You Never Can Tell

There are lots of group rides around. I typically do some or all of a group ride four or five times a week. One thing about group rides I've learned is that you never can tell who's going to show up. Lots of things influence the turnout, especially the chance of rain and the certainty of strong wind. But every now and then the stars align in just such a way that nobody can come up with a credible excuse for staying in bed. And so it was for yesterday's Giro. It was supposed to be Rouge-Roubaix race weekend, so some riders were in decent early season shape. The wind was light. The morning temperature, which had been rather cold all week, was up to the mid-50s. It was the last day before we set clocks ahead and would be back to riding in the dark. Rain was predicted to start an hour after the Giro ended. A couple of riders were in town, one from Texas, another from Australia. The Tulane riders were planning to ride. So by the time we rolled out from Starbucks I guess there were 35 or 40 riders, and it was pretty clear we were in for a fast one.

Indeed, as soon as we came down the bridge onto Hayne Blvd. the speed went straight up to about 30 mph and mostly stayed in the 25 - 32 mph range all the way out to the turnaround at Venetian Isles. My Garmin said our average speed for the way out was something like 26.5 mph. Unfortunately, just as I put some power to the pedals on Hayne one of the old aluminum spoke nipples on my rear wheel broke. It wasn't quite bad enough to start hitting the chainstay, so I just kept going, being careful to avoid the bumps, and sprints. The latter was particularly frustrating because I would definitely have liked to have done some of them.

The whole way out on Chef Highway I was looking at 28-31 mph, but with such a big group it was relatively easy to stay in the pack. When there would be a little lull and the speed would drop down to 27, it felt like I was coasting. The return trip was definitely slower, but finally got going toward the end of Chef and was looking to stay that way until Brian flatted on the service road. About ten of us stopped and the rest continued, so I was thinking we'd just have an easy ride back. Well when we went around the curve there was Woody and a few more riders fixing another flat. Up the road, the rest of the group was waiting at the gas station at Bullard, so we ended up with practically everyone coming in together. Definitely the best Giro Ride this year. Even better, I made it home with my rear wheel still in one piece. So after I got back I rummaged around and found a brass spoke nipple that was threaded right, ran over to the bike shop to pick up a new rim strip, and had everything back in action half an hour later. I think that's the fifth spoke nipple I've replaced on that wheel - so far. Basically I'm rebuilding the wheel one spoke nipple at a time.