Tour de Jefferson Week

Thursday morning TUCA levee ride

Last Sunday was the annual Tour de Jefferson ride, just across the river, and complete with its usual complement of six U-turns and copious traffic cones, at least one of which took a rider down. The week started off chilly and windy, as often happens this time of year. I went out to meet the WeMoRi group, wearing arm-warmers and base layer, and battling a brutal 20 mph NE wind. I wondered if there would even be a group to meet, under such meteorological circumstances, and if there was, if the waves crashing over the seawall would render Lakeshore Drive inadvisable. Both questions were answered when I saw the group heading the opposite direction as I made my way down Wisner. As I suspected, they had skipped the LSD segment and opted instead for an extra couple of laps around City Park. I cut across the park on Filmore and rode down Marconi until I saw them coming, then jumped onto the tail end shortly before the turn onto Toussaint. As usual, I was immediately in the red, hanging on for dear life as we made the turn onto Wisner. Being the last rider through that turn is never a good thing, and being the last rider when you are already gassed and there's a north wind is a recipe for disaster, which of course ensued shortly thereafter when I blew up trying to close the gap. So I again cut across the park, this time at Harrison, got back into the group, got gapped off the back around the overpass, then thankfully towed back to the group by Marconi. Not my best WeMoRi.

Thursday's conditions were much the same, but instead of my usual ride I met up with the Tulane group for an easy levee ride, followed by a coffee stop at Breads on Oak where we employed the gift card Carly had given us when she borrowed one of the club's bikes earlier. Friendly Friday was cold, dark, and windy, so although there were a few fast tailwind segments, it was otherwise reasonably friendly.

With the TdJ approaching on Sunday, Saturday's Giro group was just big enough to provide a little shelter from the 10 mph northeast wind and keep things more or less together. The group was kind of indecisive, with a lot of riders hovering in the draft and reluctant to put themselves into the wind. Still, it was by no means an easy ride if the 29.5 mph average speed coming back down Hayne Blvd. is any indication. Fortunately, I managed to avoid doing much damage to my ageing legs.

I had been contacted by Rich Hirschinger who was in down for a few days with a dental conference and asked about borrowing a bike, as he had done a few years ago. His only day to ride was Sunday, so when I told  him that pretty much everyone would be doing the Tour de Jeff, he went ahead and signed himself up, so I got the old Orbea set up for his saddle height, put a fresh tire on the front wheel, and just generally cleaned it up. We had a number of Tulane riders signed up for the event, and I was scheduled to pick up Abbie from campus, so on Sunday morning I loaded the two bikes onto the roof, picked up Abbie and her bike, swung by Le Méridien hotel to pick up Rich, and arrived at the Estelle Playground just a bit after 7 am for the 8 am ride start. The weather was pretty nice, with a clear blue sky, moderate wind, and starting temperature in the 60s.

The Tour de Jefferson, as usual, attracted practically all of the usual Giro Ride riders, along with all of the Westbank riders, so there was a pretty strong group crowding the start as things got underway. From prior experience I knew what to expect, of course, but as usual wasn't sure I wanted to fully commit  to what would likely be a fairly unrelenting pace interspersed with sprints out of each U-turn.

After the mile or so of neutral rollout, Bill Burke, who was driving the lead car, hit the gas and so did the front of the group. In a heartbeat the speed went up to around 28 mph into a moderate headwind as the group sprinted for the first U-turn just a mile and change away. As usual, chaos ensued rounding the U-turn as those of us toward the back  had to slow to 10 mph as the front of the group was ramping up to 30 with the tailwind. Many gaps opened up, and the next mile was a pretty frantic and fractured 31 mph chase that split about half the group off the back for good. I barely survived thanks to the draft of a few valiant riders. That scenario would repeat itself a few times over the course of the 50-mile ride, but the first one was by far the worst, and for some of the subsequent ones I made sure to move up closer to the front before the turns, which I was monitoring on my computer, at least until something went awry with the navigation about 40 miles in. After that first split we lost all of the Tulane riders except Evan, who was doing a nice job of staying mid-field and out of trouble. At one point we were making a right turn where the right lane had been marked off for the ride by a seemingly infinite row of traffic cones. Unfortunately, as we approached the turn the row of traffic cones curved to the right earlier than the riders, and Sidney, who had his GoPro running, went down, but wasn't badly hurt and still finished the ride. You can't see traffic cones when you are in a group like that, and it was obvious that the riders in front of him expected the row to continue straight along the lane divider when all of a sudden then next one was a foot into the lane and the one after that two feet into the lake. The rider ahead of him swerved to avoid the first one, and went around the second one on the left, while Devin rode straight into that one.

So since my only goal for this ride was to avoid being dropped from the front group, things were going along nicely. There was a decent number of riders willing to work at the front, so the pace stayed pretty fast throughout, and a couple of small breakaways that might have been successful on another day were nonetheless pulled back. There was a little sprint for the imaginary finish line prior to the right turn into the park where the actual chip-timing antennas were, with young Connor taking the win. I just tried to be close enough to the front to stay out of trouble, so never got above 31 mph, and  have no idea what placing that would have been if the timing had ended there. I think I was around 14th under the banner after the turn for whatever that is worth. 

Anyway, I was really happy that we had a good turnout of TUCA riders, with Dylan, Josiah, Evan, Joey, Abbie, Jess, our alumnus Rich, and myself. I still haven't quite decided if I want to drive up to Ridgeland for one of two of next weekend's small cyclocross races. That may end up being a last-minute decision. On the plus side, the weather should be fine. The following weekend we'll have the 10th annual Tour da Parish down in St. Bernard, which usually plays out in similar fashion to the Tour de Jefferson.

Tuesday morning heading back into the rising sun

Mellow Monday this week was reasonably Mellow despite that northeast wind that just won't go away, and then on Tuesday things got fast when Maurizio took the front on Lakeshore Drive. I was a couple of minutes late getting to City Park for some reason, I just went straight on Wisner, meeting up with the group on Lakeshore Drive. The group kind of fractured at some point, and then as usual most of the riders turned off for home at the end of Lakeshore Drive, leaving just Jeff and me for the out-and-back to the casino. Jeff was on his TT bike, and with a little bit of tailwind we stayed in a comfortable 22-23 mph range all the way out, dropping down by one or two mph on the way back. This morning's WeMoRi was a little unusual, I guess. I could see the group's headlights approaching as I turned onto Marconi, but was then surprised to find a group of only four riders as I hopped into the draft at the back. I wasn't expecting the break of MJ, Nick, Steve, and Scott to survive too long, since there seemed to be a pretty big group behind them. For most of the time Scott and I were just hanging onto the back as the other three rotated at the front, which was probably a good thing for the break because if I'd started taking pulls it would probably have just slowed them down. Anyway, I guess the main group just didn't have the motivation to mount a sustained chase, because with our average speed of 25 mph, the break was never caught.