Another Day, Another Giro

I was up early again this morning, but it wasn't to ride. You see, our garbage collectors are very reliable. Every Saturday morning at precisely 4:45 am, I am awakened by the melodious sounds of the garbage truck and its crew as they make their rounds way over on the other side of S. Claiborne Avenue. Every cloud has a silver lining, however, and it this case it's the fact that I often forget to put the garbage out on Friday nights. Since they don't actually get to my house for another couple of hours, I get the questionable advantage of an early warning. On the downside, it usually costs me an hour of sleep.

So an hour later I got my sleepy self out of bed again, filled the water bottles to the brim, and rolled out toward the lakefront. Well, to be specific, I rolled out to Starbucks. The lakefront would come later.

By the time I sad down with my iced coffee, a fairly large crowd had already gathered. A bunch of the Herring guys were there, including Realdo who is still in town. I looked around, added up the horsepower, and knew it would be a fast one. With access to Lakeshore Drive blocked off once again because of the levee work, we headed off down Robert E. Lee Blvd. for the usual warmup, picking up more riders along the way. It was the calm before the storm.

As usual, it started on Hayne Boulevard, and within a couple of miles the pace went from easy to 29 mph. Next thing I knew there was a small group already off the front. We chased. They eased up at the end of Hayne, so it was grupo compacto as headed toward Hayne Blvd. It didn't really slow down a whole lot, though. As the group got rolling again after making the turn onto Chef Highway, I pulled out the camera and, with great effort, rode up near the front to take a few pictures. They never seem to come out very good when we're going like 27 mph, though. By the time I got the camera back into my pocket and got back into the draft I needed a rest. Photography can be very tiring! Fortunately, the wind today was light, making it easy, relatively speaking, to sit in when necessary, and yeah, it was occasionally necessary. It was good training, though.

Anyway, the Giro was good but uneventful today. I put in a couple of short sprints up the overpasses. Halfway up the Seabrook bridge I could have sworn my rear tire was soft. It wasn't. Must have been my legs.