Just Wait

The Clydesdales stay at City Park for Mardi Gras and were getting ready to head back home on Wednesday.

As they always say around here, "If you don't like the weather, just wait, it'll change." That pretty much sums up things over the past few days. When I went out to ride on Thursday morning the temperature was somewhere around 39°F and it was still plenty windy. Charles was the only other rider to show up, and so of course we did a shortened ride out to the "little dip" and back. It seemed quite enough. Then on Friday I rode over to campus to see if anyone would show up for the Tulane Friday coffee ride. It was cold and windy again. I was a little surprised to find Gavin heading my way just as I was coming to the realization that I'd be riding alone. So we went ahead, just the two of us, and did the regular coffee ride route. At least the sun came out and warmed thing up a bit.

Up in Tangipahoa Parish on Saturday

Saturday was a planned 70+ mile Tulane Cycling ride from Independence. I figured I should take advantage of that since I'm registered for next weekend's Red Bluff Gran Fondo, especially since it felt like I'd taken a couple of steps backwards, fitness-wise, over the prior week between Mardi Gras and all of those shortened rides. Gavin offered to give me a ride, which was great since the wife wanted to take the car to the grocery store Saturday morning. When he arrived he said, "We have a problem." He had put one of those strap-on bike racks on his car and there wasn't enough clearance for the clips that basically hold the whole thing on at the top of the hatchback. A little field modification involving vice-grips and pliers solved that, and we were on the road pretty quickly. Fortunately I had not looked back at the bikes while we were on the interstate. More about that later.

Store Stop on Saturday

We started with a good group of nine, which ended up as eight. It was mostly the usual route to the north of Independence, with some additional miles thrown in at the top. The roads around there are pretty much like those on the northshore - low rolling hills, very light traffic, nice scenery. The ride itself was mostly steady double paceline with long pulls with, a few surprise short but fast segments thrown in. No flats, everyone staying together, no complaining, no surging. A long winter ride as it's meant to be. The ride had started out at around 42° but by the time we got back it was more like 72°. There's really no way to dress for that kind of temperature change. You're either going to be cold at the start or hot at the end. I had chosen the latter, as usual.

A long line at the Giro on the way out along Chef Highway

Gavin and Julia were in a bit of a rush to get back because they had to do a presentation for Club Sports for next year's budget request, so we loaded up the bikes quickly and hit the road. Once on the interstate I glanced back to see my bike, which was the 3rd one on the 3-bike rack, almost horizontal to the ground, held on by just the two rubber straps on the top tube. We hadn't tied down the wheels and so the wind had caught mine and Julia's. I watched for a while and figured it might be OK. Then, just before we got onto the elevated interstate between Pontchatoula and LaPlace I looked back again. "Uh, Gavin we need to stop!"  One of the rubber straps had disengaged, so now my bike was held on by basically one rubber band while flapping in the wind at 70 mph. Luckily I had a short bungie cord and a couple of toe straps in my bag, so we were able to secure everything, but it was definitely a close one.

The Giro group finishing up and cooling down along Lakeshore Drive on Sunday

Sunday morning it was again down in the upper 40s, I think, when I rolled out to Starbucks for pre-Giro coffee. Knowing it would be getting even warmer than Saturday, I was wearing knickers, a short-sleeve base layer, and a long-sleeve jersey. It was perfect for the easy ride out to Starbucks but of course I was pretty warm by the time we were halfway back from the turnaround. Being the first of March, there was a solid turnout on Sunday of 45-50 riders which made for lots of protection toward the back of the group where I spent most of my time. Even though I didn't think Saturday's ride had been particularly hard, I guess it did take a little out of me after all. I probably should have forced myself to go up to the front a few times, but all that draft at the back was just too tempting. I think my hardest effort was somewhere on Chef Highway a couple of miles before the turnaround when someone a couple of bikes ahead let a big gap open. It took me a while to get to where I could go around the two riders who weren't showing any interest in closing it, so I ended up with a pretty high intensity, but short, effort to get back up to the group that was, by then, starting to string out pretty badly at around 28 mph.

After the turnaround the pace remained pretty slow for three or four miles before ramping back up to the more normal 26-27 mph. Riding back home I was surprised how much the wind had picked up. I was also starting to feel like I'd had about enough riding for the week. In spite of all those short mid-week rides, I ended up with 279 miles for Mardi Gras week, so I guess I can't complain.