A Front

Tuesday morning on the levee, heading back downriver

Last week's weekday morning rides seemed mostly hot and dark and humid. Just the other day I mentioned how surprised I was that, halfway through October, I hadn't yet pulled out even the arm-warmers.

It was hard to get out of bed Tuesday morning. It always is this time of year when 5:30 am may as well be midnight for all the sunlight there is, or isn't. Although I can't deny that there's a certain rush that one feels when riding down quiet streets in the dark, I've never been much of a fan of nighttime riding. It's at best a necessary evil for working stiffs like myself who aren't up to fighting it out with post-rush-hour distracted-driver evening traffic on city streets. So once again I was up atop the levee at the designated time, which happens to be 6 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with a handful of other riders. Riding the levee bike path in the dark requires a lot of attention. If you're not on the front, your headlight is likely shining mostly on the rider ahead of you, which kind of blinds you. If that rider also has a bright tail light blinking two feet from your face the situation is even worse. So it really amounts to trust. You have to just trust that the rider on the front is paying attention and will give ample notice as the group comes up on pedestrians, dog-walkers, bike riders, coyotes, chickens, alligators, and potholes. I'm not really all that good at the trust thing, myself. Right now, if the sky is cloudy, it's pretty dark for most of the first hour of riding. Anyway, Tuesday's ride was about par for the course with mostly just a smooth paceline where each rider takes long steady pulls.

WeMoRi cool-down

On Wednesday I rode out as usual to meet up with the WeMoRi group at the lakefront. Since the Wisner overpass was finally re-opened, my route to the lakefront is a bit shorter now, and since I somehow managed to get on the road a little early I met up with the group only a mile or two after the start. That was nice since it allowed me to get warmed gradually as the pace ramped up. Unfortunately there were a couple of traffic issues that brought most of the group to practically a stop, which kind of spoiled the fun, but not as much as having the group hit by a car would have spoiled it, so I guess it was OK. At the end, around a mile from the sprint, Daniel came by on the left and I took his wheel as he rode past the group. I was hoping he'd take me to within attack distance, but as luck would have it, he moved over to the right and dropped me off with about half a K to go, which is pretty much my worst-case scenario, so I took a brief pull up to 33 mph that basically constituted a lead-out. Afterward I stopped in at Starbucks for a recovery coffee since I knew we were out of coffee beans at home.

Thursday's long ride on the levee seemed darker than usual but was otherwise normal. Nobody seemed too interested in going very hard. I moved the pace up a notch or so when I came to the front but it was never sustained very long.

Saturday's Giro group heading out on Lakeshore Dr.

Saturday's Giro had a small group. The weather actually wasn't all that bad, except that it was pretty windy. There were a lot of things going on in town and elsewhere and so a number of the usual riders were missing. There was a headwind going out and so it was by no means an easy ride. We were just part-way down Chef highway on the way out when we came upon most of the 6:45 group on the side of the road watching Geoff fix what was apparently his second or third flat. After slowing down the group kind of decided to merge in with that group, some of which had continued on to the turnaround, so when we saw then coming back we turned around. That gave us a larger group plus a tailwind, so it was like 30 mph all the way back down Chef. Then Brian flatted on the service road and the group split with just a few of us going back to help. We still had the tailwind most of the way but the effort level was a bit dampened after that. Coming down the Seabrook bridge we found a police car blocking the curve onto Lakeshore Drive because of the Bike the Big Easy ride, so Stephanie and I went straight on to Leon C. Simon, only to look back and discover that the police officer had let the rest of the group through. We got back onto Lakeshore Drive a little later at Franklin but had to chase a bit to catch up with everyone. I spend the afternoon putting up Halloween decorations. I hate putting up decorations. Then we went and voted. All I can say about the Mayor's race is that whoever ends up winning the runoff -- well, we're pretty much screwed either way. The City Council actually doesn't look to be quite as bad, so maybe there's hope, but I wouldn't bet on it. After voting we went town to Magazine Street for the Art for Art's Sake night where most of the shops stay open late and offer things like wine and cheeze and stuff. It was actually pretty nice and we ran into a few people we knew, including Andrew, Kenny, Brian, and their assorted significant others and/or progeny.

Sunday's Giro had a big group so the pace was brisk, at least until someone flatted on Chef near that first stop light. Again, some of the group kept going while the rest of us circled back. That kind of took the wind out of our sails, making the rest of the ride back relatively serene. The rest of Sunday went kind of downhill weather-wise because there was finally a cold front on the way. That made Monday morning windy but much cooler, which is to say it was 70 instead of 80. It'll be a bit cooler tomorrow morning but I don't know if I'll be able to justify even arm-warmers. I mean, is 59F cold enough for arm-warmers? Temperatures in the 50s always confuse me.