Riding Around the Rain

So with Monday morning a complete rainy washout, and with apologies to America, I got myself undressed and set my sights on Tuesday.  The long ride that day was kind of a strange one.  The group was pretty large, maybe twenty or so, and for some reason the levee was particularly crowded with pedestrians, dog-walkers, runners, and other cyclists.  As usual, this created a lot of problems as the front part of the group, hammering along at 27 mph, weaved its way through the gauntlet without considering the chaos going on behind them.  I mean, just because the first five riders can get around someone easily, doesn't mean the the riders farther back won't need to hit the brakes in order to get past safely.  Somehow we made it out to the turnaround without disaster.  Then, as we started back a few riders started rolling off the front.  I went to bridge up to them and soon found myself going 29 mph without making up any ground.  When I realized that I was trying to chase down Matt who was at the front on his TT bike, I backed off and waited for the rest of the group.

This morning's ride was the complete opposite of Tuesday's. The group was small, the wind was practically nonexistent, and the pace was smooth and steady.  Later, at work, I started to consider going out to the Wednesday evening time trial out at the lakefront.  Today's edition was to be a 2-man TT, and I figured that even if I didn't end up finding someone to ride with, at least I'd get in a few miles riding out there and back.  Then, late in the afternoon, I got a text from Jacob, a local triathlete, asking if I might be able to ride it with him. I figured he must be desperate, so I agreed, to which he replied that he hoped the rain would stop in time.  Rain??  I walked over to the window and was surprised to see a light rain falling.  Naturally, that's when the phone rang and I got tied up with some last-minute work that killed my plans to leave a little early.  By the time I was halfway home it was raining pretty heavily and I was glad I had my rain jacket with me.  Checking the radar, though, it looked like it was ending, so around 5:45 I headed out for the lakefront.  Half a mile from home the streets were bone dry.

There was a big group (Kenny said around 100) on hand for this informal 10-mile 2-man time trial.  I found Jacob, who was in full time trial mode, in stark contrast to myself, and consoled myself with the fact that he was big enough that I'd still be able to get a good draft behind him.  With a light tailwind we took off down Lakeshore Drive at 27-28 mph, and after taking a few short pulls I knew I was in trouble.  There's nothing quite like being the weak link on a team time trial.  Even taking short and relatively infrequent pulls, I was having a harder and harder time recovering once I was back in the draft.  By the time we were halfway through I was more focused on keeping from being dropped than on taking pulls at the front and pretty much all of the pacemaking had fallen to Jacob.  Luckily, he is a really steady and smooth rider, and if there's anything I'm good at it's sucking wheels, so although I didn't contribute much, at least I didn't get dropped and I'm sure I could have taken him in the sprint!!