Turnabout

Sunday morning - the legs felt good, the sky was clear, and the temperature was on the rise. It was looking like it would be a great day for the Northshore winter training ride. Pat and I loaded our bikes into, and onto, Vivian's car, and drove across the causeway to see who would show up at the Lee Road Middle School. As usual, the temperature had dropped a few degrees during the trip and it felt chilly standing there in the parking lot staring into by the abyss that is my gear bag. What to wear? At the moment, it was clearly knee-warmer weather, but there was no doubt that in an hour the south wind and clear sky would be pushing the temperature into the mid-60s. Well, I went with the warm stuff, knowing I'd be unzipping things pretty quickly.

As late November rides go, this one was pretty typical except that we somehow lost Cindy, and her husband who was following on his scooter, within the first ten miles. The pace hadn't been particularly fast, and so as we were nearing the Watchtower I looked back. I couldn't see either of them. Probably some sort of mechanical problem, I thought. They had a map, so nothing to worry about. The group sailed through Enon and continued up Lee Road and Tullos Road with a light tailwind, but after turning east on 1072 some gaps started to open up. Nobody was turning the screws, but the fact of group riding this time of year, particularly right after Thanksgiving, is that riders' goals and fitness levels are pretty much all over the map. Later, way up at the northern end of the route, we stopped briefly to regroup. As I often do, rather than wait, I turned around and rode back to pick up the riders who were off the back and ride with them back to the group. This is a nice way to get in a few extra miles, avoid standing around doing nothing, and keep the group together. Later in the year when the rides get more competitive, this is a far less attractive option, but after the prior day's long ride it was just what I needed.

I ended up doing this three or four times over the course of the 65 mile ride. When we picked up a little tail-crosswind coming back on 1072, Viv got gapped off on the hills. I dropped back so we could take the Dummyline Road shortcut and it worked out perfectly as we met back up with the group right at the Enon town sign.

Next was the climb up to the watchtower from the Bogue Chitto river, and I thought I'd see if I could ride tempo at the front to limit the damage that I knew it would inflict on some of the more tired legs. Unfortunately, one man's tempo is another man's surge, I guess, and by the time the small front group got to Tung Road there was a long string of solo riders stretched out over a couple of miles of highway, so I turned back one last time and rode back up the road to pick up the last rider and make sure everyone got through the final intersection without getting lost. Then, for the last seven miles or so I time-trialed in passing a few of the solo riders along the way. I ended up with something like 66 miles, so all that turning around made up for the lost mileage from the shortcut. Worked out pretty nicely! Back in the parking lot, we were just about to head home when we saw Jorge about to drive out of the parking lot in the wrong direction. He rolled down his car window and told us that Cindy had actually continued on the full route but that they had missed the turn at Sie Jenkins Road and ended up in Bogalousa where they had called him for directions. He had told them how to get back to Enon and was going to go pick them up there.

Later in the afternoon we walked over to Palmer Park to wander around the monthly crafts fair for a while since the weather was so nice. I took a cellphone photo of these "Bead Bikes" that were locked up at the park. Things will be going downhill in that regard for the next day or two, however. I got in a nice 25 mile recovery ride this morning, but by 10:30 or so it was raining. Right now, it looks like we should be able to get in tomorrow's morning ride before conditions start to deteriorate ahead of the next batch of rain scheduled for Tuesday evening and Wednesday. By Thursday the next little cold front should arrive, but it doesn't look like it will stick around long.