Season's End

Ready to go Saturday morning at the Fly

Last weekend was the end of the 2019 racing season here, and I spent it mostly sitting under a tent at the Audubon Park Fly scoring the cyclocross races, the last day of which was the LAMBRA Cyclocross championship. As cyclocross races go, these were pretty easy to handle. From our vantage point we could see much of the 1.2 mile (yeah, we knew it was a bit short) course that made the best possible use of the levee and the e not-really-Monkey-Hill that the park built out there when the commandeered the real Monkey Hill for the Zoo many years ago. Saturday morning was cold and damp, with a fairly heavy fog and chilly breeze blowing in from the ice-cold river. Still, by Cyclocross standards, it was way better than normal, which is to say there was no mud, no sand, no rain, and well above freezing.

The officiating duties went smoothly for me and Keith. The largest field was only about 25, so scoring was pretty easy as long as we were able to keep track of the lapped riders.

Candy and Dennis made appearances on Sunday

On Sunday, Candy dropped me and the equipment off in the morning and took off with the car to shop. Right around when the last race ended Dennis Dunham showed up on his bike, so we had a nice chat as I loaded the car back up with the LAMBRA equipment. It's amazing how tired you can get just sitting around officiating. So anyway, I missed another two days of riding, but at least got out on Monday morning for 30 miles or so before work. This morning, however, was a different story. I awoke to wet streets, a temperature in the 40s, and a 15 mph north wind with a cold mist falling and more rain on the way, at least according to the radar. I was half-dressed and had gotten the rain bike ready, but eventually came to the decision that it would be a fairly pointless and miserable ride, so I bailed and made some coffee instead.

Guess I'm getting soft in my old age.

Tomorrow morning will be around 40° with a 13 mph wind, but I should be able to get out there to the WeMoRi. Looks like Saturday and Sunday will be rainy, so it will be another low-mileage week.

Welcome to winter in New Orleans.

I guess it may give me a little time to catch up on some website stuff and plan some northshore winter rides for January and February.