis omnium up in Tennessee this weekend to which a number of the local guys are going. Then, Masters Nationals start in Louisville on Sunday and run until the following Friday. LAMBRA will have at least ten riders up there in the various age groups, so hopefully a few of them will get some good results. This year LAMBRA is giving $150 travel grants to our riders who go to Nationals. I think we started a trend, because TxBRA just announced a similar program. Their program, of course, is restricted to Juniors and U-23 riders and there's a limit on the number of awards they can do. There are way too many riders in Texas for them to be able to do it the way we did. It'll probably cost LAMBRA around $2,000, maybe just a bit more. Money well spent, I think. Hopefully these riders will come back and share their experiences and encourage others to upgrade and compete in more regional and national races. Immediately after Masters Nationals, there's an Omnium up in Oxford, MS with a criterium on the Ole Miss campus. I think a couple of the guys are planning on driving straight from their criteriums at Masters Nats over to Oxford. Me? Well, considering the big expense for the air-conditioning system at the house, and the fact that I needed to be at the Oxford races, I think I'll have to pass on Memphis and Louisville.