Bottom Line

The legs were a little reluctant Sunday morning, but February temperatures in the 60s are not to be squandered, so I was out the door at dawn to meet Robert at Puccino's for the drive over to the northshore.  I wasn't sure who would be making this ride since there had also been talk about another long Giro to Slidell. I think I counted 18 riders at I rolled out of the Lee Road Junior High parking lot wearing a long-sleeve jersey and shorts.  The sky was filled with clouds and it felt chilly as we rode into a steady north wind in the general direction of Enon. Considering the number of miles I already had in my legs for the week, my plan was to take it easy for the first half of the ride just to be on the safe side.  Fortunately the pace was reasonably subdued for the first ten miles or so.  Things picked up a bit along the hills on Tullos Road, and the group was already beginning to sort itself out.  A few more miles and some of the group decided to cut the route a bit short as the rest continued north toward Highway 10 at the top of the loop. 

After a bit of a wait at the intersection, we continued on, finally starting to feel some tailwind as the route turned more to the south.  This stretch of the course is traditionally fast as it includes a couple of longish climbs that tend to split things up.  Coming over the second one, one of the guys on a TT bike surged and, since I was right there, I went with him.  For the next few miles to the intersection with Sie Jenkins Road he hammered at 27-28 mph, with me taking only a few brief pulls.  It was like being behind a motor, and despite the TT setup, he was still big enough for me to get a pretty sweet draft.  We waited for a while to regroup before heading back to the west on Hwy. 1072 where we were greated by a bit of a crosswind, softened somewhat by the roadside trees. This road always seems kind of hard because there's probably not a flat fifty yards on the whole thing, but the group stuck to a smooth rotation which made it feel a lot easier than it might have.

Finally heading back down toward Enon the road features a lot of nice rollers, smooth asphalt, and probably a net drop in elevation.  Combined with a tailwind, that made or a brisk but smooth pace down to Enon where we crossed the river and started the gradually steepening uphill to the firetower. I was thinking that someone would surely attack at some point along here, but instead it remained fairly steady at around 20 mph.  Once over the top, though, the pressure remained on and it quickly ramped up into the high 20s.  It was along here that we caught up with the rest of the group that had taken a shorter route.  It was perfect timing.  The last five miles or so of this ride are usually kind of a free-for-all where the riders who have something left blow it out while those who don't back off a bit.  Well, with a little tailwind, still-decent legs, and a couple of triathletes willing to sit on the front for extended periods, I naturally ended up near the front and ended up once again motorpacing behind one of the TT bikes.  It was a pretty good ride.  The bottom line for the week, at least for me, was about 300 miles and over 15 hours on the bike.  I'm quite sure I wasn't the only one, either, considering the great riding weather we've been having down here.  Still, that's a bit more than I would consider normal for me for the first week of February.