Quickie to Mobile

Friday a week ago on Filmore, riding past the City Park golf course

The first thing I do upon awakening this time of year is check the weather radar. The second thing is to calculate the size of the wager I'm willing to make on getting soaked. This week we, or at least I, mostly lucked out. Tuesday's levee ride was pretty normal until the batter died on my Garmin just before the turnaround. Fortunately, and unlike a lot of other riders nowadays, I have a couple of decades worth of experience riding without the benefit of speed, distance, cadence, power, elevation, grade, weather, text-message, and Strava segment data. It's unusual for me to let my computer's battery get that low, and I think I must not have plugged it into the charger fully because it charged up normally the next time. Go figure. 

The Wednesday WeMoRi was likewise unremarkable, which in the case of the WeMoRi is always a relief. With the days getting shorter, and the morning light further compromised by often-cloudy skies, it seemed suddenly much darker as I made my way out to Lakeshore Drive. The city has torn up practically every street between Fontainbleau and S. Claiborne, so I've been taking S. Claiborne to Carrollton lately. At 5:45 am it's not too bad. They have the right lane blocked off for a few blocks because of yet another big hole they dug in the street, so I can slip past on the right side of the traffic cones there which provides at least the illusion of safety. By the end of Wednesday's ride I'd pretty much decided to do the first stage of the Mobile Cycling Classic on Saturday. Of the three races over the weekend, that was the only one that was an actual circuit. The other two races were back-and-forth affairs with U-turns at each end - something I would otherwise call "intervals" for those of us who would not likely be up at the front of the group. Relatively speaking I'm actually pretty good racing on courses with U-turns but I didn't really want to spend the whole weekend in Mobile since I will be heading off to Olympia for a few days at the end of this week. Anyway, by Thursday I was starting to think about easing up a little bit on the riding so I'd at least be fully recovered for Saturday.

The Thursday levee ride started out with pretty much the usual group. At the start there were rumblings about people needing to turn back early for one reason or another, which isn't all that unusual but seems to be particularly common during the first couple of weeks after schools start back up for the Fall semester. Even so, I was a little bit surprised when, after taking a pull around Williams Blvd., I pulled off and realized there was nobody behind me. I'd been abandoned! It was probably a good thing, though, because it allowed me to drift back down to a steady, easier pace. I turned back a bit early to accommodate the slower speed, which got me back home at the usual time. Friday's Friendly Friday ride was fairly routine, which is to say it had a few fast sections but was overall fairly moderate. By then I was avoiding putting my nose in the wind, so perhaps my perspective was a bit different.

Guess I should have brought the LAMBRA
finish line camera to this Alabama race
but they were using chip timing, so.....

So Saturday morning I rolled out of be at 5 am, threw the bike and the big NOBC P/A system (lending it to the race in Hattiesburg for next weekend) into the car, and headed East. My gut was not very happy from the start, likely thanks to the prior night's dinner of steamed artichoke, but things eventually settled down during the 2-hour drive to the race, just east of Mobile, Alabama. As usual, the weather forecast was all over the place, which is to say it would probably rain at some random time and at various random locations. Whether your particular race would be wet or dry was just a roll of the dice. Even though the road surface was practically perfect smooth concrete, I had lowered my tire pressures a bit just in case. I think the 25mm Michelin's were at around 80-85 psi, which is still about ten PSI higher than most would recommend. Personally I'd rather deal with a bit extra harshness in order to avoid pinch-flats and the barely perceptible increase in mushiness.

The sky was still looking OK when the 50-minute Masters race started, so that was good. I lined up in the middle of the 24-rider group along with Brett Reagan, Peter Stephens, and a few others I know. The rest were just wild cards, which was fine since I was there just as packfill anyway, and my goal was basically to stay with a group and not get lapped. I knew things would get messy because there were at least eight different races going on within the same race. The Alabama riders were racing for their state criterium championships - in three different age groups. Some riders were also racing for the overall 3-event Omnium prizes. Some were probably racing for the overall win. There were a couple of Alabama teams that would also be playing team strategy games as well. 

Cat 1/2/3 race lining up on Saturday

So the race starts and of course I miss clipping in. I look down and the left pedal is spinning at about 200 rpm. I step on it and then finally flip it around and get clipped in, but not without having most of the field pass me up. So much for the good starting position. Fortunately things started out pretty easy, so I was never in difficulty. We were only two or three laps in when I see Brett rolling off the front. He glances back, sees a little gap, and presses gently on the accelerator. As the gap starts to open at, what for me was an alarming rate, I look over at whoever was next to me at the time and remark, "I don't think they really want to let that one go!" 

I guess the gap was out to close to 30 seconds when the pace picked up and a small group spit off the front. It didn't seem to be going fast enough, or with sufficient determination, to catch Brett so I just stayed where I was in the cheap seats at the back with the old guys. It was a couple of laps later, just after turn #3 (the turns were more like wide 2-lane curves, so I use the term broadly) when I see Emile attacking down the right side. My instinct told me that was the only chance to get back up to the real chase group, but I wasn't in a very good position and was somewhat lacking in motivation. As it turned out that pulled a couple more across the gap and established a chase group of 8 or 9 riders, none of whom were in the 60+ age group. That group did eventually catch Brett, after which Eric Nelson must have attacked because he ended up finishing over 30 seconds up on the rest of that group. Brett finished 3rd or 4th, which was 2nd in the 50+ age group. Meanwhile, back the off-the-back pack, the pace was relatively steady. With two or three laps to go I started trying to move up a bit as the pace began creeping up. The last lap was at around 28 mph, which was faster than it felt thanks to the easy, fast "corners" and ample draft. Between the third and fourth turns Peter Stephens attacked hard and opened a nice gap that allowed him to hold off the sprinters all the way to the line. I'm not sure exactly where I was through the last turn, which was about 300 meters from the finish, but I eventually put in a decent enough sprint, finishing 3rd or 4th in that group. A light rain had just started to fall as I did a cool-down lap, and by the time I rode over to pick up my spare wheels from the pit we were in the midst of a serious thunderstorm, complete with enough lightning that they postponed the next race until it eased up. I ended up completely soaked, of course, but what better time to get rained on than immediately after a hot summer criterium?

I hung around until the rest of the races were finished and enjoyed seeing Peyton take the win in the Cat. 1/2/3 race. When he was up on the podium someone asked him how old he was (he's 15), which was followed up with, "Can you drive yet??" (he can't, of course). So I ended up getting back home around 3:30 I guess, after surviving one of those fifteen minute blinding summer rainstorms on I-10.

Sunday Giro heading out.

I got up Sunday feeling none the worse for wear and headed out for the Sunday Giro Ride, which had its moments but was a pretty normal Sunday Giro. I ended the week a bit below 250 miles for the first time in over then weeks so I can't complain about that. I probably needed a little less volume anyway. This morning, Monday, I dusted off the old Orbea and rode it for the Mellow Monday ride which was anything but Mellow. I guess there were a couple of guys trying to make up for missed intensity from the prior week or something because it got pretty fast for a while. I was doing my best to limit my efforts for the most part, though, because, well, it was a Monday for chrissakes. 

As it has been for the past few weeks, the weather forecast for this week has a lot of rain in it. Maybe I'll find myself underneath some of it. Maybe not. One thing that has my attention, though, is some new activity in the Atlantic coming off of Africa and heading my our general direction. It already has a name, "Invest 90," and 5-day cyclone formation chance under 40%, but that's normal for anything at that point and it can change practically overnight. Intensity models are putting it into tropical storm range within a couple of days, so we may well end up with a "named" storm, in this case Danielle. A week from today will be August 29. Hurricane Katrina hit us on August 29.  Hurricane Ida last year was August 29-30.  Hurricane Laura in 2020 was around August 27.  The end of August and most of September are definitely prime time for hurricanes. Hoping this one doesn't ruin our plans for next week.