More Rain and Wet Roads

Red and Yellow Radar Images - a familiar sight lately     

Down here in New Orleans we've been extremely lucky over the past few days.  The torrential rains that have caused catastrophic flooding throughout much of south and central Louisiana have only dealt us passing blows, all easily handled by the city's pumping system.  So while life goes on relatively normally here, fifty or sixty miles in any direction between north and west brings you to varying levels of devastation.  There are some areas that have received rain totals over just a few days in excess of two feet.  Yes, FEET.  Pretty much every little river and creek overflowed, and flooded entire cities like Denham Springs, just outside of Baton Rouge, for example. Although we're still planning on having our category based road championship up in Natchez on Sunday, I'm sure there will be a number of regular riders who won't be able to make it, mainly because their houses and/or cars have been flooded.

I've probably ridden in the rain and/or on wet roads nearly every day lately, and this morning was no exception.  As I stepped out the door at 5:40 this morning I looked up at the sky and was pleased to see stars. The radar was clear, so it looked like we'd at least avoid riding in actual rain for a change. I jumped on the bike, which I haven't even bothered to clean for the past couple of days, and met the group for the ride out to the lakefront. We met up with the usual group, I guess twenty or so riders, and headed off for the lap of Lakeshore Drive.  As usual the pace gradually picked up, but never got too out of hand. We were probably in the 26-27 mph range coming back from the Seabrook loop.

Changing flats and watching for cars on Lakeshore Drive  

As we approached the levee near Elysian Fields I was sitting comfortably on a wheel near the front, escheloned a bit to the right up against the curb. As we started up the little uphill over the levee the rider ahead of me eased up, trapping me between his rear wheel and the curb. At first I didn't think much about it, but then he started slowing down even more.  Riders started streaming past on the left. Just as I extricated myself from the situation and was ready to catch back onto the tail end of the paceline I heard someone yell "Flat!"  So that explained it.  A small group up at the front never heard, or at least never stopped, but most everyone else turned around.

Thus began one of the longest tire changes in history.  Mid-way through the first tire change, another rider in the group discovered his tire had gone flat too.  I guess we were there for about fifteen minutes.  Eventually we got going again, at which point I started thinking seriously about whether I wanted to continue out onto the lakefront bike path, which I knew was going to be full of runoff water from the levee, or just call it a day.  I decided on the former, as did most of the group.  So for about half of that out-and-back on the bike path everyone except the lead rider was treated to a steady stream of wheel-spray in the eyes.  So . much . fun.

A mile or so from Causeway, on the way back, Jason flatted just before the Suburban Canal bridge. Nobody stopped, as we were already running fifteen minutes late, so I turned back and waited for him so he wouldn't get left out there alone.  With the roads so wet the chances of getting a second flat are pretty high. So I finally got back home nearly half an hour later than usual, which wasn't really a problem, and soaking wet, which wasn't really anything different than the past few days, despite the clear sunny sky.  By early afternoon, though, it was raining again.  Of course.