Saints Alive

It was warm and humid and oh so very dark this morning. With one hand on the bike, I pushed open the basement screen door, rolled the Orbea forward just enough, letting it fall onto my torso as I used both hands to lock the door behind me. The creaky screen door slammed shut and I looked up at the eastern sky. Yesterday was a new moon, so the sky looked pretty dark and Jupiter, I presume, looked really big and bright. Quite a bit brighter, in fact, than my headlight which seems to be badly in need of fresh batteries. As I rode up the access path to the top of the levee, I looked up ahead to see who might be there. It looked completely vacant (Zack was hiding behind one of the stacks). I glanced down at my watch to see if perhaps I was earlier than usual. It was 6:12 am. The ride starts at 6:15. Within those three intervening minutes I guess seven people must have arrived. Amazing how people get their morning ride timing down to the last second. We hung around a few more minutes as the sky started to brighten up, and by the time we were a mile down the road we'd picked up even more riders. The levee police had the bike path blocked off under the Huey P. bridge this morning, so we all had to ride straight down one of the access roads, stop amid the sand and rocks at the bottom, wait for a break in the morning traffic, and ride the broken-up edge of River Road for a few hundred yards before we could get back up on the bike path. The group got all broken up during that process and it took a while for everyone to regroup.

Woody held out as long as he could, but a little while later he went to the front and just like that our speed went from 22 to 27, which was about as slow as it got all the way out to The Dip. The only image I have in my head of the first half of today's ride is a rear wheel, cassette, derailleur, and blurry asphalt. The paceline split and regrouped a couple of times, but I wasn't too concerned because I knew Woody would be turning around early and that the pace would then ease up a notch. Well, it was a rather small notch, actually, and the paceline got quite well diced and sliced by the time we reached the turnaround.

The ride back started out at an easy pace, but by then we'd picked up a few fresh legs and so the last half got quite fast again. I felt like I was on gap-closing duty most of the way back. Then, of course, we had to negotiate the path closure again. I was near the front at the time and coasted down the levee, shifting to the small ring as I went. I lucked out and merged into the slow-moving rush hour traffic fairly easily, but when I got to the spot where I had to make a right turn through sand and rocks straight up the levee slope I ran into trouble. Usually I am able to pick a good line and maintain a little momentum without washing out in the sand. This time, however, there was a truck coming down the slope and suddenly I ran out of options. I hadn't shifted to a low gear yet, and had to make the turn very gingerly to avoid falling. With zero momentum left, I tried for an emergency shift to a low gear but predictably the chain slipped and I had to put a foot down. Then I had to lift the rear wheel and turn the crank to get things in back straightened out again. Nothing like starting from a dead stop heading straight uphill. I'm not sure where everyone else went at that point. I saw VJ continue on River Road, since he normally stops at the playground anyway, and I guess a number of the others must have done the same. I rode slowly down toward Ochsner with Donald, looking frequently over my shoulder and wondering where everyone else was. I eventually turned around to pick up Zack, but then split off to ride home.

So things here at work are really dead today. There's this Saints game thing this evening and since it's the kickoff of the NFL season there is this huge pre-game thing going on. There's a huge stage in the Quarter for a pre-game Dave Matthews concert, a big parade that will run down Decatur Street, and I assume a huge tailgate party at the new "Champion Square" next to the Dome. The city government is completely closed today, the downtown campus will probably be essentially shut down by 2 pm, and even here on the uptown campus things are really quiet. Lots of people are off today or have suddenly come down with "Saints Fever." I have a couple of calls to make but I'm not expecting anyone to answer the phone and will probably resort to email. I did take a minute to track down a 12-27 Campi-compatible Miche cassette for the upcoming Six Gap Century. Hopefully that will make the last few miles of Hogpen Gap a little less painful. I went with the cheap Miche cassette because I really didn't want to give up that 12 tooth cog for the fun descents (most of the Campi cassettes dropped the 12 when the big cogs went to 26 and beyond.). We'll see how that works.....