First Hint

TUCA Saturday ride from Independence

A little cool front pushed through yesterday, leaving us with our first hint of Fall weather, which around here means the morning temperature was 70°F rather than 80°. Of course, with the cooler weather came a brisk north wind that apparently kept everyone who usually rides the Tuesday levee ride at home. Except me, of course. It wasn't as bad as you'd think for a 15 mph wind, since much of the levee ride route is east-west rather than north-south. Anyway, when I got home I opened a bunch of windows.

Last Saturday I drove up to Independence to do a ride with a few of the Tulane riders. On hand were Gavin, Julia, Javier, Sean, Oceane, and Arianna. The weather was pretty great, which is to say I could feel sweat actually evaporating rather than dripping from my face onto the top tube, nobody flatted, nobody crashed, and nobody had mechanical problems. The pace was pretty steady and fairly easy, except for a couple of brief faster section and short sprints. For some reason I was feeling pretty good and enjoyed the ride quite a bit. When I was driving up there that morning I noticed some very light misty rain on the windshield, and checking the weather radar I could see that there would probably be some rain for the Giro Ride, so I figured I'd made the right call. 

On Monday I found out that Erich had apparently ridden into a water-filled pothole at the end of the ride and face-planted into the road. He ended up with a lot of stitches but fortunately no concussion or broken bones. Faces usually heal up pretty nicely, but if not the scars always make for good conversation-starters!  

Sunday was Six Gap day, but not for me. I'd decided to skip it this year for multiple reasons, but mostly because I figured I'm already getting enough SARS CoV-2 exposure and didn't need to push my luck this year. I'd really like to not get this virus if at all possible. Also, it would be my 13th year doing it, so if I'm going to skip one year, I guess 13 is a good one! The Tulane riders weren't going this year either since Club Sports isn't allowing any official travel for them beyond 40 miles, so no minivans or hotel rooms or entry fees. Steve and Pat rode it, along with a whole bunch of local riders. I heard there was a little light rain but nothing dramatic. I always remember that year we rode it mostly in a cold rain (2010) the whole way. For my part, though, I rode the Giro Ride, which as Giro Rides go, wasn't a particularly hard one. No doubt that was because some riders were up in Dahlonega, and some others perhaps still licking their wounds from a Saturday group ride that had been organized over around Bay St. Louis. I'd been kind of on the fence about whether to do that ride or the Tulane ride, but ultimately decided to do the Tulane ride.

Where we are now

It looks like this cooler weather will stick around a while longer, so that will be nice. I need to go check out the Tour de La road course next weekend since the race will be on Saturday the 10th, which is coming up fast. I think that if the weather is good and we can scrape up enough volunteers, and there isn't some sudden surge in COVID cases, it should be a nice race. It will be only the second official USAC road race this year. 4D is doing some bandit "spirited ride" next weekend that will no doubt be essentially a race. I'll have to see if I can do that and still check out the TDL course while not being too late in posting the daily COVID-19 Flash Report that I've been providing for Tulane senior administration for the past few months. The state's department of health doesn't post anything on Saturdays, so I don't have any problems on those days, but I usually try to get the report out around noon on other days. It wouldn't be a disaster if it was a little late on Sunday, though.