Wind Again

Heading back from the Giro

Five forty-five in the morning and before I silence the alarm I reach for the phone to check the radar.  The forecast had not been reassuring, but it has also not been guaranteed.  The early morning radar looked good, with some rain far to the south and an hourly prediction that looked dry until at least 9 am.  The temperature was in the upper 60s, but it was cloudy, so I added a little base layer to my shorts and jersey, popped in my contacts, twisted on my Garmin, pulled on my shoes, and headed off for the Giro under a cloudy pre-dawn sky, the only thing keeping me going was that cup of hot coffee I was planning on getting at Starbucks.  A cool front had come though during the night and it was windy.  Really windy.  That cold front was supposed to be backing up right over us by mid-day, and with it would be a lot of rain.

The early arrivals for the Saturday Giro were already there when I rolled up at 6:35.  Although I was a few minutes later than usual, I'm rarely the first.  By 7 o'clock there was a good crowd on hand, and as we headed north toward the lakefront I knew the day's battle would be with the east northeast wind.  Out on Chef Highway we had a nice long rotating paceline into the wind most of the way out, but when Howard surged after I'd just come off the front and then a big hole opened up in the middle of the paceline I knew the cooperation was about over.  I went around and barely made it across but by then another gap was starting to open up ahead as we neared the Venetian Isles sprint.  I faded quickly and by the time I turned around half of the group had already turned back.

As I expected, it didn't take long for the pace to pick up as we made the turn that put the wind at our backs.  Over the next seven miles our average speed was a bit over 31 mph.  I don't think I saw the front once.  Once on the service road the call "Flat!" went out as Judd eased over to the curb and most of the group backed off and turned back to wait for him to put in a new tube.  The pace was a little easier most of the rest of the way, except of course for that stretch between the two bridges where it always seems to get really quick.  After regrouping on Lakeshore Drive, we turned down Marconi and Daniel said he needed to get to the veterinarian uptown in a hurry because of an emergency, so those of us headed that way didn't have the usual easy cool-down. 

As I rolled up to the door, it started to rain. 

Today was the Sunny King Criterium up in Anniston Alabama, and I knew a number of people who were racing.  Luckily it was being webcast live all day, so I got to watch the Cat. 3/4 women's race in which Mignon finished in the top ten, but missed the Junior 17-18 race where Robert made the podium.  I did, however, get to see Robert race again in the Cat. 3 race, and caught Adam in the Cat. 2 race.  After getting back from a visit to Tulane's CrawFest I was able to watch the recorded Master's race where I think Ed and Woody both must have been in the top dozen or so after Ed had been in a big breakaway that got caught on the bell lap.  Exciting stuff, even with the intermittent buffering problems.  Tomorrow is looking like non-stop rain, but who knows?  Maybe we'll luck out and squeeze in the Giro Ride.