A Fast and Windy Giro

After a week of missed or shortened rides and a lonely wet one on Friday I was all primed for a good Giro Ride on Saturday. As I rode out to the lakefront into a chilly and stiff headwind, I was already having premonitions about the ride. The prior week had been pretty bad, riding-wise, and I had a feeling that there would be some jumpy legs in the group today. Riding west on Lakeshore Drive I could see the group coming my way. It was definitely a big one. I turned around and tucked in somewhere near the back, and the first thing I noticed was a whole lot of Herring jerseys. I looked around at the other riders in the group and knew immediately that all of the necessary ingredients for an explosion were present. We weren't even to the end of Lakeshore Drive when someone next to me commented that the group seemed kind of jumpy.

So although I was expecting a fast and windy Giro today, what I wasn't expecting was a big surge going up the Seabrook bridge. I probably could have gone with it, but I figured that surely the group would make short work of closing that little gap. Well, not quite. A pretty substantial group was already way off the front by the time we came back down onto Hayne Blvd., and as usual I was in the second group. It took a minute to get organized, but eventually we got rolling pretty well. VJ took a couple of fast pulls, Mike W. went flying by on the right for some reason, and then Howard did this big surge at the front that pretty much convinced most of the group to stop pulling altogether. Anyway, despite the disruptions and crosswinds, the speed stayed high all the way out to Venetian Isles. I guess we dropped down to 26 a couple of times, but in general we were mostly in the 28-30 mph range. I was pretty impressed that Erich was able to stay in the rotation despite the fact that he was riding a fixed gear in the range of 48 x 16. I'm pretty sure I spend a fair amount of time in a 53 x 15 or 53 x 14, myself. I would have taken some pictures, but between the speed and the wind I was never particularly comfortable about taking my hands off the bars to fumble with the camera.

At Venetian Isles, Rob, Jered and I guess a few others continued on, but I think the rest of us figured we were getting an adequate workout anyway. The ride back had a few easier sections, but I wouldn't say it was easy. I made a couple of good efforts up the bridges, and then finally dropped it back down to the small ring for the ride home. Unfortunately I flatted just as we turned off of Lakeshore Drive onto Marconi. Some of the guys were stopping at Matt's house to pick up something, so I just rode the flat until I got there. Always easier to fix a flat when you're not stuck alone on the side of a deserted road.

Tomorrow I'm doing a club ride here in town, which I guess is one reason I was willing to ride kind of hard today. Speaking of "here in town," we had an election today and old Mitch Landrieu just won without a runoff. Two fairly decent people got re-elected to the at-large city council seats, and in my own city council district there will be a runoff between two acceptable people. Hmmm. Perhaps there's some hope for this city after all. Now if the Saints can pull off something spectacular in Miami tomorrow . . . . .