A Day Off, A Disappointing Storm

Maybe time for a day off

Saturday morning I rode out to Starbucks to meet the Giro Ride knowing I wouldn't be riding on Sunday. Since Thursday I'd been kind of tired on the bike and I knew it was time for a break. Also, the approaching Tropical Storm Cristobal guaranteed that Sunday would be nothing but wind and rain, complete with a chance of local flooding, and besides, they were already starting to close the floodgates on Lakeshore Drive by late Saturday morning. I'd done a super-easy Friday ride, hoping for some recovery to materialize in time for the Giro. It might have been enough except for two things. The first thing was a pretty significant east wind. The second thing was the 4D team that showed up in order to make it a race, or maybe a team time trial. Looking around the Starbucks parking lot at the riders who were arriving, as I finished up my pre-ordered iced coffee (Phase 1 protocol), I told the person next to me, "You'd better fasten your seat belt today!" The warning was really more for myself than for anyone else.

Despite all of the race-deprived horsepower in attendance, I was hoping that the headwind going out on Hayne Blvd. would keep things in check and make it relatively easy to sit in the middle of the big group. That's how it usually works. So we come down the Casino bridge onto Hayne and immediately the group strings out into a long thin line. A minute later I look down to see we're going 30 mph into a headwind, my heart rate is up into the mid-160s, and I'm barely holding onto the wheel in front of me. I suspected the pace would stay that way all the way, and decided it would be better to live and fight another day than to risk doing a lot of damage, so I dropped out of the paceline right at the same time Dave did. We eased back down to the low 20s to recover a bit and I suggested we take the Bullard short-cut so we'd be able to get back into the group on Chef. With the wind mostly southeast, we were still working fairly hard all the way down Bullard to Chef, but it worked out perfectly. We met up with the group right around Michoud Blvd. and easily slipped into the paceline. By then a little of the group's adrenaline had worn off and the pace was down to a more manageable 25-28 mph. The ride back was fast, of course, thanks to the tailwind, and despite the clear breech of protocol when the 4D riders, who had actually had a car meet them at the turnaround with refreshments (So Pro, you know), went flying by along the stretch where we usually take it easy in order to let everyone regroup. Basically, there was a bit of a chase to get everyone back together. The group averaged about 30 mph for most of the return stretch on Chef. It slowed down a little bit for Lake Forest and Bullard, but once we hit Hayne again we were quickly back up to around 30.

There's this new jagged hole in the concrete about halfway between Read Blvd. and Crowder Rd., and Brian nailed it solid somewhere ahead of me. I saw him coming backwards through the group on the flat and turned around to lend a hand in case he needed it, since nobody else even slowed down. It was just as well. I'm still not quite up to sprinting up overpasses, and besides, we had a nice conversation about our various orthopedic injuries and recovery times.

So this tropical storm has me stuck inside today. The damaging winds and street flooding have not happened around here, so I guess that's good. I noticed that Jaden went out Strava KOM-hunting when the winds were still fairly strong, picking up a couple of KOMs on Almonaster and the climb up the bridge over the industrial canal on Chef. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 situation in the city still seems to be improving. I'm a little surprised that we haven't seen the slightest effect from Memorial day, or for that matter the fact that people have been steadily getting out and about more and more. We're technically still in Phase 1, which means the bars are closed and the restaurants that are open have extremely limited and spaced-out seating. We're wearing masks in public places, especially grocery stores and places like that, but the general feeling is a very far way away from "lockdown."

The other day I went over to GNO Cyclery where I had a gift certificate and had them order me a Bontrager Ballista helmet. I went with the Small size, sight-unseen, just hoping it will not be too small. According to my head diameter it should fit, but I'm always right in-between the small and medium size ranges so it's a bit of a gamble. On the plus side, it's a relatively inexpensive helmet, as aero racing helmets go, which is to say it's still expensive but not crazy expensive. The Giro I was wearing when I crashed has a tiny little crack in the back, and is otherwise getting kind of beat up, but not to the point where I feel it is unsafe.

Speaking of helmets, I found out yesterday that Connor Juban, who raced with the LSU cycling team (he was the president) had a very bad crash up in Tennessee where he moved after graduation. From what I gather, he was out on a solo training ride going downhill at something over 40 mph when he somehow hit a tree and sustained a head injury. Luckily there was a car that saw what happened and called for help. He was able to tell the medics his name and everything, but then his condition deteriorated, apparently due to a subdural hematoma. This happened on Tuesday and he's still in a coma now, on Sunday. We're all just hoping for the best outcome now.