When the Sun Shines

It was finally a weekend without rain in the forecast, and area cyclists were out in force.  I rode out to the Saturday Giro Ride just a little overdressed for the 45 degree pre-dawn temperature, rather unsure how far or long I'd end up riding and already wishing I'd remembered to drop a Powerbar into my pocket.  Turnout for the Giro was quite good, although a few of the usual strongmen were off at early season races in Florida or Texas. My only complication was an 11:00 criterium training session for which I was going to meet The Daugher. We're usually back from the Giro Ride by 9:15 or so, which meant I could either log an extra hour and a half or ride home and then drive back out to the lakefront.  I asked around at Starbucks to see if anyone was planning on extending the Giro out to Ft. Pike, but for some reason most riders were just planning on doing the regular Giro.  Fortunately, Kenny, who was conducting the 11:00 session, was there, so I knew that all I had to do was stick with him.

The Giro itself went pretty well, although I was keeping my nose out of the wind pretty much, especially on the way out to the turnaround.  The average speed for the main part of the way out was a conservative 23 mph, with the return trip averaging a bit faster at 24.9.  Of course the average speed is pretty much irrelevant for the Giro.  My effort at the Goodyear sprint topped out at 36.5 mph, so it's not like it was just a steady paceline all day.  Anyway, after sprinting up the two bridges I looked around for Kenny as we cooled down along Lakeshore Drive and we decided to ride out along the lakefront bike path in Jefferson in order to kill some time until 11:00.  Well, as it turned out, there were about five other riders who were planning on doing the same thing.  I'd been expecting a slightly more leisurely pace than I got, but it wasn't a problem.  By the time we finally rolled into the parking lot at Elysian Fields, where Kenny had left his cellphone sitting on the bumper of his truck (it was still there) I was starting to feel a little tired and hungry. After standing around I started getting kind of chilled too, so I was happy to finally get back home with 87 miles in the book.

The forecast for Sunday was even better, and we had been pushing the northshore ride for the NOBC riders, especially the women's team.  I drove over to Covington with a fully loaded car, and when we rolled out of the parking lot at Lee Road Junior High I counted nearly thirty riders.  Pretty much all of us were overdressed, as it would turn out.  Although it was chilly at the start, I think it was at least 65F by the time we got back.  We had a wide range of riders on this ride, so the plan was to let the pack split when people started coming off the back, which happened pretty early.  I had been hoping it would happen later, which would have given me the option to go with the faster group to Sie Jenkins Road, and then backtrack to pick up the second group, but when things started coming apart around 20 miles into the ride I started looking for alternatives. 

After splitting into two groups at Hwy 1072, the B group took the Lee Road shortcut.  That cut off a good five miles, but more importantly it also cut off one of the longer climbs and allowed the group to avoid the surges and higher speeds that the faster group would surely be dishing out.  We came out onto 439 well ahead of the faster group, and even after waiting to regroup at Sie Jenkins Road, we were still ahead of them when we stopped at South Choctaw Road to regroup again.  As we were getting ready to go two of the fast group came racing through.  A little farther back was another group of four or so.  I jumped onto that group and got a few miles of faster riding for a few miles before doubling back to pick up the rest of the group. At that point we also picked up a few of the riders who had been with the fast group, so we had a few more riders for the remainder of the ride. After we got onto Tung rode a few of us rode off the front for a few more fast miles before rolling pack to the cars. Although there were a few tired legs by the time we finished the 60 mile ride, nobody was very far off the back so the shortcut actually worked out quite well.

There were reports from all over the area of other big group rides on Sunday, and a number of riders were out on the Rouge-Roubaix course.  I've pretty much decided I will have to skip that race this  year.  My neck and back are still giving me problems on the longer rides, and I know that 104 miles on that course would be nothing but torture, even more than usual.

The weather for the rest of the week is not looking good at all.  Although it won't be terribly cold (40 and 50s), it's definitely going to be pretty wet.