It was suddenly springtime, bordering on summer, last Saturday. With Rouge-Roubaix behind us, and a race-free weekend ahead of us, combined with warm temperatures and the impending spring road season, I knew we were in for trouble. Hanging out at Starbucks as the sun came up I watched as a steady stream of riders filtered in from all directions. By the time we were on Lakeshore Drive, there were about fifty riders, including essentially all of the fastest local ones, some of whom were on their time trial bikes. Aside from the Giro Ride that morning, there were at least two other groups doing the same route, so it would be safe to say there were a hundred road and TT bikes out on the Giro course that morning.
I was feeling OK, but still a little heavy and sluggish from nearly a month of low-mileage weeks. Even so, I wasn't really expecting what happened. As soon as we hit Hayne Blvd. the pace ramped quickly up in to the 26-30 mph range, but with such a large group and no significant crosswind issues, it was not too hard to stay in the draft as I gradually got warmed up, a process that seems to take longer and longer every year. Looking back, I note that the average speed on the Hayne Blvd. section was a brisk 26.4 mph. We made the right turn onto Paris Road and the pace didn't really ease at all, so we came over the I-10 overpass and rolled down the other side at around 30 mph.
Although I knew better, I was way back toward the tail end of the long strung-out group at that point. It looked like we would have a clear shot crossing over the two lanes of I-610, and indeed about 90% of the group did so, but then a pickup truck appeared coming around the curve and a few of us near the back had to slow way, way down until the driver finally waved us through. Well, the front of the group was still going 30 mph at that point and so all I could do was stand up and sprint and hope to make it back into the draft before blowing up. Yeah, well that didn't happen. As my heart rate edged into the 95% bracket, Stephanie Smith came by and I jumped onto her wheel. I thought, "Perfect! A triathlete to help bridge a long gap." I damned sure wasn't going to be able to do it myself. We chased at full power all the way down the exit ramp and then most of the way along the service road before finally making contact just before Chef Highway. My average speed for that section was 27.1, and I was completely gassed as came to the Chef Highway intersection. Well of course the front of the group jumped across in front of a car and the rest, including me, had to wait, so immediately we were chasing at 27-29 mph again. I finally just sat up as the relentless pace was offering no chance for me to recover and get my breathing back under control.
Once again, Stephanie came up to me, so we started a nice controlled 2-person time trial at around 23 mph as the group started to disappear in the distance. A minute later we came up to Graham on the side of the road fixing his sticky rear brake, so he joined us for the rest of the way out to Venetian Isles fighting a moderate headwind.
Finally back in the pack after the turnaround, the relentless pace continued, and we were soon strung out in a long thin line once again. The average speed for most of that section to the Goodyear Sign sprint was 30.1 mph. After another 30 mph stretch along the service road, things finally settled down a bit on Bullard, where I later found out Steve had crashed when he hit one of the may cracks in the concrete. Once on Hayne the relentless pace continued, however, and after sprinting up the overpasses and finally coming back down onto Lakeshore Drive I was pretty well toasted. It was also only about 8:55 am. Usually, if the Giro gets back onto Lakeshore Drive by 9:10 it's a fast Giro. I rode around Lakeshore Drive for a little bit waiting for Danielle who had been doing intervals, but couldn't find her so I rode back to Starbucks and hung out with the NOBC group at NOLA Beans until she showed up.
So Sunday morning it was raining when I woke up at 5:45, so I went back to sleep. I'd had more than my fair share of wine the night before since my brother and family were in town for his 60th birthday. I eventually went out in the afternoon when the streets were dry. By then a stiff wind was blowing and it was hot. My legs felt really heavy from Saturday's thrashing, and now I had to fight a west wind all the way out to Kenner on the Lake Trail. I was going mostly 16 mph but the effort felt more like I should be going 24. I got back home three hours later tired, dehydrated and achy. I guess it's time to start training again.
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