Around Again

It had already been a high-mileage, if not high-intensity, Christmas week as we collectively closed in on another lap around the local Yellow Dwarf we call "The Sun," and I coincidentally closed in on another fourteen thousand mile year. As the week started, there was yet another lap in my immediate future, although I didn't know about it at the time.

The one nice thing about working for a university, aside from the frequent interaction with overworked administrators and overconfident students, is the long holiday break that this year began the Monday before Christmas and ends the day after New Year's Day. This provides great opportunities to do things like fix up the house, which I almost never actually get around to, and ride a lot, which I almost always do get around to. As we often do, we had a Holiday Giro ride the day before Christmas, which started off a little chilly but was otherwise nice despite the steady east wind that I was doing my best to avoid. 

On Wednesday, Christmas Day, it was warmer. I got up at the usual time for the WeMoRi, which I knew would not actually happen that day, looked out the window, and remembered that I could ride later when the sun was up and it was even warmer. 

I finally rolled out of the house some time after 7:30, on the 'cross bike, for a little easy spin before the scheduled festivities at my sister's house. Fortunately for my grossly inadequate off-road skills, the City of New Orleans has thoughtfully provided numerous stretches of gravel and dirt roads, interspersed with the occasional pavé segment, within a few city blocks of home. After sharpening my skills on those without incident I made my way out to the levee to ride the little batture trail. It made for a short but peaceful and relaxing  Christmas morning ride.

Thursday morning the somewhat wet streets were deserted as I rode out to NOMA to see if anyone would show up for the 6 am ride. Nobody did, so it was another solo ride for me, mostly along the lakefront. I did see a couple of other riders, also alone. So go the holidays, I guess. By then, Charles and Dan, who is apparently back in town, had hatched the slightly insane idea of doing a ride around the Lake the following Sunday, starting at the equally insane time of 4:00 am. These are the kinds of things that tend to happen around this time of year when people start looking at their annual Strava mileage and searching for some last-minute challenges to coax a few more kudos from their devoted followers. I was definitely on the fence, and definitely feeling no need for any additional challenges this year beyond just waking up each morning on the right side of the dirt.

Friday was another wet and even warmer morning as the wind had shifted around to the SSE, so I once again decided to wait for the sun to rise before venturing out. It wasn't until 10:00 that things looked good and the streets looked a little less wet before I stepped out the door and rode off toward the levee. Lured into a false sense of fitness by the tailwind, and the fact there was little traffic on River Road, I decided to drop down to the highway at the parish line and make the two-mile detour around the closed section of bike path. I ended up going all the way out to the Spillway and logging over 50 easy miles. By then I was starting to seriously consider joining Sunday's ride around the lake, despite the 4 am start and the fact that there were storms forecasted for Saturday night as a cold front was coming through. The hourly forecast predicted the rain to stop by 3 am or so, which was cutting things kind of close.

Saturday was the usual Giro Ride, which had a smallish turnout thanks to the weather radar, and despite a totally conflicting weather forecast. The Giro ended up being on mostly wet roads with a bit of rain during the ride, and then a significant amount of rain on my way home. I had to wash off the bike for the third time that week. Although the pace had been moderate, by Giro standards, I was still rather tired by the time I got home, soaking wet, and jumped straight into a warm shower. The higher mileage for the week was already taking its toll and I was already questioning my decision to ride around Lake Pontchartrain the following day. As predicted, there were some big thunderstorms overnight, but also as predicted, they ended around 2 am or so.

The alarm went off as planned at 3:00 am, and I looked out the window at the wet streets below. It was a dark and moonless night, and the wet streets made it harder than usual to see all of the little things that want to puncture your tires. My legs already felt a little sore and stiff, and if I had been expecting the ride to be fast I would have definitely bailed. The cold front was working its way through with a WNW wind that would be gradually shifting around to mostly north by early afternoon. The group had decided to do the ride in the counter-clockwise direction based on some rather tentative logic involving the wind, but, you know, it's a loop, so if there's wind, you aren't likely to escape it much. The temperature was in the low to mid 60s and would probably fall a few degrees over the next few hours until the heat from the sun could counter the cold air streaming in from the northwest. I arrived at NOMA to find just Apryl, and a text from Charles that he and Dan would be delayed because Dan's bike had a flat tire. It was an omen. Will rolled up shortly thereafter. I knew that three hours in the dark on wet streets would mean a flat tire or two among the five riders we'd have. That would turn out to be a huge underestimate. 

This image pretty much sums up the day.

We finally rolled out about fifteen minutes late with Dan, Charles, Apryl, and Will, and I immediately realized my rear tire was almost flat. I pulled a piece of glass out of the tire and put in one of my two tubes, and we headed out to Chef Highway where, ten minutes later, my rear tire was flat again. This time it was a piece of metal wire that I had to pull out using the scissors of my little pocket knife. We had gone ten miles and had three flats. Dan had forgotten his saddle bag at home, but the other four of us had two inner tubes each. We were now down to six, but no worries, right? The streets were still soaking wet and it was a dark moonless night, so although there was virtually no traffic, the next couple of hours from there to Slidell was all wheel spray and blinding bike tail lights. On the plus side, not a single car passed us on Highway 90 from Venetian Isles to Fort Pike. We stopped at the store in Slidell a bit before sunrise and then made our way to the Tammany Trace. There we found the soaking wet bike path strewn with debris from the prior night's storm. A tree was down at one point that we had to climb over. It was fairly sketchy riding, and Dan was trying to keep up a pace that some of us weren't, under the circumstances, and kept riding off ahead.  Dan wanted to see if Highway 190 would be a better option, so he, Charles, and I rode over to it, only to decide against the idea and return to the Trace. By then Apryl and Will were a few miles ahead of us, but when I called them I found out they were stopped to fix a flat (number 4 if you're counting). 

Then Charles flatted. As usual with a tubeless tire flat in the wet, it wouldn't seal. We eventually found another piece of steel wire, among other things, in the tire, then pinching the first tube we put in, and finally getting rolling again with another tube. So we had by then used 5 of the 8 tubes (by then I'd lost count) we had and still had about 100 miles to go. Dan rode off ahead of us to meet back up at the trailhead, and I called Mignon who lives practically along the Trace to see if she had any tubes she would give us so we wouldn't end up a Walmart. She saved the day by meeting us with four tubes. When we got to the Mandeville trailhead to meet up with Dan we found him with a flat front tire (#6). As we finished fixing that one, Apryl discovered that one of her tires was flat. So that made 7 (I think) flats, but thanks to Mignon we still had four good tubes and Will had an actual pump. As we were fixing Apryl's flat a group of triathletes showed up, having finished their morning ride, and taking pity on us, they donated a couple of CO2 cartridges to the cause. By then the streets were starting to dry out and we headed out of Mandeville toward Pontchatoula on infamous highway 22 where traffic was fast and heavy. We almost made it, but Charles had another flat, so we used another tube. On the plus side, the clouds were clearing and the sun was starting to shine. We were probably well over an hour behind schedule.

The rest of the way down highway 55 was thankfully without incident except that my Garmin battery finally died somewhere around Pass Manchac, thanks to the extra hour(s) and probably the fact that it had also been handling live tracking, the Varia radar tail light, and navigation. My Varia battery had already been warning me it was low, so I turned it off and then started Strava tracking on my phone for the remainder of the ride. It was right around noon by then, which wasn't far from the time I'd expected we would finish. We still had around 45 miles to go. 

We took a long break at the Circle K near LaPlace. People were starting to feel the miles by then. My neck was killing me from all of the tension caused by riding in the dark and watching for holes in the road and everything, and my legs were hurting from all of the extra miles I'd accumulated over the week. It also felt a little strange to be riding with a dead computer and no speed or mileage, but at least I knew the roads well by then. When we finally hit the levee bike path and headed east, the mostly west wind we'd been expecting had shifted to more northerly, but at least it wasn't a headwind. The final run-in along the levee to Oak Street was mostly uneventful, and I arrived back home with around 150 miles for the day, over 400 for the week, and quite sore legs.

Rule #9

Friendly Friday before the Flat

Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period. 

Well, not really. You might just be a little insane, or desperate, or obsessive-compulsive. Take your pick. So obviously my thoughts are, as they usually are this time of year, on the weather. For the past couple of weeks it seems like we have been going back and forth between cold north wind and warm southeast rain - often on the same day. Yesterday I went out in the morning in what was essentially summer kit with just a nod to the fact that the streets were still soaking wet, and by "nod" I mean wool socks.

New Shoe Day!

Speaking of socks and feet, I received the new Bont road shoes about a week ago. The worst part about new shoes is positioning the cleats, and it didn't help that Bont changed up the alignment grid printed on the bottom, so I was basically starting from scratch - again. On the first ride I felt like the cleats were just a bit too far back, and my troublesome right foot wasn't aligned correctly. I then made some microscopic adjustments and I think got a little closer to where they should be. My right foot still feels like it's pointing inward just a bit. This pair of 41s feel a little bit smaller than the last pair, but it's really too early to say anything for sure. The insoles that came with this 2024 updated model incorporate metatarsal buttons, so I haven't felt any urgency to rush out and find some of the Specialized insoles I've been using for years. Again, I haven't done any really long hard rides with them yet, so the jury is still out on that. I did get their special upgrade insoles, but haven't ridden with them yet. They include an optional stick-on metatarsal button that is kind of big. Anyway, I guess I have all winter to experiment. Frankly, the biggest problem I've had hasn't been with the shoes, but with the cleats. All I had on hand were the ubiquitous Keo Grip cleats. Every time I try to clip in, the rubber pad on the front of the cleat catches on the pedal. It's absolutely infuriating. The last time I used those cleats I got dropped at the start of two criteriums. Unfortunately, the non-grip versions are pretty rare, so I haven't gotten them yet. Instead, I used a razor to cut off some of the rubber on my left cleat, which helped a little, but didn't really eliminate the problem.

December flowers

This morning I went out to the WeMoRi knowing full well that I might be the only one. A cold front had come through yesterday along with rain all day, but on the other side of the front was dry, cold air, so by morning the streets were mostly dry. Of course one reason they were so dry was the 30 mph north wind. It was just above 40° when I headed out into it. As I approached Toussaint from Wisner I saw Brett go past, but I wasn't inclined to chase him. I figured that Lakeshore Drive was probably wet from water blowing over the seawall, so I was on the lookout for a group doing City Park laps as an alternative. Just as I started to turn north onto Marconi I heard someone call my name from the other direction. It was Geoff and Maurizio, who together constituted what there was of the WeMoRi, apparently. When Lisa blew past us on Wisner there was a very brief effort to catch her, but that didn't last long. We were all already firmly planted into Zone 2 territory. Anyway, it was not much of a workout.

The day before hadn't been much better. Tuesday morning the streets were soaking wet, but at least it wasn't cold. There was nobody at NOMA when I got there, which was no surprise. I did the route anyway, at one point meeting up with a couple of riders, but otherwise it was just a quiet solo ride that left the bike quite a mess. Monday hadn't been much better. It was just Colin and me for Mellow Monday. 

Last weekend's Giro Rides were both rather small and therefore not super fast.  Last Thursday it rained all morning, but I did manage to sneak out in the late afternoon for a solo levee ride. At least I saw one of the River Ridge eagles atop a power pole near their nest. The Friendly Friday ride the following day went better. We had at least a handful of riders on hand, including Charles who was about to fly out to Lithuania. It was all going nicely until we made the turn from Marconi onto Flimore and I realized my rear tire was almost flat. I told the others to go on, thinking that the slow leak might allow me to limp back to NOMA, but unfortunately it bottomed out about halfway down Wisner. It was freezing cold that morning and so it took me and my frozen fingers longer than usual to fix it.

It seems like every day lately there is some kind of threatening weather. It's cold, or windy, or wet, or about to rain, or some combination of the aforementioned. Kinda sucks, actually. Early morning meetings are going to interfere with my morning rides tomorrow and Friday, so basically the whole week  has been kind of a disaster. The forecast for tomorrow morning is calling for 43°, and I have to be at a meeting on campus at 8 am, and then other meetings downtown from 11 on, so I may not get to ride at all. Friday morning is another 8 am meeting, this time downtown, so the best I can hope for is an early escape and an evening levee ride, I think. 

December Too Soon

The holiday Giro riders starting to arrive Thanksgiving morning

On the first of December I finally broke down and changed the house thermostat from "Cool" to "Heat." It was the first time I'd fired up the heater since the new system had been installed over the summer, so I was glad that there were no surprises and the house didn't burn down. It's been pretty chilly, by my standards, since the day after Thanksgiving, with one little cold front following the other, yielding morning lows in the 47 - 52° range, along with the usual winds. As always happens this time of year, my thoughts switch from cool, expensive equipment to warm, expensive clothing, and getting out the door into the chilly early morning darkness becomes more and more of an uphill battle. 

Monday morning

My birthday was a week ago, on Monday, and is now more of a reminder of how time flies than anything else. So to lessen the blow, I had already bought a pair of last year's Bont mountain bike shoes for the 'cross bike that were on sale. Candy then ordered for me a pair of the new Bont Vaypor road shoes to replace my old ones that have accumulated almost 72,000 miles despite the fact that I still think of them as my "new" road shoes. Again, tempus fugit. They were not cheap, but I guess if I amortize the cost over five or six years, it doesn't seem quite as bad. I remember buying cycling shoes from the local shop for $30, so the sticker shock is real. Danielle, who is currently in Okinawa, send me a front and rear light kit, so that was nice since I was wanting another set so I wouldn't have to move the Garmin Varia from one bike to the other. Anyway, the Monday morning ride was the usual Monday morning ride, and things were quiet at work, and there was cake that evening.

There was some rain that night, so the roads were pretty wet when I reluctantly rolled out on Tuesday morning. As you'd expect, turnout for that ride was minimal, but there were still three of us left for the stretch out to the casino and back along the lake that featured a few puddles in the usual spots, and a fair amount of wheel spray. It was still reasonably warm for the pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday WeMoRi that featured a larger than usual turnout and a number of heroic but mostly unsuccessful attacks, and finished up with Lisa well off the front after launching off of the Bayou St. John bridge with Eddie.

I was "working from home" along with practically everybody else since it was the day before Thanksgiving and there wasn't a whole lot going on. The weather was still nice ahead of a cold front that was expected to come through on Thanksgiving day, so late in the afternoon I snuck out for a casual ride on the levee. As I made the u-turn out at the parish line where the bike path is still barricaded, I saw a fully loaded rider on a recumbent climbing the levee from River Road. He (Andre Wakeford) was riding the Southern Tier route, having started in San Diego. Since I was already in sight-seeing mode anyway, I rode along with him all the way back at about 10 mph. Google maps was telling him to get off of the bike path and onto River Road, so it was good that I was there to tell him to stay on the bike path. I led him through Audubon Park and sent him on his way down St. Charles Avenue after letting him know that he was going to run into a little problem when he got to the West Pearl River on Highway 90. I never heard back from him, so hopefully he managed to haul those 90-pounds of bike and gear over the barricades at the closed bridges, since the only alternatives were I-10 or a 90-mile detour. He does seem to have a blog, so perhaps we'll eventually see something about his ride through New Orleans. Anyway, I ended up riding over 60 miles that day since the forecast for Thanksgiving day was not looking too good.

Last warm ride of the week

Thursday morning the radar was surprisingly clear for the Holiday Giro Ride, although it was looking like the rain and cold front would start moving through around mid-morning. Nonetheless, we had a nice turnout for what turned out to be a reasonbly brisk and warm ride that featured an increasing southwest wind. As we got close to Lakeshore Drive at then end of the ride we could see the line of approaching clouds, and indeed got a brief little sprinkle of rain, but fortunately got home well ahead of the actual cold front that didn't really arrive until that evening. Of course Candy cooked a big turkey, so we'll be eating that for a couple of weeks, I guess. The cold front, and the rain, came through mostly overnight, so when I woke up on Friday morning the streets were still quite wet. Realizing that I didn't have to go to work that day, I decided to wait  until things dried up a little before venturing out. I ended up hitting the road around mid-morning and suffering through a  rather chilly and windy levee ride. By the time I was heading back the sun came out, so that made it a little better, despite the 14 mph north wind.

By Saturday morning it was starting to feel like winter. The temperature was down to the low to mid-40s and there was a strong northeast wind. I pulled on my new NeoPro bib tights for the first time that day and headed out for the Giro wearing at least three layers, but saving some pocket room for the wind vest that I knew I'd be removing later because there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The eastward segments of the Giro were all relatively slow but hard pushes into the wind, and the southward and westward segments were more like 28-32 mph efforts. Fortunately the group was large and there were lots of places to hide. Also, there were really only a handful of riders willing to be at the front for any length of time. By the time we were heading back it had warmed up into the 50s. 

Audubon Park

I got home, had a little bit to eat, and decided to try out the new mountain bike shoes and the 36 mm Continental Terra Speed gravel tires I'd put on the cyclocross bike. I was pleasantly surprised by both. The shoes felt great and the cleat position seemed fine, although I will definitely want to add some Specialized insoles. I had about 40 psi in the tires, and was surprised how much more smoothly they rolled than the regular 33 mm cyclocross tires. Of course, I knew they would feel better, but I didn't think the difference would be quite so noticeable. I rode down Broadway, which currently features a few stretches of gravel due to unfinished road work, and then rode some of the Audubon Park bridle path and levee top, before doing a few miles on the levee bike path and returing via Broadway. 

Sunday's Giro was just as cold and windy as Saturday's had been, so I was again bundled up in winter gear, unlike Steve who was still riding in just shorts and arm-warmers. Again, it warmed up lot on the way home, but at least I'd been cozy warm on the way out that morning.

It looks like we will still have a couple of cold mornings before things warm up. This morning it was right at 50° when I left home, but there was a strong north wind blowing. I immediately wished I'd worn a wind vest, since I could feel the cold morning air blowing right though my jersey and base layer. It was chilly, but not bad enough to turn back, although I must admit that the thought did cross my mind. The next ten days are calling for another little front on Thursday, and then a significant chance of rain for a number of days as the wind shifts back around to the southeast and we wait for the next cold front to arrive, so situation normal.

Wayward WeMo, BSL Ride

Saturday in Mississippi

Last week seemed particularly disjointed, for multiple reasons. I headed out early Wednesday morning to meet up with the WeMoRi as usual. The temperature was still in the mid-70s and there was a significant east wind, neither of which should have caused any problem for the ride. There was, however, one little fly in the WeMo ointment. That film crew is still working around one of the houses on Lakeshore Drive, and even at 6 am there are lots of people there and the road is barricaded - some days more than others. Each morning, it's a roll of the dice whether a bunch of bikes can slip throught the cracks in the barricades. On the assumption that the group was able to do its usual route, I went out to Lakeshore Drive, looped around the fountain circle, and made my way back to Marconi, looking expectedly over my shoulder for the flickering headlights of the WeMoRi that usually appear right about 6:10 am. Well, 6:10 came and went, and still no lights. I hovered around for a little while, but soon abandoned hope and turned back down Marconi, assuming I'd be doing a lap around the park alone. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an three-person group of Steve, Marurizio, and Sam came flying by, so I latched onto whatever scant draft there was at the back. When we hit the Wisner overpass, though, Sam and/or Maurizio attacked it, opening a gap on Steve, to whose wheel I was desperately clinging. Despite Steve's heroic effort, we never quite made contact with the lead duo again, and by the time we were nearing Lakeshore Drive again, Steve was toast and turned off onto LSD westbound to head home, leaving me to my own devices. I eventually found out what had happened that morning. It seems the police were particularly lively that morning and had prevented the group from continuing down Lakeshore Drive, so the riders decided to do two laps around City Park to make up the difference. Somehow that kind of shattered what there was of the group, and the timing was such that they were on Toussaint as I was hitting Lakeshore Drive, so I missed them entirely. Anyway, it was kind of a mess. 

On Thursday there was a 10 mph NNW wind, but at least we had a few riders on hand for the long ride out to the casino and back. I think Maurizio was on the front about 80% of the time, but it still didn't feel like an easy ride. The bike path along the lake was pretty wet from levee runoff, so although it didn't rain on us, there was a fair amount of wheelspray to deal with, and I got home kind of wet and grimy for at least the second time that week. 

Friday threw another monkey wrench into the works, at least for me, because I had to work a Tulane conference that started at 8 am. On the plus side, I was able to slip away around 3 pm for a few miles on the levee. By then the weather was pretty nice, with just a bit of a northeast wind. I rode out to the upriver end of Jefferson Parish where it's been barricaded since last Spring. I thought I could see some torn up levee in the distance, but at any rate, the section right at the parish line is still completely untouched. Riding back downriver I saw an eagle dive down below the batture trees along the river and then come back up with a fish, flying almost directly over me before deciding to perch atop one of the big metal power line posts to eat its catch.

I had been considering doing a little informal gravel ride over in Mississippi on Saturday to try out the new tires I'd put on the 'cross bike, but when I pulled out my MTB shoes I discovered that the sole was separating from the rest of the shoe and decided maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. Luckily, I found a pair of last year's Bont MTB shoes on sale on the Bont site and ordered them. Ordering directly from Bont pretty much guarantees I won't seem them for another week or so. Amazon they are not. So as a result, and in consideration of all of the missed mileage I'd already accumulated that week, I decided to do the 73-mile ride out of Bay St. Louis (more or less) that Steve M had lined up.

So Saturday morning I headed for Mississippi, stopping briefly at the relatively new Starbucks along I-10 in Slidell. Crossing the 5-mile bridge, the temperature was around 65°, but by the time I-10 headed east for Mississippi, it had dropped to around 55°. No surprise, of course, as I was expecting to see something around 54° for the start. On the plus side, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the wind was fairly light, relatively speaking. We had I think nine riders for this ride, and as usual it was mostly smooth enough paceline that you could enjoy the scenery. Toward the end a couple of riders started to come off the back on the little climbs, so we waited a few times at intersections for them to catch up. It was a pretty nice ride, so I was glad I'd made the trip. Sunday was a regular Giro day for me. We had a good enough group, a bit smaller than usual I'd say, but still enough to allow for some recovery time at the back. Rob was kind of pushing the pace on the way out along Hayne and Paris, but turned off at Chef, after which things kind of settled down a bit. I was feeling fine, the prior day's ride not having left much of a mark for some reason. This morning, Monday, however, I was feeling like crap, possibly due to too much wine the prior evening, or maybe just accumulated stress, so I quickly dropped back to a spot where the draft was wider. The Mellow Monday pace wasn't particularly fast, so that strategy worked out fine, which is to say I survived. 

Adams Street, a couple of blocks away. A long and winding road?

The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is not encouraging. From 5 am through 8 am the probability of rain goes from a dismal 98% to an equally dismal 84%, so it's likely to be a rain day until the next cold front blows in around noon and the winds shift around to the north again, which means cold and wind for Wednesday and especially Thursday and Friday. It looks like we will be riding the meteorological roller coaster for a while, with cold fronts followed by warming followed by cold fronts. Nothing below 50°F for the next ten days, though, so it'll just be a matter of dealing with rain and wind.

Still Summer?

Sunday morning hoping it wouldn't rain. It did.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining, just noting that we are nearly halfway through November, still riding in summer kit, and won't even be considering firing up the central heat for at least another week, probably two. Despite the warm temperatures, however, we still have the humidity, often manifested in the form of rain, to deal with, and as usual for this time of year, the daily forecasts are, to say the least, hit-or-miss.

Wednesday morning, the day after the election, I headed off "to get my fair share of abuse" at the WeMoRi with the Rolling Stones' "You can't always get what you want" in my head. The temperature was in the mid-70s, and the humidity in the upper 90s. I had somehow awakened early that morning, so despite being back on standard time, it was still pretty dark as I made my way down the right lane of Wisner Blvd., following the headlight beam shining on the road ahead of me. All of a sudden a big dead branch hanging down from one of the oak trees materialized in front of me. There was no time to react, other than to white-knuckle the handlebar and plow through it. I got whacked pretty hard on my helmet, shoulder, and left hand, the latter of which lost some skin despite being inside my glove. As the sweat started to infiltrate the wound, I began to sting. It pretty much stayed that way for the next few days, actually. Anyway, being earlier than usual, I rode east on Lakeshore Drive out to Elysian Fields, turned around and eventually merged into the rather smallish group somewhere along Marconi as usual. The pace was relatively moderate, and as a result I probably did more work and less drafting than usual. There's been a huge movie filming operation going on lately on Lakeshore Drive where all the big houses are, and they've been blocking off the westbound road completely. The group had already made one apparently chaotic early pass through that obstacle course, so when we got back to LSD there was some discussion about what to do. It seems that a consensus wasn't reached in time, so as we came around the traffic circle after the bridge, some people went all the way around and back over the bridge, while some, including me, continued on just to make a U-turn shortly thereafter. Anyway, that killed the momentum entirely, so that was that. It was windy as hell that morning, so no complaints.

Thursday's long ride was warm and a bit windy, but otherwise unremarkable. The speed was fast all the way out to the casino, but much slower all the way back. On the return trip, as we came over the levee at Causeway, I almost lost it when my rear tire went all mushy. It had maybe 20 psi in it at the time, so I had to stop and put in a new tube. I'd been running a latex tube in there for months, and figured something had finally punctured it and caused a slow leak, but my later forensic examination confirmed that the valve had apparently just not sealed when I'd topped up the air that morning. 

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was about what you'd expect with a 10 mph ENE wind - slow and plodding into the wind, then fast as you can go in the other direction.

Maurizio

So that brings us to the weekend. We were still in summertime mode on Saturday with the same 10+ mph east wind and the same mid-70s morning temperature, but at least there was a nice big group on hand. I don't think I ever hit the front, as there were ample horses up there to keep things quite fast enough. Surprisingly, things didn't get entirely out of hand on the long tailwind stretches, staying mostly in the 28 mph range, so all was well. I always have a hard time making an effort this time of year, so situation normal, I guess.

William

Sunday was quite a different story. It was still warm and humid, but the wind had started to shift around more from the south, which of course meant clouds and rain. The streets were quite wet as I rode out to Starbucks that morning, comtemplating the possibility that nobody would show up, which almost turned out to be the case. We headed out with a small group of about eight, which had dropped down to six by the time we hit Chef Highway. With only Chris, Apryl, Charles, Tim, and me, it was a collegial Zone 2 kind of ride, with the added bonus of lots of wheel spray from the wet roads. On the way back from Venetian Isles we finally got some actual rain, and by the time I was heading home my shoes were well-soaked, but thanks to the warm temperature it wasn't too uncomfortable. As I made my way down Norman Francis I was listenig to the sound of my tires on the wet road, not realizing that what I was hearing was actually the sound of my front tire slowly going flat. Fortunately I made it to the house just as the last molecules of air made their escape. I'd been running one of those cheap TPU tubes in that front wheel for months. When I examined the tire I found two nicely embedded pieces of broken glass, one of which had caused a teeny tiny puncture in the tube, which explained the slow, slow leak. I patched it with the special TPU patch kit and stuck it back in, and it's been fine since, so that was nice. 

Apryl, Tim, Charles, Chris, and me

Yesterday I got a couple of 35mm Continental Terra Speed gravel tires that I want to put on the 'Cross bike. Of course, they are tubeless ready, which just means that it's nearly impossible to coax them onto the narrow aluminum rim-brake non-tubeless rims I have on that bike. I don't think I could really go any wider with those rims, but at least these should roll considerably faster than the actual 'cross tires I normally have on that bike - assuming I can actually get them mounted. For now, I put them on the rims without inner tubes to let them stretch out a little bit before I try to put the tubes in them. Hopefully that will make it possible to get them set up without pinching a tube in the process, and will also make it at least possible, if not easy, to change a flat out on the road. Hopefully I'll be able to do a little bit of gravel riding over the next few months when the opportunity arises, although I'm quite certain it will just be a diversion and will never be my primary discipline, since I have absolutely no relevant skills.

Tour da Parish 2024

Well, it's that time of year again. The days are getting shorter and shorter, and my Strava feed is increasingly cluttered with Zwift cartoons rather than photos of tranquil summer country roads. Last Saturday was the annual Tour da Parish, and also the last day of DST before switching back to standard time in the wee hours of Sunday morning. For reasons I cannot fathom, a number of the Tulane riders who should have done the TdP didn't, and the couple who did had their own transportation, so I had an uncomplicated 40-minute drive down to St. Bernard Parish, arriving in plenty of time for the 7:30 am start. The start time had been moved up because of some ongoing construction along the route involving trucks.

The week prior had been just the usual morning group rides, although I think the upcoming beat-down in the parish was weighing on some minds and slightly limiting the effort levels. Not to worry, though, because Mother Nature stepped in right on time with a rainy Friday that kept many, including me, off the bike altogether. It was still quite dark as I neared the uncomplicated Los Isleños Museum Complex, causing me to miss a turn, but I found my way there easily, parking near the entrance, where I was quickly targeted by a thousand or so hungry mosquitos that I couldn't even see. I'm still full of itchy mosquito bites from head to toe since summer weight lycra apparently offers not the least bit of deterrent to the pesky purveyors of misery. Anyway, I quickly hiked over to the registration tent and picked up my number and wrist band and a couple of free water bottles. The back numbers that they use for this event are like no others. They're rather large, and printed in full color on some kind of relatively stiff crinkle-proof plastic material. Lots of riders just folded them up and put them in their pockets rather than struggle with actually pinning them on. Since the numbers serve no purpose other than to identify who actually paid the registration fee, it doesn't really matter much anyway. There is no finish line or results listing, not that that made it any less of a race for the front group, of course. On the plus side, it was basically summer weather, with just a moderate bit of wind out of the east.

So we started off on time at just a moderate pace until we came to the infamous barricade about a mile and a half from the start. I'd ridden down there before the start and saw that there was a little single-track path around the right side of the barricade. The actual ride routed everyone around the barricades to the left through a gravel driveway of sorts. It's always kind of a cluster there, and it also always gets really really fast immediately after. This morning was no exception. I had been careful to stay near the front of the group, more out of fear than anything else, and after going around the barricade on the right I looked over to see Peyton coming back onto the road just ahead and to my left. He sat up and looked behind him briefly, and that was pretty much the last I saw of Peyton that day! Within half a mile I was going 31 mph, into a slight headwind, with a long string of gaps and riders ahead of me. I thought to myself, "this isn't sustainable." Of course, I was referring to myself, not the rapidly forming front group of, I guess, around twenty. By the time we were four miles in I knew we weren't going to catch the lead group, which already included most of the local talent, and things slowed down to around 27 mph as riders shelled from the front started losing the draft.

It was at around 4.5 miles that you come to a section of road where the right lane is partially barricaded off and everyone has to shift over to the left. I was a wheel or two behind Pat there, and ahead of him, but still over toward the right, was Scott. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a crash. Scott had hit a block of wood or something, and as far as I can tell, was thrown forward, losing his grip on the handlebar. We slowed for a moment, but with so many behind is, stopping there might have just caused more of a problem. Scott ended up in the hospital, but reportedly had no broken bones,  just a lot of rather bad road rash, including some on his face. Could have been worse, I guess. Anyway, we were still kind of in chase mode there, but soon enough a group started to come together and things settled down to a relatively sustainable 24-25 mph. This second group turned out to be a nice size with a number of people, largely Giro Ride regulars, willing to take some pulls, so we soon had a nice paceline going. At the first turn, 7 miles into the ride, we caught a small group that had been dropped from the front group, so that was good. The 7-mile stretch down to Delacroix was fast but fairly smooth at a 26.5 mph pace, even though nobody had any illusions of catching the front group that was already a couple of minutes up the road.

So that was pretty much how things stayed for the rest of the 51 mile ride. There were a few lulls here and there where the pace dropped down to the low 20s, but basically it was a typical brisk group ride pace. I think our group had an average speed just under 24 mph, while the front group (what was left of it) averaged a bit under 28 mph. Big difference. Really big difference. I think Will and Peyton and for a while Connor were off the front of the front group from Hopedale all the way back. Anyway, it was a nice ride other than Scott's crash. Afterward, I had some fried catfish and a Coke and kind of rushed back home for a little family get-together at my sister's house.

Sunday morning I headed to Starbucks not quite in the dark thanks to the time change. There was a good group on hand and it still felt like summer, so we had a pretty typical Giro Ride, although clearly a few people were still feeling Saturday's ride in their legs (apparently there had been a good group for the Saturday Giro as well).

Mellow Monday was mostly mellow, but not without a few of the usual fast miles on LSD and Wisner. That was fine with me, since I was still not feeling quite recovered from the weekend. This morning we had a nice sized group for the 6 am Tuesday ride. After an easy roll out to the lakefront, Maurizio took the front and pretty much stayed there unchallenged for the entire rest of the ride. It still felt like summer with a significant east wind and temperature in the mid-70s. For some reason I felt kind of stressed for much of the ride today. 

I arrived back home and had just enough time to make coffee before the power in the whole neighborhood went out. Sounded like a couple of transformers blew out. There's a tropical depression forming in the Caribbean right now that seems to be headed more or less in our direction. The models are expecting it be become a hurricane somewhere around Cuba, but it's expected to start falling apart as it gets into the northern Gulf. Guess we'll get a lot of rain, though. The "Cone of uncertainty" is about the size of Texas right now, so I don't think the models quite know what to do with it beyond a couple of days yet.

A Saturday Ride in Mississippi

It was the last weekend in October, but you'd hardly have known it from the weather. After a string of seasonably normal chilly mornings, we were back to somewhat warmer temperatures by the weekend. Earlier, I had been considering making the drive up to Ridgeland for one or two of the small cyclocross races that Rolando puts on mostly for the younger kids, but I ultimately decided to skip what would have been at least an all-day road trip and stay closer to home where I wanted to take care of a couple of minor but nagging household tasks. As it turned out, Steve Martin and Charles were recruiting people for an 80-mile ride on Saturday starting at 7:30 am from the ball park north of Pass Christian. I eventually caved in and said I'd go, since the only other viable option for the weekend would have been back-to-back Giro Rides.

I rolled out of bed early Saturday morning and uncharacteristically checked my phone to find a text from Charles asking if I could bring a chain tool because Jess, who was also planning to go, had told him that one of the links on her chain had broken. Knowing that nothing is simple in the fifteen minutes before a group ride starts, I brought along a spare 11-speed SRAM chain, chain tool, and master link tool, even though I knew her bike was 12-speed. With a broken link, having just a chain tool without another master link wouldn't have solved the problem anyway. I headed out for Mississippi with an ETA of about 20 minutes before ride time, stopping quickly at the Starbucks in Slidell for my caffeine fix. I'd brought along a flask of Hammergel and two full water bottles, and even put the race wheels on since I knew the road hazards would be minimal.

Steve, Jess, and Charles

In the parking lot of the ballpark we swapped out the chain, which seemed to work OK despite not being a 12-speed version, and the group of seven or so hit the road right on schedule. It was still a little chilly in just summer kit, but I knew the temperature would be up to around 80° once the sun got higher in the sky. We haven't had hardly a drop of rain in weeks, so things were dry, the sky was clear, and there was just a moderate wind. As is usually the case with these rides, the pace was mostly pretty steady zone 2 with each rider taking long pulls at the front. I remember thinking, "this is just what I needed today." Steve's route was true to form, which is to say there were a lot of turns, but lots of nice smooth roads. I had loaded the map onto my computer the night before since don't really know the roads around there very well. Anyway, the ride was nice. We had a couple of store stops, neither of which I really needed. Since it had been fairly cool for the first hour or two, my two water bottles were more than sufficient, as was the flask of Hammergel. Over the last fifteen miles or so a couple of riders in the group started falling off the back on climbs and stuff, but we'd just ease up until everyone came back together.

Back at home that afternoon I got to work replacing some rotten wood trim on the front steps and painting some trim for the screen that was also rotten. I don't think I'll get to the screen until maybe next weekend, though. I also pulled the heavy iron decorative security things off of the front door sidelights, repainted them and the window frames behind them, and cleaned the dirty glass, which was what had been bothering me the most. It took two of us to get them back up since they are probably about 40 pounds each and you have to line them up with the holes in the window to insert the bolts.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and the forecast is calling for some badly needed but ill-timed rain that evening, so we'll see how that goes. I think a number of people are supposed to be coming over to the house, but I've totally lost track of who and when. Situation normal.

Today's WeMoRi seemed pretty fast, but there was a big group that kept things together, at least up until the last couple of miles. Somehow a big gap opened around the Bayou St. John bridge, and everything behind kind of disintegrated. Although I topped out at a bit over 34 mph, I never made any headway on the front group. It was a decent workout anyway, of course.

Saturday is the annual Tour da Parish ride over in "da parish." I think we have a few Tulane riders signed up, so I am assuming I'll be taking a couple of them to the ride. It'll be the last day before the time change, so I think the 7:30 am start is going to feel really early, but at least the starting temperature should be a bit above 70° and there shouldn't be any chance of rain. On the down side, there's going to be a pretty strong east wind, so that should make things interesting. I can never get motivated enough to treat this late-season ride as a race, which it isn't technically but definitely is realistically. That usually just means that I'll be at the mercy of the back half of the group, and if a big gap opens somewhere along the way, I probably won't be the one to close it.

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.

The Cusp of Winter

Sunrise is an hour after the start of the 6 am rides now.

It's October 15 and I haven't yet pulled on the arm-warmers, but there's a cold front heading our way that should bring the Thursday morning temperature down to the mid-50s, so I guess I'll have to fish them out from the bottom of the drawer soon. Of course, it will be only temporary. Winter doesn't really come to stay until late November at the earliest around here. Still, I'm already dreading having to make those pre-dawn wardrobe decisions.

Recent rides have been pretty routine, and as always happens this time of year, I'm somewhat motivationally challenged even though there are at least three events coming up that I expect to ride. This coming weekend is the annual Tour de Jefferson, which is always kind of an alternate Giro Ride. Rich H from LA will be in town for a dental convention and will be borrowing a bike and riding that before he heads back west. We have a few Tulane riders signed up as well, so that's good. It looks like the cold snap will be on the way out by Sunday, so that ride should start with the temperature in the mid-60s and end in the mid-70s I guess. Then, the following weekend, there's Spooky Cross up in Ridgeland that I might do again just for fun. I haven't decided if I'll do both days or just one, but at any rate it will be a nice change to get on the 'cross bike for a little bit. The next week will be Tour da Parish, so I'll be doing that as will, I guess. After that it will be time to start thinking about long winter rides. They just paved the section of Isabel Swamp Road that had always been gravel. That adds another (fully paved) crossing of the Bogue Chitto river, so some new northshore routes for the winter rides are more feasible now.

Drone photo before the repairs

Meanwhile at home the roofers arrived last week and re-did the shed roof section in the back of the house that had started leaking when we had all that rain a few weeks ago. The Daughter sent me a little drone to keep me from climbing up there on the extension ladder, which was probably a good idea. Hopefully that job will hold up for a few years. The leak had stained the beadboard walls in the little back bathroom, so once the roof was repaired, I re-painted it. I still had the cans of dried-up paint from when we remodeled the kitchen, so I was able to bring photos of the sticker that shows the color mix over to the local Sherwin Williams store for a match. Fortunately I got a big discount thanks to my brother's family discount there, because the retail price for a gallon of that premium paint is around $90. It came out just a little bit lighter than what was there, but both shades were basically white anyway, so it didn't really matter. I first filled in the gaps that had developed over the years between a few of the boards. It took a fair amount of time and a fair amount of gymnastics to paint the ceiling and all that beadboard, working around the sink and toilet and window and two doors and ceiling light, but at least with the expensive paint I didn't have to put on two coats.

So the morning temperatures lately have been generally in the low 70s and upper 60s, and although I've been just a bit chilly at the start, it hasn't yet required more than regular summer kit. The Tuesday and Thursday morning rides have been picking up good-sized groups by the time we hit Lakeshore Drive, so that's nice, but almost everybody has been turning off by the time we hit West End, leaving just two or three of us for the out and back along the Lake Trail, so that's all been pretty much Zone 2, or less. This morning, for example, it was just Matt and me riding side by side and chatting the whole way.

Wednesday's WeMoRi seemed pretty fast, the strong north wind having already decimated the group by the time I jumped in along Marconi. Any time there's a north wind along Lakeshore Drive you know riders will be popping off the back of the group one by one the whole time since there's not enough road handle a crosswind eschelon of more than six or seven at best.

On Thursday, there were just three of us who did the whole ride out to the casino, and that was only because we picked up Carey on the bike path. There was still a good NE wind, so we were rolling pretty well on the way out, but took it easy on the way back.

Saturday Giro Heading Out

As they have been for a while now, the Friendly Friday ride had a big group, which translated into a fast pace. The northeast wind was still with us, so the tailwind segments were pretty fast, as expected. 

Nice big group with perfect weather

Finally, by Saturday the wind had died down to almost nothing. Turnout for the Saturday Giro was really big, as it has been lately, and although the pace, unsurprisingly, got fast, it was pretty easy to sit and recover in the shelter of such a large group on a windless day. The faster sections were done at average speeds of 27-28 mph, so although it could have been faster, it was still a worthy workout. Sunday's Giro was much smaller, and if it was slower, it didn't feel that way with fewer wheels to hide behind. Yesterday we had a nice turnout for Mellow Monday, and for some reason TJ went to the front and pulled us all along for the entire length of Lakeshore Drive at a speed fast enough to keep anyone else from wanting to take over. It ended up being a fairly fast ride, especially for a Monday.

This morning when I rolled up to the group at NOMA about thirty seconds before 6 am, I was surprised to find Maurizio. He's in town for a bit doing some consulting work. Fortunately for all of us he was taking it easy today!