Alone and Wet

Saturday Giro

The past few days have been warmer but wetter - two things that always seem to go together this time of year. Thursday morning I looked out the window, slightly surprised that it wasn't actually raining as had been predicted. The street was good and wet but the radar didn't look too bad, so I figured I'd head over to the levee and see if anyone was going to show up. The evening before I had lent my old Orbea to Irvin T., a visiting rider from B.C., Canada who happened to ride the same size as I. I'd then volunteered Charles for Sherpa duty so he could stop by the Marriott on his way to the morning ride and show Irvin the way. But at 3:30 am Charles and Big Rich both bailed, citing the wet streets. Unsurprisingly, nobody was up on the levee, but I'd dressed with the idea that I'd be getting a little wet and I was already there, so I went ahead and rode. There was a bit of a tailwind on the way out that lured me into doing the full ride out to Ormond, despite the occasional light rain. Fortunately it wasn't cold. I was approaching the Huey P bridge on the way back when I felt the rear tire going mushy and knew I'd picked up one of those shards that always seem to cause flats on the levee when its wet. As usual when I'm riding alone, I was content with an easy 19-20 mph pace.

The Friendly Friday ride had a good turnout, including Irvin, but lacking Charles who had slashed his tire shortly after meeting up with Irvin. As Friendly Friday rides go, this one had a pretty big turnout and consequently got quite fast coming back on Lakeshore Drive, which pretty much shattered the group. Irvin then missed the turn onto Canal and basically got lost a bit. When we got back to the Museum I rode back out to Wisner looking for him but he was nowhere to be found. As it turned out he had gone back downtown via St. Bernard Avenue.

Saturday's Giro had a good turnout despite a questionable rain forecast. The last time I checked they were predicting rain by 9:00 am, however, so getting in most of the Giro before that was at least feasible. This time Charles and Irvin both made it, arriving just before we started. I had given Irvin a complete rundown on the Giro, including where shortcuts were and what the options were if dropped. The pace was about average for the Giro that morning, so it wasn't too hard to sit in the draft, but somewhere along the way Irvin lost contact. Judging from his Strava it looks like he lost contact around the end of Hayne. Then he apparently didn't turn at Chef and ended up on Almonaster where I guess he stopped to look at a map. As we were returning on Chef I saw him coming the other way at which time he made a u-turn and got onto the back of the group. Unfortunately, we were probably going 28-30 mph at that point, so he was soon off the back again, although I think he did get together with someone else. When we got to Hayne the pace ramped up again to the high 20s and gaps started opening up all over the place. I was able to get into what I think was the second group. I think Charles was with another little group just behind. So we get back to Lakeshore Drive and as we're riding past that section where there are houses near the traffic circle, I see Eddie D with his bike on the grass talking on his phone. We stopped to see what the problem was and found out that Charles had crashed on the bridge and taken a few spokes out of his front wheel, so they were arranging for someone with a car to go rescue him. A few of us started to ride back to the bridge, but a few more riders, including Irvin, came by and told us that Matt was already on the way to pick him up. Fortunately, it happened as they were sprinting up the bridge, so the speed was low and the injuries minor. 

Fred's memorial bench in Abita Springs

By the time I started back home it was beginning to rain, again, so I got home wet and cold, again. Later that afternoon as I was cleaning the bike, again, I discovered that both of the plastic locknuts on my Look Keo pedals were loose. They rely on Loctite to stay in place - locknuts are generally a thing of the past nowadays when weight-saving is the name of the game for manufacturers. One of them was just a few threads from coming off of the spindle entirely, so I was lucky I'd noticed it. I ended up taking both of them apart and re-greasing them, but it was too late to save the left one. Water must have gotten into that one some time ago and the inner bearing was shot. I put it back together even though it was a little rough and I'm sure it will be fine until I get a new set. That's the first time I've ever had a problem with Look pedals. That particular set had a bit over 44,000 miles on it, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. In a related note, the Bianchi Sempre Plus mileage is now a bit over 98,000 now. I still think of it as my "new" bike.

Longhorn on Old Military Road

I had a northshore training ride planned for Sunday but on Saturday afternoon I sent out messages saying that the forecast looked like rain. Depending on which forecast you looked at, it was going to be either raining or raining a lot starting around 9:00 am. I posted a suggested route anyway, with the notation that if it was raining I wouldn't be there. I went to bed Saturday night fully expecting it to be raining by 4 am, which is what the southshore forecast suggested. Then, when I woke up Sunday morning, I was surprised to see that it wasn't raining and the radar did not look that bad at all, so I decided to go ahead and drive over to Abita Springs. I was hoping that a few of the northshore riders might show up, but was going to ride regardless. It certainly didn't look like the weather would be any better on the southshore, and indeed it looked to be a little worse. 

I got there around 8 am for the 8:30 am start and was, of course, alone. A little group did come by that was doing the Talisheek loop, but it was only 8:15 and I didn't want to leave with them in case someone expecting to do the 8:30 ride showed up. Nobody did, though, so I headed out alone, determined to get in a few miles. Well, I wasn't ten miles in before a light rain started to fall. The temperature was in the mid to upper 50s, but suspecting that I might get wet, I had put on my Goretex wind socks, long-sleeve Gore base layer, knee warmers, long-sleeve jersey, and Gore gloves. I was also wearing a wind vest that I had planned to take off once I warmed up. That never happened, though, because there was a steady light drizzle for most of the ride and of course the streets were wet. I made a few changes to my planned route in order to minimize time on the busier highways, and got back to the car, thoroughly soaked, with 60+ miles and no flats, so I was happy with that. The Giro Ride had been rained out anyway, so it's not like I missed anything. I was glad that I had a dry towel and change of clothes in my bag! So despite a lot of weather issues last week I logged 320 miles anyway, thanks mostly to the long Monday ride and my own obsessiveness I guess.

This morning the temperature was back down in the 40s and I made the snap decision to take the day off.