Back to What Passes for Normal

Monday morning's weather was almost normal, and I enjoyed a nice easy recovery ride on the levee with Bob Perrin on the way out and then Ben on the way back.  For the first time in at least a week, I got to ride in actual sunshine.  Granted, it was still cold, but I'm about acclimated to that now.

Tuesday morning was a little warmer, albeit with a pretty stiff northeast wind.  I headed out in the dark rather overdressed, but for the moment nice and toasty warm.  Down toward the end of Willow Street, near the parish line, I saw a big film crew base camp.  This happens fairly often there, and I wondered what and where they were shooting today.  When I got up to the levee there were only a few people there and Brian was already suggesting turning around at The Dip because of the small turnout and strong wind (yes, another front is moving this way).  Soon after we started, though, a number of other riders showed up, so the group ended up at about its normal size.  Brian sat on the front for about three miles, gradually lifting the pace, and finally pulled off at around 25 mph. The outbound speed stayed quite high, and by the time we were halfway to Ormond a few of the riders had already stopped coming through. Then, for reasons that would probably require psychoanalysis to decipher, Donald attacked at the front.  I was 3rd wheel at the time.  When he did, I heard someone behind me mumble something along the lines of "wtf?"  One rider got out of the saddle to go with him, but I just kept rolling at the steady 26 mph we had been going.  Soon it all came back together, but now even fewer riders were willing to pull through.  The pace stayed fast nonetheless the rest of the way to Ormond.

The ride back, mostly into the wind, was both slower and more erratic.  I don't know what was going on up at the front, and wasn't really too interested in finding out, so I just followed Big Richard's wheel as the pace fluctuated back and forth from 22 to 27 mph.  Somewhere out around Kenner we came up on Graeme and his upside-down bike.  A few riders stopped, and the rest of the group slowed to a crawl for a little while until it was obvious he wasn't going to be back on the road right away.  Coming back down Oak Street I ran into the film crew hard at work in the last block before Carrollton.  They had police at each end, stopping traffic only as needed, so I picked up a cup of coffee at Zotz and watched for a little while.  At one point I actually heard someone yell, "Action!"

So today I decided to work at home until the packages got delivered, especially since the kitchen cabinets are being installed and I need to bring the car back to the body shop because they got paint overspray all over it. Somewhere in there I also need to get some forms over to Campus Recreation to order the Tulane Cycling team kits.