Midsummer Rides

The July 4 Giro heads out along Marconi

We are more or less back into our summer pattern now, both meteorological and cyclelogical. The relentlessly hot temperatures have been slightly subdued by the occasional thunderstorms and replaced with a mostly suffocating blanket of humidity. One arrives back home after a ride soaked to the skin with sweat, an occurrence that even the $100 high-tech fabric jerseys through which you could read a book in the dark are nonetheless powerless to prevent. Glasses are smeared with sweat halfway through the morning ride, and top tubes are splattered with body fluids, mostly sweat. Still, I admit I prefer all of that to those 30° winter rides into those 15 mph north winds. To each his own, I guess.

Sunday Giro - some wet roads out to the east made for a nice sauna feeling

The group rides this week were sometimes a little less intense than usual, probably because after a while people were feeling like wet dishrags that had been left out in the sun too long. After the usual Monday and Tuesday rides I went out earlier than usual to meet the WeMoRi, turning onto Lakeshore Drive a few minutes ahead of the group so that they didn't sweep me up until I was already on the way back from the Armory loop. The pace was still pretty fast, and after the turn onto Wisner a big gap opened up ahead of me (of course). There was a little help with the chase, but it was looking pretty hopeless until the group ahead had to stop for a light and were able to re-group. Then, crossing Toussaint, the front of the group blew through just as the light was turning red, causing another split as the rest of us chose life over WeMoRi fame. A few reacted quickly and made the bridge. I wasn't one of them. Still, it was a good enough workout and my early arrival meant some bonus miles as well. The Thursday morning levee group turnout was sparse and since apparently I wasn't the only one with dead legs, we turned around really early, chopping about 15 miles off of the usual 41 mile ride. I wasn't complaining, though.

By Saturday I was feeling a little better for the Giro Ride, which in this case turned out to be moderately fast and more than moderately hot. It was July 4th weekend, and as things were going it was looking like I'd be doing three Giro Rides in a row. On Sunday we had one flat shortly after turning back from Venetian Isles, and then one of the riders slammed into one of the big cracks on Lake Forest and pinch-flatted both tires. I gave him one of my tubes and an valve extender, and although obviously it took longer than usual we were back on the road in a reasonable amount of time. Somehow, though, stopping in the sun mid-ride on a hot summer morning really takes the wind out of your sails.

Mellow Monday before the July 4th Giro

The July 4th holiday Giro had a reasonable turnout, and fortunately nobody was trying to really push the pace. I had gone out early to do the usual Mellow Monday ride, which had only four people including me, before turning off just in time to meet up with the Giro group at Starbucks. Shortly after we got onto Hayne, JC slammed into one of the broken up concrete potholes over on the right and not only flatted both tires but also practically destroyed his rear rim. Luckily after changing the tube the tire didn't blow off the rim where it was badly dented, so he was able to limp back while the rest of us continued on. As if we hadn't had enough holiday weekend flats already, there was yet another just as we were getting back onto the Interstate at Lake Forest. By the time we were halfway back my neck and upper back were on fire despite the Naproxin I'd taken earlier that morning. I guess the extra miles and extra Giro finally took their toll. At any rate, the ride home was kind of miserable.

We had a couple of the neighbors over for dinner that night, which was nice even if I did end up drinking a glass or two more than the recommended daily allowance. The dog is slowly getting better, having refined his begging style to minimize the incessant barking, but he's still got a long way to go. As we were saying good-night to everyone at the front door he managed to get both paws up onto the table and take a big bite out of the cake. Frankly we were both too tired by then to give him much grief about that.

This morning we had a small group for the Tuesday levee ride. Charles was at home waiting for the long-awaited air-conditioner replacement that involved an extra thousand dollars or so for a crane to lift the equipment over the front part of the French Quarter building. At least the Vieux Carré Commission didn't make him get the color of the compressor approved for historical correctness. Anyway, I was still clearly feeling the effects of the long weekend but nonetheless hung in there for the full ride that was mostly just Boyd, Martin, and me, and eventually just Martin and me. I was feeling pretty wasted by the time Martin pulled off to head home and pretty soon I just shut it down and cruised in on whatever fumes were left in the tank. It looks like Entergy has finished building the big new towers on the levee to support the transmission lines over the river. Those were the ones that came down during the Hurricane when the tower on the westbank collapsed. They have signs up now saying that the levee bike path, and likely also River Road, will be closed from July 6 (tomorrow) through August 01. I guess we'll find out how it's going to work on Thursday. I guess we won't have a problem on the way out since we will be there by about 6:10 am. Coming back, though, will be another matter. I can't see them closing down the road full-time, but who knows?

There's not much on the calendar for July, but things will start to pick up again in August. I'm hoping to finally be able to make the Mobile races on the 20th and 21st, but will miss the next weekend's races in Hattiesburg because we'll be visiting The Daughter up in Olympia. 

I did my time a long
time ago!

People are inexplicably rushing to sign up for the NOMA to NOMA "race" which is traditionally basically a 160-mile Alleycat. They're limiting registration to 100, probably in hopes of keeping it all under the radar of the various jurisdictions through which it secretly passes. They're charging only $15 to register, so I guess people are figuring "why not?" I'm sure they will fill the 100 slots within a few days. The route, which last year was more or less optional, involves a fair amount of Tammany Trace bike path and Highway 21 on the northshore. Some of the riders will actually race it and finish in a mere seven and a half hours or less. Some will do it at a more moderate pace with a couple of brief stops and take more like eight and a half hours. Some who probably shouldn't have registered in the first place will be halfway around the lake and already an hour and a half behind before realizing they've made a horrible mistake and will be out there for ten or more hours. Last year one rider took 14 hours and the last rider was out there for around 16 hours. None of them will be me, as I'm quite sure I'd need narcotics to handle the expected neck and upper back pain, but if the weather is OK I may ride out to at least the Spillway as I did last year to see the first of the riders come through. Hopefully everyone survives and nobody ends up in the hospital ... or back seat of a sheriff's car.