November Summer

The Sunday Giro - Lakeshore Drive warmup

It was 5:25 Saturday morning and I was standing in front of the dresser drawer stuffed with cycling clothes, looking for something to wear for the Giro Ride. Earlier, the forecast had been calling for a front with a lot of rain to move through in the morning, but looking at the radar it now looked like it wouldn't come through until closer to noon. The annual Tour da Parish ride that had been scheduled for that day had already been postponed until Sunday because of the forecast. Then Candy walked in from feeding the dog and said, "It's raining outside." Indeed, the street was a bit wet, but the rain was barely a light sprinkle. I thought about it for a minute and, on the assumption that it was just going to get more wet and that nobody would show up for the Giro, threw the clothes back into the drawer and myself back into the bed. Naturally, it didn't rain any more until late afternoon and I could have ridden, even if it had been alone.

Friendly Friday Fog

Anyway, it was clear that Sunday's weather would be fine, and since the Tour da Parish ride had been pushed back until 1:00 pm, I figured I could ride the Giro, chill out at home for a couple of hours, and then head down to St. Bernard for the ride. I would be picking up Josiah, one of the Tulane riders, at 11:15. As expected, the Giro was a little thin attendance-wise, considering that many of those riders were planning on doing the afternoon ride, but there was still a group of 25 or so on hand. The "front" that had come through Saturday evening hadn't brought much in the way of cooler temperatures so everyone was in summer kit for the first day back on Daylight Saving Time. It was nice to have a little light for the ride out to Starbucks after weeks and weeks in the dark. The ride itself was mostly nice and steady - just a bit slower than usual. I got back home with the usual 59 miles a little hungry and thirsty but quite far from tired. That was good because I was expecting the afternoon ride to be fairly fast.

The Tulane riders - their new team kits came in the following day!

We got to the Tour da Parish an hour before the start, as planned. For me, this 50-mile ride would be similar to a regular Giro Ride, just on a different course. For Josiah it would be one of his longest rides ever. Turnout looked pretty good as we wrapped the color-coded wrist bands around our handlebars and pinned on the oddly large numbers that, really, served little purpose since the ride was not timed and there would be no "results" posted. A few minutes before the start I lined in near the front of the group with a subset of Giro riders and four or five of the Tulane riders. To accommodate my split loyalties that day I was wearing my NOBC/Apolline shorts with my Tulane jersey.

capture from TJ's video

These kinds of rides always seem pretty chaotic and sketchy for the first few miles until the speed and course eventually sort the group out generally by fitness level. As expected, there was a surge after we went around the road closure via a short section of crushed rock, but was wasn't expected was the riders who managed to get into the draft of the lead police motorcycle at 29-32 mph. There was a feeble attempt to chase that down, but pretty quickly the rider came back to the group anyway. I was trying to stay closer to the front than the back, and for me it was a little stressful for the next ten or fifteen miles because of the unfamiliar riders. Mary Beth was there on her Specialized E-bike, and there was one other rider there on what looked like the same E-bike. I rode alongside Mary Beth for a while as she remarked, not entirely without good reason, things like, "This is dumb. All of you guys are dumb!" Nevertheless, she was having no trouble staying with the group as we rolled down the narrow strips of asphalt alongside little bayous packed with fishing boats. I would later learn that at one point when there was a brief surge up into the 30s she had accidentally switched the E-bike to "off" instead of "turbo" and lost contact with the dwindling front group. For me, though, it was mostly just a moderate effort, cruising along in the ample draft among the front ten or fifteen riders. If there was a paceline at the front it must have been limited to just a handful of riders because I found myself at the front only a few times.

Allene of Bike Easy

As expected, the speed started to ramp up a bit on the last 6-mile stretch, which is about when I saw Dustin accelerate down the left side to the front. We still had to navigate that little crushed rock bit around the barricades about a mile and a half from the end, and I had no intention whatsoever of risking life or limb there. Naturally, though, I think Dustin attacked there, taking a short-cut through the turn in the grass and surging back up to 28 mph or so. I think he then looked back, saw nobody chasing, and put the hammer down for the last bit. I came through fairly close to the front but got held up a bit by riders ahead of me, so when I got back onto the asphalt there was a pretty significant gap ahead of me to a little group. As I debated the wisdom of putting in the major effort it would take to get up to them in a ride with no places or prizes or results, the E-bike rider came past me on the left. Knowing that he would be easily able to ramp up to 28 mph, the limit of the bike's assist, I figured, "what the hell" and latched onto his wheel. So a minute later we were back in the group just in time to watch a few of them sprint for the "finish" that was marked only by a few police officers standing in the road. All-in-all it was a fun ride with lots of food and drink at the end. All of the Tulane riders survived unscathed, as did I.

Somewhere near the end I had noticed that Charles had disappeared from the front group. After the finish I turned around and rode back in the opposite direction for a mile or so, finally finding him. "I flatted" he said as I passed. Charles and Dan had ridden out to the ride from the French Quarter. I waited around for quite a while until Josiah finished. Just as he wandered off to change clothes and have a drink or something my phone rang. It was Charles. Dan had flatted on their way home and they had had some problems fixing the flat, leaving them without any more CO2, so I gathered up Josiah and we headed off on a little search and rescue mission. Christian, as it turned out, had left a bit before us and seen Charles and Dan at a gas station, so by the time we arrived Dan had decided to just get Christian to give him a ride home. That left Charles to ride back alone in the last bit of sunlight, so instead we loaded his bike into the car to give him a lift back as well since the ride back can be a little sketchy even under the best of circumstances. All was going well until we caught a train in the Bywater and were stopped for the better part of 45 minutes as the sun set. Eventually enough cars drove over the neutral ground to find another way that we were able to turn right and make our way over to Claiborne where there is an overpass over the tracks. So it turned into a long day, but I was happy to have gotten in around 110 enjoyable miles without really doing much damage. 

Tuesday morning on the levee

This morning, Tuesday, we had a visiting rider from Vermont for the morning levee ride. It was still summer-like weather. For some reason my phone hadn't charged overnight so I had left it at home. We started with a pretty good-sized group, ending up with I guess six after some riders turned back early. The way back was into a moderate headwind but we were rolling along at a nice pace anyway. When Martin turned off around River Ridge I looked back and realized that Jared, the visiting rider, was suddenly missing. Then I remembered thinking that his rear tire had looked a little low and figured he must have flatted, which turned out to have been the case. So Charles and I turned back to find him and we were later joined by Martin for a little while. Jared and I then stopped at Zotz on Oak Street for coffee. I hadn't been there since COVID started, so it had been almost two years. By the time I got home Candy was about to go out and search for me since I was a good 45 minutes later than usual and had picked the wrong day not to have my phone which would normally have been showing her my location via Garmin.