A quick glance at the thermometer had me searching through the bike drawer for a long-sleeved jersey and knickers this morning. I figured it was a bit much, but knew I'd be chilled on the ride out to the lakefront without the fleecy comfort of those items. After waiting a few extra minutes for Brian, who didn't show up until we were out at the lakefront, we headed north in to a moderate headwind to meet the group. We were a bit late, but things went normally for the out-and-back on Lakeshore Drive, which is to say it started slow and ended fast. I remarked to someone that perhaps there were a few people who were trying to make up for yesterday's rained-out WeMoRi.
Anyway, the ride out on the lakefront bike path to Kenner was pretty messy. There was still a lot of water on the path that was draining down from the levee, so every once in a while I'd get a face full of wheel spray. At least I wasn't worried about my headset getting water in it. I'd finally pulled it apart last night and found the bottom race and bearings to be just completely rusted and trashed. I cleaned them up as best I could, applied a liberal coating of grease, put it all back together, and fired off an email to Marc at the bike shop asking him to go ahead and order me a replacement. Trying to figure out which headset works for which bike nowadays is really difficult, so I figured I'd leave it to the experts this time.
So after a pretty fast ride out to the casino, we turned back toward town, still with a pretty good crosswind of course, but nobody seemed interested in pushing the pace much. I guess we were halfway back when Will, who had been right in front of me, suddenly sat up and dropped back. I looked down to see he had a flat rear tire. Everyone stopped, but it took forever for him to get that Continental tire back onto the Mavic rim, and as soon as he put the wheel back on the bike everyone started rolling out. Problem was, his chain and derailleur were all jacked up, probably because he'd put the bike upside-down to take the wheel out. So one little group is rolling off ahead of a smaller group and we're chatting and soft-pedaling expecting Rich and him to catch up. Finally I look back and they are like half a mile back down the road and stopped. I figured the tire had gone flat again, but anyway we just continued out to Causeway where I stopped to wait.
As if the wheel spray in my face and up my ass, and the interminable tire change weren't enough, on the way back we had to detour from out usual route through the park because a film crew had taken over the main road and the circle around the art museum. By the time I got home I was about half an hour behind schedule. On the plus side, I got a new pair of mountain bike shoes today. My old ones had literally come apart at the seams at the last cyclocross race, and when I found these on closeout, in my size, with an additional 20% off plus free shipping, I just couldn't resist. Perhaps I'll get to try them out this weekend at the cyclocross race up in Natchez.
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