Giro Here Mnats There

Rui - blast from the past on the Giro

Last weekend was basically a mental recovery weekend for me. I rode the Giro both Saturday and Sunday. I rode out to Starbucks Saturday morning later than usual. That was because I knew that the Starbucks was closed for renovations. I had gone ahead and made coffee at home since there's really no place around there that is open early enough anyway.

So it was around 6:30, I guess, when a car pulled up alongside me on Carrollton Avenue and I heard someone yell, "Randy?"  I looked over to see Rui Ponte, who I don't guess I've seen in person since some time in the mid-80s. He said, "I'll see you at the lakefront!" Rui graduated from Tulane in Architecture and lives in D.C. where he is quite active in the local cycling community. At one point while he was at Tulane he worked on the design of a velodrome.

That's Rui on the front row next to Brian Roberts
some time in the 80s at the Tour de La

As continued my ride out there I wondered how many people knew that the place was closed. I also wondered if people would think that there wouldn't be a Giro Ride because of it. As it turned out, we had pretty much the usual crowd, meeting up in the neutral ground parking area across from Starbucks. We picked up Rui and a number of others along Lakeshore Drive. It was warm and the wind was essentially calm. The group was a little slow to get going, and the pace didn't get particularly fast until we were halfway down Hayne Blvd. It turned out to be a particularly steady ride, thanks no doubt to the lack of wind. When VJ flatted on the way back somewhere on Hayne, most of the group was still together.

Stephanie with hardware and coach Jed

Sunday's Giro was an entirely different story, however. Although the wind was again almost nonexistent, it seemed like only three or four people were willing to do any work at the front. That made for fairly slow and erratic speeds for most of the ride. On the way back, when we turned onto Hayne, I casually rolled off the front at some moderate low-20s speed and ended up probably a couple of minutes ahead of the lackadaisical group. Go figure.

Meanwhile, up in Augusta GA, Masters Nationals was going on. We had just a handful of riders who went, but a couple of them had pretty good results. Peter Reed was 2nd in the 40-44 Time Trial. Stephanie Smith was 2nd in the TT, 2nd in the Crit, and 3rd in the RR in the 35-39 age group. And of course there was Debbie Milne, who is in NC now, although we still claim her. She won the Road Race and was 6th in the Crit in the 45-49 age group. The GeriAtrix guys, Tom Bain and George Heagerty, from Texas, also did well in the 65-69 age group. Tom won the Road Race and was second in both the TT and Crit. George was 4th in the Crit.

On Tuesday I went out to the regular levee ride. The sky was overcast and there was just a touch of rain showing up on radar. Perhaps that was one reason that everyone except Rich and I turned back early. Rich had just gotten back after the unexpected death of his daughter. We didn't talk about it - just traded long steady pulls. We got barely a few raindrops here and there; hardly enough to notice. Even so, it was a lot more time on the front than usual, and so I definitely felt like I'd gotten my money's worth out of the ride by the time I got home.