Weekend Winter Rides and Little Crashes

Saturday morning Giro heading out.

Winter training rides tend to be predictable primarily with respect to their unpredictability. On the one hand, the time-honored winter training rides offer opportunities to make new friends, have long conversations about racing past and present, and generally catch up on some of the social interaction that tends to go quickly out the window when everyone's on the rivet, legs burning, and otherwise unable to form complete sentences. On the other hand, winter group rides always bring together a much wider diversity of riders. Some are seasoned bike racers putting in early season Long Slow Distance miles, some are newer riders jumping into their first serious group rides. Others might be long-lost ex-racers trying to get back into shape and rekindle the excitement that got them on the bike in the first place. In fact, winter is probably the best time for new competitive riders,or returning riders making a comeback, to start doing the faster group rides since speeds are often a bit slower, for shorter duration, and the stronger more compulsive riders are a bit more likely to have mercy on those at the back. Sometimes they will even speak to them and offer advice. Conversation turns from powermeter stats and Strava KOMs to topics like which shoe covers are the warmest and where we'll have coffee. So anyway, it's that time of year now. You would think that the group rides would be safer with the somewhat lowered competitive drive and cold weather and bulky clothes and all.

You would be wrong.

Looking at the hourly weather forecast early Saturday morning I was pretty sure we would get the Giro Ride in without much of a problem. The temperature would be in the 50s and it would be cloudy, and we might get a little bit of spotty rain, but the real cold front wasn't going to come through until later in the day, so while Saturday morning was looking fine, Sunday was still a bit up in the air temperature-wise. Over at Starbucks I was a little surprised how many riders were on hand as we rolled out along Lakeshore Drive. As is often the case when the temperature is in the 50s, practically every possible permutation of wardrobe accessories were in play. Some riders, presumable those with young well-lubricated knee joints, were in shorts and arm-warmers. Others, like me, in knickers and arm-warmers and various base layers. The occasional rider was in long tights. None were uncomfortable. As usual, the pace ramped up quickly when we hit Hayne Blvd. I knew there were four or five guys at the front who were looking for a workout, so I was trying to be attentive to any gaps that might open while also avoiding the infamous line of manhole cover cracks on the road. Turning right at the end of Hayne I made an effort to move closer to the front as we came into a bit of a headwind and things got a little strung out. We came over the I-10 overpass and down onto I-510 at only 25 or 26 mph, which was pretty normal, if not slow, for that little downhill. This is where the group has to cross two lanes of interstate traffic that is turning off of I-10 and onto 1-510, so that we can get into the exit lane. It's always a little dangerous here and numerous riders, including myself, will be looking out for cars and calling out if it's clear or not. That day is was clear and there was no need to slow down at all. The problem, however, was that the road there has just recently received a nice new asphalt overlay, but the shoulder hasn't. That leaves a two or three-inch drop-off at the edge of the lane. Well, as riders were crossing the two lanes to the right and then curving back to the left to line up with the lane, a couple of them overshot and caught that edge. I was ahead of that, chasing a group that already had a little gap, and at first all we heard was someone screaming something. We all figured it was just a flat and continued on a bit until we were off of the interstate. That's when we found out that two or three riders had crashed. The front group was already up the road, but the rest of us waited or turned around to assist, riding carefully the wrong way on the shoulder. By the time we got back to the crash site there was already a little group riding back, nobody was on the ground, and a couple of the riders who had crashed were heading our way ready to continue. So it was all good and we pacelined out to Venetian Isles, turning around to meet back up with the front group that was, I'm sure, disappointed to discover that they hadn't actually dropped all of us. There was another little surge on Hayne as we got a few drops of rain.

Sunday, somewhere near Bogalusa

Sunday morning we had an NOBC Northshore Ride scheduled and the weather over there was as cold and overcast as predicted. I think it was right around 40 when we started (my Garmin always seems to show a couple of degrees colder), and there was a pretty significant northwest wind blowing. On the way over I had been thinking that there might be only three or four other riders, considering the weather and the fact that there was a big Saints game that afternoon, so I was quite surprised to find maybe twenty people ready to go at 8:00. As usual, there was a pretty good mix of riders on hand. A few were hoping for a nice easy 63 miles in the country, most were hoping for a moderately challenging workout, maybe a couple were looking for something harder. We had mapped out both an "A" route and a slightly shorter "B" route, and a few people had planned to turn back early anyway, so by the time we were on Choctaw Road the group was down to about a dozen. Dustin had convinced Kaitlyn to ride, although she really didn't have the miles in her legs yet and had just gotten back in town for the Spring semester the day before. She had a pretty hard ride, coming off the back every time the pace heated up. Fortunately, everyone was fine waiting for the two or three riders off the back to regroup at the intersections, and most of the time they were only a minute or so back, so that was fine. I put in a little effort on the back stretch as usual when Dustin kind of attacked one of the little hills and rode off the front. Three of us came together after that and mounted a bit of a chase, although the best we could do was maintain the gap which was probably around 45 seconds or so.

After we regrouped and made the turn near Bogalusa to start heading back, everyone was in a nice long paceline rolling down Hwy 60 when all of a sudden riders are going down right in front of me. Jaro's head was sliding across the ground in front of me as I swerved hard to keep from plowing into it. In fact, my front wheel brushed his helmet, but luckily it wasn't enough to take me down. I think three riders hit the ground on that one. Fortunately the car that had been behind us stopped and waited patiently while we picked everything up off the road. I'm sure they had some good stories to tell at church that day. Although it might have been much worse, everyone involved was back on their bikes quickly, and whatever injuries there might have been must have been fairly minor. The only evidence of a crash could see were some tears in some shorts and Jaro's slightly twisted handlebars. Anyway, by the time we got to South Choctaw Road, maybe twelve or fifteen miles from the end of the ride, it was clear that Kaitlyn was running on fumes and a couple others were getting near the ends of their ropes as well. Between intersections the group would split, then we'd wait to regroup, then we'd repeat. All this time the sky was dark and the temperature wasn't rising at all, so some of us were starting to get pretty cold from the sweat generated earlier in the ride.

Afterwards a few of us stopped at McAllister's for some badly needed food. Even after sitting in the relatively warm eatery and consuming a nice helping of hot mashed potatoes, I was still feeling pretty chilled when I got back into the car for the drive across the Causeway. I cranked the thermostat up to 75 degrees, set the cruise control at 65, and tuned in to "60s on 6" on the satellite radio, gradually getting my core temperature back to almost normal by the time I got home. 

Winter rides.  Gotta love 'em.