Back to the Lakefront

Monday through Thursday were pretty routine training rides for me, although for some reason I felt a little dragged out and sluggish most of the time.  It was just one of those weeks, I guess.  Perhaps it had something to do with my rather impressive reaction to the bedbug bites on my face and hand that I acquired in Brookhaven compliments of America's Best. On Wednesday evening I rode over to the Arena for a little training criterium, and never felt right the whole time, so I put in a few sporadic hard laps and otherwise just kind of rolled around.  Friday was a holiday, which was nice since I was up late waiting for The Daughter's nearly midnight arrival from Iowa City.  Nevertheless, I rolled out of bed Friday morning and rode out to the levee, not really expecting anyone to be there, and therefore planning to do a really easy spin.  It turned out, however, that we had a nice little group and a ride that was a notch or two above "easy spin." 

So Friday night I finally re-installed the second water bottle cage on the Orbea.  I'd taken it off for the time trial in Brookhaven, primarily for psychological reasons, and hadn't quite gotten around to putting it back.  I figured I'd probably need that second bottle for the Saturday Giro Ride.  The weather around here has been pretty warm lately.  In fact, Thursday night I'd collected up all of the various winter gear - arm-warmers, tights, jackets, etc. - and thrown them all into the wash.  Summer is officially here, I guess. 

So word's been going around that Lakeshore Drive is finally completely open after about a year, so I was hoping that we'd be able to get the first part of the Giro back onto its normal route this morning. When I started out, headed for my pre-Giro coffee stop at Starbucks, I was glad to find the air a little cooler and drier than I'd expected.  Along the way I set off a couple of the traffic cameras without ever getting into the intersection.  Did you know that you can set them off and still stop before crossing the street?  Pretty easy to do, actually.  Anyway, we had a good group for the Giro, and I think everyone was happy to be back on Lakeshore Drive, especially on such a nice day.  It actually took a bit longer than usual for the pace to ramp up once we came down onto Hayne Blvd.  I was finally feeling more or less normal again, but it took quite a long time for me to get my butt up to the front, and when I did, I was still skipping pulls now and then, but at least I was spending more time at the business end of the group for a change.  As we got near to the turnaround, I think about half of the group turned early -- really early.  A number of us who had gone all the way had to put in a little chase to get back, but fortunately the pace was more or less reasonable.

The crash happened on the service road, about halfway between Chef Highway and Lake Forest Blvd.  One of the guys in the middle of the group was holding his water bottle with one hand when he nailed a rock that was in the road.  I guess it must have thrown his front wheel sideways because he went straight to the ground, mostly face-first.  The result was a badly broken helmet, a number of cuts and scrapes, and some pretty significant damage around his left eye socket.  I think at least three others went down on top of him.  We called an ambulance, but he wasn't showing any of the usual signs of a concussion and ultimately rode back with the group.  Of course, by the time we got rolling again at least half an hour had passed and the rest of the ride was pretty sedate.