End of Summester

Christmas parade awaiting Santa's helicopter arrival

In typical fashion, the cold fronts have been coming through in close succession lately, bringing with them some wild swings from spectacular weather to miserable weather and back again. 

A week ago on Sunday, the 7th, it had again been rainy in the morning, so I headed out in the afternoon for a long solo ride out to the end of the levee bike path, which makes for a 90 mile ride with essentially zero elevation. I'd gone out to the levee the day before when the road was still wet from rain, and managed to puncture twice, which is actually not that surprising. There's something in the asphalt up there that always causes flats when it's wet. Anyway, by the time I headed out the next day the temperature was in the 60s and there was a moderate east wind, so it felt fast and easy heading out and not so much so heading back. Along the way I had to pick my way through the crowds gathered for the Norco Christmas Parade at which Santa arrives via helicopter. The police almost stopped me because the helicopter was approaching, but I made it through just as it was circling overhead. 

Upriver from the Spillway there were multiple groups working on their Christmas bonfires. The bike path drops down to street level in a few places there, and was designed that was specifically to allow for the annual bonfires. It was a nice steady LSD type of ride.

Last week was the usual roller-coaster weather. Wednesday morning started out in the low 40s with a small WeMoRi group. I jumped in as usual, but some big gaps opened ahead of me on the Wisner overpass, leaving just Rich and me to fend for ourselves. We backed off pretty quickly. Then, on the way home, two cars nearly killed me by cutting in front of me. One at the start of the Norman Francis overpass, and the other along Vendome. For the latter, I had to lock up the rear wheel to keep from hitting the idiot. Thursday was a bit warmer but also quite a bit windier. I was left to my own devices heading west along the lake with a nice little tailwind. I turned back a little early since I knew the headwind in the opposite direction would take its toll, but was lucky to have a little group come along just after that, which made it much nicer. Friendly Friday turned out to be pretty nice, and it was looking like Saturday's weather would be ideal for the Tulane "end of the semester" ride. 

I'd been fighting my handlebars for a week or so because of an inexplicably pitted headset bearing. Perhaps I'd over-tightened it at some point, or maybe just slammed into a bump somewhere. The Cervelo has only around 2,600 miles on it thus far. I had gotten replacement bearings plus a bleed kit, olives, barbs (as they are called), mineral oil, and isopropyl alcohol since the brake hoses go through the headset bearings. The weather for Sunday was looking like rain in the morning, so I penciled in a few hours of bike maintenance for then.

On Saturday I met up with some of the Tulane riders for a nice 67 mile ride out of Abita Springs. Earlier that day I'd gone out to Starbucks to meet the Giro riders, but turned back at the end of Lakeshore Drive. The northshore ride didn't start until 1:30 or so. By then it was a beautiful day with light winds and a temperature in the low 70s. We had a nice little group of six, so it was a good steady ride for the most part. We had to stop on Dummyline to fix a flat at which point some woman drove by, stopped, rolled down the window, and asked Ben, "Y'all aren't from around here, are you?" to which he responded "Yes m'am, I am." We were planning on dinner and a bonfire at his house in Abita Springs after the ride. Regardless, she felt compelled to tell us that we should know better than to stop at the top of the hill there (where we had a clear line of sight for about a mile in both directions, making it arguably the absolute best place to stop). Go figure. We were probably 20 miles from the end when Pirman kind of launched with Josiah on his wheel, at which point one of the guys dropped his chain as we started to chase, so the rest of us stopped. That was the last we saw of Pirm until Abita Springs, but he did manage to drop Josiah, so we regrouped after Isabel Swamp Road for a nice quick ride back, followed by gumbo and beer and stuff. I left pretty early since I'm old and it was already past my bedtime. I later noticed that I'd ended up with 99.7 miles for the day. If i'd known I would definitely have ridden another 0.3 miles just to round it out!

Silly disc brakes

Sunday morning was once again wet and a little rainy as predicted, so after breakfast I worked on the bike for a couple of hours. Since I had to pull the fork to replace the bearings, that meant I also had to disconnect both brake hoses, then reconnect them and bleed them. I cheated and didn't cut the ends to install new olives and barbs, and it looks like that worked without causing any leaks, but I'll be checking on it for a while to be on the safe side. Since I had the fork out I went ahead and cut it down by about a centimeter so I could eliminate the spacer I had on top of the stem, and also took the opportunity to swap the short bearing cap for the tall one, eliminating another couple of spacers, and adding the plug that they'd neglected to install earlier. Of course, the morning rain had been the next cold front coming through, so by the time things dried up and I went out for a short ride on the levee there was a 20+ mph north wind blowing. On the plus side, the headset felt good and the brakes worked, and most of the levee runs more east-west than north-south. Meanwhile, the temperature was starting to drop rapidly.

This morning it was around 34° at the house with a 25 mph wind at the lakefront. I piled on a bunch of bulky clothes that I hadn't worn since last winter and met up with Charles at NOMA for a low-gear Mellow Monday. We did not see any other riders, but it wasn't super cold at the lakefront, and once we turned back toward the west, it was not bad at all. Still, we did cut it a little short since there were just the two of us and we were mostly going barely 15 mph. It's looking like the morning temperatures will be mostly in the low to mid-50s through the holidays, so that should make for some decent riding. This will be my last week at work until January since the daughter is coming in on the 23rd.

Wind, Weather, and Winter

Well, it looks like winter, such as it is in New Orleans, is here to stay for a while. The 10-day forecast isn't offering any morning temperatures above 54°, and for me that crosses the line from Fall to Winter. At the moment I'm looking out my office window at a gloomy, dark, and rainly Thursday, and feeling lucky to have gotten in an hour or so this morning on the levee, on the 'cross bike, before the rain moved in. At least it looks like there's a chance of rideable weather tomorrow morning if you consider 51°, wet streets, and a 10+ mph north wind rideable. It's going to be one of those mornings when you look out the window and then look at the radar and then look out the window again while contemplating the level of misery you are willing to tolerate that day.

Nice try, Mother Nature

This morning the forecast was pretty bad. It had been raining overnight, and at 5:30 am the radar was showing a huge line of heavy rain stretched, as it typical this time of year, from southwest to northeast, moving slowly in our direction. I figured I might get in an hour or so before the rain started again, so I intentionally overdressed, stuck the ass-saver under the saddle, and rolled out in the dark on the cyclocross bike that hasn't seen any cyclocross in over a year. The heavy gravel tires that I have on it right now at least minimize the chance of flatting on the wet levee bike path, though, and in general the bike keeps my speed down enough to limit the wind chill while still requiring enough effort to make it worthwhile. I managed get in 26 miles without getting wet, so I guess that will just have to do for today. On the plus side, that ride put me just over 12,000 miles for the year. On the minus side, that's almost 1,000 miles fewer than recent years thanks to that unfortunate crash back in the spring.

The weather, and in particular the wind, has definitely been having an effect on the local rides lately, and I'm seeing more and more Zwift and Rouvy rides showing up on Strava as people resign themselves to the realities of December. Tuesday's weather was just as bad, and I was lucky to get in 20 miles on the levee, again on the cyclocross bike, on soaking wet roads. It was slightly miserable, as you'd expect. The following day I went out to meet the WeMoRi with the temperature hovering around 40° and found only the dregs of what had been a small group to begin with. I saw Steven zoom by as I was on Lakeshore Drive but didn't really have a chance to go with him, which was unfortunate there were only three riders behind him and they were clearly not chasing. I made my usual U-turn and headed down Marconi, but by the time I was caught, only Charles was left, the other two having gone straight back toward West End for unknown reasons. We did a lap around City Park and called it a day.

At least last weekend wasn't too bad, and I was able to make both Giro Rides. Sunday's Giro was going along nicely until we got to Lake Forest on the way back. As we started to get up to speed after turning onto the road, JC somehow managed to snag his rear derailleur on a spoke and ripped it off, shearing off one of the spokes in the process. A few of us stopped to assess the situation and since someone had a multitool with a chain tool, we decided to shorten the chain to see if we could make it rideable again as a single speed. After much effort we finally got him going again, but then the chain decided it would rather be one cog higher, which made it so tight you could barely pedal. We stopped again and set it up on the small chainring, which meant shortening the chain again. That seemed to be working great, and we got about halfway down Hayne Blvd. before the chain broke. 11-speed chains aren't made so you can push the pins back in like you could in the old days, so it wasn't too surprising. Anyway, we just went ahead and pushed him the rest of the way, except for the bridge which he had to walk, and got him back to his car at Elysian Fields. 

MacGyver would have been proud.

Meanwhile, I have noticed that the headset on the new Cervelo has somehow become slightly pitted. I may have overtightened it at some point, or maybe just hit a pothole somewhere, but I wasn't expecting that with only around 2,200 miles on the bike. Of course, thanks to disc brakes, that means I will have to disconnect the front brake hose to replace the lower bearing. I was hoping to avoid having to deal with the hydraulics quite so soon. So I ordered new headset bearings, plus a bleed kit, plus the compression fitting (aka "olive"). The headset isn't bad enough to make much of a difference at the moment, although it's somewhat noticeable when riding with hands off the bars. It'll probably be next week before I have everything I need and summon up the motivation to take everything apart. Hopefully there will still be enough tubing so I don't have to replace that as well. We'll see.

Ride Your Age

Apryl's Birthday Ride, My Almost Birthday Ride #1

An old cycling tradition, one that, as most do, challenges reality, is to ride your age in miles, or kilometers, or centimeters on your birthday. Of course the idea of increasing the mileage as you age eventually becomes problematic for obvious reasons. Complicating the situation is whether or not you actually have the time to do that on the appointed day. As I was contemplating this conundrum a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the GCBC was planning a 73-mile President's Birthday Ride out of Waveland, conveniently scheduled for the Saturday before my birthday, and featuring just about the perfect mileage. So, throwing caution to the wind, I signed up. A week later, Dustin and some of the Tulane riders started planning on a 72 mile ride out of Abita Springs for the Sunday before my birthday. So Plan B, I guess.

Thursday morning on the lakefront

As is typical this time of year, last week's rides were impacted a bit by the weather. In this case, it wasn't the temperature, which was mostly unseasonably warm, it was the fog, which was seasonably thick. Although I had severe fog alerts on my phone for three consecutive mornings, the only really significant fog was on Thursday, and even that wasn't very bad, just requiring me to stash my fogged-up glasses in my pocket for the first hour. Then on Friday it rained early, so assuming that nobody would show up for Friendly Friday (which turned out to have been a bad assumption), I instead went out a little later to the levee and met up with the Tulane coffee ride. The forecast for the weekend was looking pretty great, so with two 70+ mile rides on my dance card, I welcomed the easier ride that day.

I headed out solo to Waveland Saturday morning at the conviently late hour of 6:30 to make the 8:00 am ride start at Buccaneer State Park. I arrived pretty early anyway, and was immediately greeted by a hourde of midges, aka "No Seeums."  I'm still itching from at least fifty little bites on my arms and legs despite having sprayed Off on them soon after arriving. Otherwise, though, the weather was practically perfect, and there was a surprisingly nice turnout out of the New Orleans area. I didn't know what to expect of this ride. The route covered a lot of the same roads we often ride out of Bay St. Louis. I was glad I'd loaded the route onto my computer because there were at least thirty turns along the way. With GCBC President Apryl leading the way, we headed down the beach to the bridge over the bay, where I thought things might get fast, but as it turned out almost all of the ride was done at a nice moderate pace that kept most of the main group together. As we got to within 15 miles or so of the end, the terrain flattened out and I started to sense some, shall I say impatience, at the front. The speed started creeping up, and soon the whole group was strung out going 30 mph with Connor on the front. Soon enough gaps started opening up and some riders started going backwards, and just as I was debating with myself whether I wanted to make the effort to close yet another gap, Branden came to the rescue and stitched it back together. Next thing I knew, it was just Connor, Joe Paul, Branden, and me, separated from the front group by a fairly small gap. Then Connor lit the afterburner, putting the remaining three of us into chase mode. We got the the Bay St. Louis bridge with Connor about a minute off the front, and Branden took one last pull before dropping back, leaving just Joe and me. By then we weren't really chasing any more, just trying to hold the pace and keep Connor's flashing tail light in sight. Back along the beach road I was surprised a couple of times when Joe pulled past me before I was ready to pull off from the front. As it turned out, he had been looking behind and realized that the group was in full chase mode and closing in on us! I  hadn't looked back, myself. We made it back to the finish with maybe fifteen or twenty seconds to spare. Anyway, it was a really fun ride, and I particularly enjoyed those last fifteen miles.  That evening I went over to the WeMoRi/Bayou Bicycles party for a couple of hours. It's always a little weird to see all of your regular riding friends wearing civilian clothes.

Sunday on the northshore

On Sunday I met up with a few of the Tulane riders for 6 am. It was the start of Thanksgiving break, so we had just Dylan and Sawyer for the drive over, but there were a number of riders, including Dustin, Jason, Steve M, Charles, Nick, and Evan already there when we arrived - mainly because I absolutely had to stop at Starbucks at Lakeside before heading across the Causeway. Again, the weather was great. As usual it was a bit colder on the northshore, so I had my arm-warmers on, but they weren't strictly necessary, especially after the first hour. Again, I had no idea how this ride would play out, and although my legs were feeling none the worse for wear after the prior day's 73 miles, I was hoping it wouldn't turn into a hammerfest too early. It didn't. In fact, the pace was generally quite confortable the whole time. The route included a little out-and-back on House Creek Road, and rather than risk blowing up my legs on the one or two little steep sections there that I knew would turn into a race, I turned around about a mile early so I could ride back up to Hwy 40 at a more civilized pace. A couple of people were waiting up there, having skipped that segment entirely. Anyway, it was a nice ride, and as we were coming back down the Tammany Trace toward the end at Abita Springs I noticed my computer was about to hit exactly 72 miles, so I miraculously hit the Stop button at precisely the right time to have Strava show exactly 72.00 miles. Afterward, Dylan headed out to make his flight home for the holiday, and Dustin, Sawyer, and I had lunch at the Brewpub. So although it was a couple of days early, I rode my age twice over the weekend. Meanwhile, my left ring finger is still swollen at the knuckle from that little fall about three weeks ago. I guess I must have done more damage than I'd thought. I finally broke down on Monday and cut my wedding ring so I could get it off, on the assumption that having what amounted to a tourniquet on the finger wasn't helping things. We'll see. 

Abita Brewpub

Early this morning, about an hour before the 5:20 am alarm went off, I could hear it raining outside. It was still very wet at 5:30, so I bailed on the Tuesday morning ride and waited until just after 6 am to take the 'cross bike out for a spin on the levee. I had grabbed the wrong Garmin this morning by mistake. It's the one that I had disconnected from my phone and on which I had disabled the heart rate and speed sensors because I'd lent it to someone a couple of weeks ago for one of the group rides so they'd have the route and map. I didn't know what would happen if there were two computers connecting to my phone and sensors on the same ride at the same time, but I figured it couldn't be good. I was halfway through the ride before I realized it. I did manage to reconnect my heart rate monitor while I was riding (the 'cross bike doesn't have speed or cadence sensors), but couldn't get it to pair with my phone. I tried again after I got home and it still wouldn't pair, which wasn't too surprising because that is always a problem with this setup.

Things at work are super quiet ahead of Thanksgiving, and I wouldn't be surprised if I am the only one on the entire floor right now. Unless something comes  up, which seems extremely unlikely, I'll probably head back home around mid-afternoon since we're planning to get together with a few people for a birthday dinner at Maple Street Cafe' this evening.

Tour de Jeff - Warmer Weekend

After a rather cold start to the week, a gradual warmup had begun by Wednesday. I was not complaining. While some obviously delusional people like to claim that 60°F is ideal cycling weather, I don't slap that label onto anything very far south of 70°, and even that is a bit of a stretch. Thursday morning started in the mid-upper 50s with barely any wind, and after most of the group turned off for home at Canal Blvd., Matt, Jess, and I continued out to the lake trail for the usual out-and-back with Matt doing much of the work. On this practically windless day, the 23-24 mph pace felt easy. When we got back to the east end of the bike path, Jess turned around to log even more miles while Matt headed home, leaving me to fend for myself in the morning commuter traffic. Jess seems to be on a high-mileage kick lately, and would end the week with well over 400 miles, while I would feel quite satisfied with my own relatively meager 278. 

Friday's Friendly Friday ride was, as usual, brisk but not brutal, and afterward I cautiously made my way down Carrollton Avenue to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride. I had noted that only three riders had indicated on Discord that they would be going, but with the nice warmer weather I thought perhaps a few more might show up. As it turned out, though, they had all bailed. I wandered up and down the levee for a while trying to find them, but finally gave up and went home to make my own coffee. Perhaps they were resting up for Sunday's Tour de Jefferson. Perhaps they were just using that as an excuse to sleep late. Who knows?

So on Saturday I went out as usual to Starbucks for the Saturday Giro Ride. It was around 60° with just a slight east wind, but we ended up with only maybe six. A small group like that is actually ideal for a steady paceline, and indeed that defined much of the ride. I guess a lot of people were saving their legs for the Tour de Jeff? 

This year Bill B had arranged to have $2,000 in prizes, 5-deep for men and women, for the Tour de Jefferson, which was held under USAC permit as a Gran Fondo. The idea was that the finish line, at least for prize purposes, would be shortly before the turn into the park where the big banner and stage were set up. I got there pretty early, and picked up my number (plate style) chip timing thing that, as usual, I had to modify to fit onto my handlebar underneath the computer mount. No roadies like those things, but fortunately, I've dealt with them a few times before. Still, everyone much preferred the flappy seat post style timing chips/numbers that were used last year, and I saw every possible alternative mounting configuration you could imagine - wrapped around the seatpost, wrapped around the handlebar, mounted lengthwise under the computer mount, wrapped around the head tube, etc. Turnout was defintely a bit better than last year. Bill made the usual announcements about safety and such to the group at the start, but I was still a little confused about exactly how he was going to manage the placings since I had seen neither a finish line nor a timing mat out on the road when I was warming up. On the other hand, I was quite certain it would not matter one bit for me. I was hoping that a 5-person break would go off the front early. I have always had a hard time riding like it's a race when it, technically, isn't. I just never feel comfortable taking the kinds of risks that come up with this kind of competitive free-for-all and riders who may or may not have the requisite experience.

As usual we started out at a controlled speed for the fist mile or so behind Bill's car. After the right turn onto the road leading to the first of numerous U-turns, Bill hit the gas and so did the front of the group. Immediately we were up into the 28-30 mph range. I was trying to stay reasonably close to the front, and over to the left, anticipating the usual chaos at the upcoming left-hand U-turn, and as we approached it I thought I was in a good enough spot somehwere in the front 25 or so. But then riders started making U-turns all over the place in front of me. I don't know if there was a traffic cone or something that we were supposed to go around, but if there was, I never saw it and had to start the U-turn early since everyone in front of me was turning into my path. That turned out to be a minor disaster for me when someone bumped me mid-turn and I had to unclip and put a foot down to remain upright. Then, it took me a couple of attempts to clip in as riders went streaming past. By the time I finally got up to speed the front of the group was already fading into the distance at 30+ mph and I was desperately looking for a wheel that might perhaps pull me across. Up ahead, there were nothing but gaps everywhere, and as I sat on someone's wheel hoping for a miracle, I saw Christian sprint past. I should have made the effort to go with him, but didn't. Big mistake. I think he was one of the last to make it up to what became the big front group. The riders around me didn't seem committed to any sort of organized chase, and so we all eventually came together to form a second group of about twenty. Meanwhile, a small break had gone off the front of the first group that eventually because six as two riders bridged up from the big front group. On the plus side, a few of the Tulane riders, including Jess, Dylan, Josiah, and Chris, were in that front group, and Pirmin was in the break, so a good showing there. Lisa was the first woman, and Sam the first man.

So once I kind of recovered from the initial disaster, and although the main group hovered within a minute of us for quite a while, I knew we were on our own. There were just a few in my group who seemed interested in working, and although I was already resigned to my fate, I did end up doing more work than usual, just for the exercise. It was still a nice ride and a decent enough workout, but we would ultimately finish five minutes behind the main group. At the start I had throught I'd started up navigation of the course that I'd loaded onto my computer, but it didn't seem to be working. I had really wanted to be able to see how far it was to the next U-turn, since this course featured no fewer than six of them. So once things settled down a little bit I started trying to load the course again while riding and not surprisingly managed to stop and save the ride altogether. So then I had to start the ride again from wherever I was at the time, and yet still couldn't seem to get the course navigation to work. Go figure. As it turned out, though, this group was never aggressive enough that it mattered much if I went around the U-turns at the front or at the back.

Surprisingly the break never put much more than a minute on the large lead group, and by the end even the break was a bit slower than the main group was last year, finishing in around 1:59 (we'd finished at 1:58 the year before). As we got close to the end I was expecting to see a timing mat or finish line of some sort, but never did. I think maybe the top-5 placings were determined via a regular video or something, while the times were determined by the timing mat inside the park that was well after the finish line that was used for the placings. I don't even know if there was anyone there with a phone/camera when our group came by. That led to some controversy for Jess, who apparently was pretty sure she was the third woman at the sprint point (wherever that was) but was awarded 4th based, I guess, on the chip timing. Jess went on to ride another couple of hours that day, logging over 140 miles. For me, I was a little disappointed at having missed being in the front group where I'm sure I would have been fine, but that's how it goes sometimes. On the plus side, the weather was pretty perfect allowing everyone to ride in just summer kit. You can't complain about that for an event in the middle of November. 

Thanks to my group's relatively moderate 24 mph pace, and the fact that nobody crashed on one of the thousand traffic cones, I ended the ride none the worse for wear, heading home just in time to say goodbye to Jay who had been at the house over the weekend to deliver and recover his daughter from the airport, and for a Saturday brunch to celebrate mu sister Patty's birthday at Vessel NOLA.

Mellow Monday had a nice turnout, again thanks to the nice weather, and this morning's ride was likewise done in summer kit. It was just Rich and me for the out-and-back to Williams Blvd., taking long pulls on an almost windless morning. Meanwhile, the ring finger on my left hand is still swollen from that fall on the railroad tracks about three weeks ago, and I'm seriously considering ordering a ring-cutter at this point. 

Out the Door

Big combined Saturday group

On days like this it's really hard just to get out the door in the morning. After some reasonably seasonable weather during the week, things kind of started going downhill around mid-day on Sunday, and this morning was the coldest we've had thus far this Fall. Not to worry, of course. It won't stay for long since it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Wednesday morning's WeMoRi featured minimal wind and a comfortable temperature in the mid-upper 50s, but for reasons unknown seemed to have a lower turnout than usual. I slipped into the still-intact group along Marconi, shifting immediately from Zone 2 to Zone 1,000 as usual, but fortunately there wasn't a huge acceleration onto Wisner. I got my breathing back under control just in time for the sprint up the overpass, at which point Steve and Rob opened a huge gap as the rest of the group momentarily looked around at each other to see who would take the bait. Someone eventually did, but it wasn't until almost Marconi that it all came back together. The pace settled down a bit and despite having to respond to a surge or two on the way back from Elysian Fields, I was still feeling good enough to stay with the two or three wheels at the front for the sprint at Marconi. Charles was apparently out sick, and although he tried to make an early comeback on Thursday, he's still out for the count almost a week later, no thanks to the cold snap that hit us a couple of days ago.

On Friday I did the regular Friendly Friday ride, which was nice, and then rode down to the river for a little cool-down and coffee stop with the Tulane group. The weather was still pretty nice, but by then the forecast for Sunday was starting to look ominous.

Saturday's Giro had a decent enough turnout, and with a light tailwind the group sailed out to Venetian Isles at a steady 27-30 mph pace. As we approached the shade tree where everybody likes to stop we found the entire early SaMoRi waiting there. They had apparently had at least two flats that took a while to fix. So with both groups now merged into one we had a fun ride back. I guess there were 30-40 riders most of the way.

By Sunday morning it was clear that a cold front would be coming through right around ride time, and with the predicted wind speeds in the 20+ mph range, I was pretty sure there wasn't going to be much of a Giro, if any. The Tulane group had planned a ride out to around Hopedale, starting at 6:30, so I set my sights on that. I told them I'd meet them at the end of Nashville so I wouldn't have to negotiate Broadway, which is still torn up in places. When they arrived I wasn't too surprised to see only three. They had already formulated Plan B, which was to ditch the Hopedale route and instead do a lap of Lakeshore Drive and then a loop out to The Wall and then down to the river bike path. The wind was already blowing out of the WNW and would eventually climb into the 20-24 mph range as the ride progressed. Strategically, we would be riding into it earlier rather than later. This ride was strictly Zone 2 level, which was fine with me. For some reason Josiah spent about 90% of the time on the front - also fine with me. Anyway, it was a nice ride considering the wind. Of course, the wind was just the opening act of the cold front, and by Monday morning the temperature had dropped from the 60s to the 40s.

So when I rolled out of the house on Monday morning the temperature was around 42° and there was a steady north wind at, still, around 20 mph. Charles had already texted me that he was still sick and wouldn't be there, and I was pretty sure I'd be riding solo that morning, which is exactly what happened. In fact, I don't think I saw anybody else the entire ride. It was the first day I'd pulled on the long winter tights, long-sleeve jersey, and long-sleeve base layer. I was still cold.

This morning wasn't much better, and unsurprisingly it was just Wes and I at the start. It seemed even colder that the day before despite all the winter kit I'd piled on. As I headed out to the park I fumbled with the computer to switch to the screen that shows me the time of day, and noticed that it wasn't registering heart rate. I thought I had pressed the button on my optical HRM, but since it was under two layers of clothes I hadn't confirmed that it had started. Of course it hadn't. Oh well, my heart rate is just for my own curiosity anyway. So as we are starting the ride through City Park I'm kind of hoping that Maurizio won't show up. There's something about riding in the cold that just seems to sap the motivation out of me, and for the record, it takes a bit of motivation just to stick on Maurizio's wheel. Of course a moment later I saw Maurizio turn around to join us. Atypically, however, there weren't any other riders, so I guess the regular Tuesday morning group hadn't materialized because of the cold and wind, which by the way was now blowing strongly out of the east. So Maurizio led us out to the Armory into the wind with me glued to his wheel, but when he stood up to go up the rise at the loop there I just didn't have the motivation to accelerate again. Wes eventually came around me and Maurizio slowed down so we could catch. After they turned off I continued onto the lake trail, enjoying the tailwind and dreading the long slog I knew I'd have to endure on the way back. On the plus side, I was all alone so there was nobody there to see how slowly I was going.

It looks like the weather will now be warming back up to what passes for normal this time of year with low temperatures in the upper 50s to mid-60s for the forseeable future. The Tour de Jefferson ride is this coming Sunday and I'm just a bit apprehensive about it because there will be some prizes on the line this year. If I'm lucky, a 5-person group will split off the front early and things in the second group will quickly settle down to normal, which for this ride is usually still a little bit sketchy. Anyway, I won't be going for any podium places for sure. Later this month the GCBC is doing a little 72 mile ride out of Waveland that happens to fall the weekend before my birthday, so I went ahead and signed up for it since it's a chance to do a 72 mile ride on, almost, my 72nd birthday, which of course one has to do. It's a rule.

Turkey Season

The past week has been rather chilly and occasionally very windy, which is par for the course this time of year. Of course this taste of winter won't last. It's much too early for that. It did, however, make for a few rather uncomfortable morning rides. 

Wednesday morning I headed out straight into a gusty northwest wind knowing full well that there would probably be no regular WeMoRi. I went all the way out to Lakeshore Drive, mainly to see just how bad it was. As I'd imagined, the waves were crashing over the seawall in places, leaving the roadway wet and, in a few spots, flooded. I made a short video before turning back south onto Marconi to see if I could find anyone else. Eventually I did run into Charles, and we rode a lap around City Park before calling it a day. Thursday morning wasn't much better. By then the temperature had dropped a few more degrees, but the wind was still around 20 mph out on Lakeshore Drive. A few of us did show up for the 6 am ride, but the consensus, quickly reached, was to just ride some laps mostly around City Park, with just the eastbound section of Lakeshore Drive between Marconi and Wisner (since that was partly tailwind). We did about four laps, so at least total mileage was comparable to a normal Thursday. It was the first morning I pulled on the arm-warmers this fall.

Friday morning was much improved as far as the wind was concerned, but it was still in the low 50s when I left home. Friendly Friday was pretty normal, and as has become my habit lately I then rode down to the river with Charles to meet the Tulane coffee ride. It was also Halloween, so of course there were costumes.

As usual, Halloween night on Neron Place was very busy. For an hour or so the street was packed with kids in costume. Our neighbors were showing kids' movies in front of their house, and people were stopping by for food and drinks as we took turns sliding candy down the "candy chute," which is great because it keeps me from worrying about the little kids negotiating our front stairs while wearing costumes.

By Saturday I knew we'd be doing a 70 mile ride from Bay St. Louis on Sunday. It was still pretty cold before sunrise as I sat outside Starbucks sipping my coffee and wondering who would show up. As it turned out, a good amount of horsepower was on hand by the time we rolled out onto Harrison Avenue, and I was already contemplating how I would avoid inflicting too much damage on myself considering the following day's plan. Despite the east wind, the group that included Connor, Jaden, et. al. averaged around 27 mph all the way out to Paris Road. Coming around that turn at the back, I sprinted a bit to close the gap and thought to myself, "this is NOT going to slow down." At that point I made the strategic decision to back off and make my way out to the east at a more civilized pace. In retrospect, I should have stayed with them until Chef Highway because I  hate being solo on that stretch of interstage. Anyway, that worked out fine, and I turned around to get back into the group a mile or so before the turnaround. After that, I was fine with the speed, so no regrets there.

Sunday morning was the switch from DST to CST, but of course it was still dark at 5:15 when we met up at Tulane Cycling HQ to load up cars for the hour-long drive to War Memorial Park in Bay St. Louis. It was pretty chilly, but the sky was clear and by our 7:30 am start time it was warm enough (for me) to wear just a base layer shirt and arm-warmers and long-finger gloves. I was still chilly for the first hour or so, but knew it would warm up, which of course it did. I had gotten a third thru-axle adaptor for the roof rack, so the Cervelo was on the roof along with two of the team Specialized bikes. I will say that loading bikes onto the roof with thru-axles is infinitely more difficult than quick-releases ever were, which should be a surprise to nobody. There's a reason they don't call them "Quick-axles."

So we had I guess a dozen for this 70-miler on a super nice Sunday morning. A few would be splitting off early to do a shorter 50-mile loop. The pace was, relatively speaking, pretty controlled for this one with an average speed right at 20 mph and a max of 37. Although we didn't have a crash like last time, we did kind of accidentally abandon one rider at the store stop about 45 miles into the ride. When we headed out from the store everyone was on his or her bike, so nobody was looking back. One rider, however, quickly discovered that his rear derailleur cable had snapped - typical Shimano break inside the shifter. We were probably two or three miles down the road before somone's phone rang and we learned that he was still back at the store, so a few of us turned back, finally finding  him riding in our direction, stuck in the biggest gear on the bike. We stopped and adjusted the limit screw to at least get him onto the third cog, which put him in a gear that was a little high for the terrain but manageable. In fact, he sat on the front after that for a couple of miles, so it must not have been too bad. Somehwere along the way we saw a bunch of roadside turkeys, approps for the first day of November, I guess.

After everyone arrived back at the cars, we decided to have lunch at a semi-permanent food truck (Sea Level) at the marina basically across the street. That actually turned out to be surprisingly nice. It was probably close to 3 pm by the time I got home.

So I am slowly getting the new Cervelo Soloist sorted out more or less to my liking. I've ridden a bit over 1,000 miles on it so far. Saturday evening I moved the saddle about half a centimeter farther forward and angled it down around 1-2°, which worked out quite nicely. I think I'd been sitting more toward the tip of the saddle. Sliding it forward and lowering the nose put me in a better and more comfortable spot and effectively lowered the height just a touch, which I think it needed.  Yesterday I got a pair of regular, non-tubeless, Continental 5000 tires (235 g each) and replaced the significantly heavier Vittoria Corsa N.EXT TLR tires (330 g each) that had been on there. At the same time I put a latex tube in the rear and a lightweight butyl tube in the front (what I had on hand) to replace the larger, heavier ones that the bike came with. I think I could feel the difference this morning. Although both tires were 28s, the Continentals don't look quite a wide on the bike, and just feel a little less sluggish, so despite the cost, I think it was a good move for me. If I decide to try going tubeless, I'll have a set of tires on hand for that, but don't hold your breath on that one. 

This morning as I was riding out to meet the Tuesday morning ride, I dropped the chain shifting from the small ring to the large one, so immediately coasted to a stop so I wouldn't gouge up the carbon frame. I can't remember the last time I dropped a chain like that, and it had never happened before on the Cervelo. The bike didn't come with a chain-catcher, and coincidentially I had just ordered one from K-edge using the Tulane club discount, which basically covered the shipping cost. I'll get that installed as soon as I get it. One thing about electronic shifting is that you can't ease the chain over from one ring to the other like you can with mechanical. 

So the only outstanding thing with the bike for now is the question of stem length. I feel perfectly comfortable when on the hoods, probably because they are at least a couple centimeters longer than the mechanical ones on the Bianchi. It's a little cramped on the drops, but really not bad, so I may keep things as they are for a while and see how it goes.  The Cervelo uses the same seat tube angle across all of the frame sizes, so for the smaller sizes the actual virtual top tube is a bit longer than normal, which places the top of the seat tube a little farther back. You therefore have to pay more attention to the front center measurement instead of the virtual top tube measurement (and handlebar reach) when it comes to stem length, after adjusting the horizontal seat position to have the correct setback relative to the bottom bracket. Basically, you can't just blindly carry over many of your measurements from a different bike. It's interesting how handlebar reach and drop, and often stem length as well, have changed over the years as we went from the old brake levers that barely had room for half your hand, to indexed shifters that were significantly longer, to hydraulic brake/shifters that are even longer still.

Tour da Parish Week

Thursday heading back in the wind

This is an odd time of year down here. The morning temperatures have been nice and cool for the most part, and the highs just barely touch 80°F, but things can vary dramatically as cold fronts sag down across the area, sometimes quickly, somtimes not. Along with those fronts come north winds, often in the 12-20 mph range, that gust unhindered across Lakeshore Drive. It's not unusual for the local riders to check the early morning weather, not for the temperature, but for the wind velocity. This time of year it's best to look at the actual readings from the Lakefront Airport weather station rather than those from places like weather.com, because the former often gives a much more accurate reading of the situation on Lakeshore Drive. There are some riders who basically refuse to show up if it's over 10 mph, especially if it's cold. To be fair, it hasn't been cold yet, and I still haven't pulled even the arm-warmers or base layers out of the drawer. That may well change toward the end of this week, however, when the forecast is calling for early morning lows in the low to mid-50s. I truly hate having to make those wardrobe decisions this time of year.

On Wednesday the aforementioned wind was 8-10 mph out of the north, and as I struggled toward Lakeshore Drive to meet up with the WeMoRi I wondered how it would go. I met up with what I assumed to be a breakaway along Marconi. There were only three or four riders, and as usual I tucked in behind the last of them as I went from 15 to 25 mph and my heart rate increased by 40 bpm in less than a minute. We made the turn onto Wisner and I ended up behind Rob, who I think was on his track bike because of course you would take a single speed out on a group ride with 10 mph winds. There was a little slowdown at the light at Filmore, and as Rob sprinted to close a little gap, I didn't, thinking I'd just slip into the main group that was just behind, except that there wasn't a main group just behind. The crosswind along LSD had apparently shattered the rest of the small group that had at least shown up earlier, so I was left to my own devices. Back on LSD, I turned around early and latched back onto what was left of the group, which I think was down to maybe three or four, for the last bit. 

So dark!

Thursday morning was still pretty windy but at least it had shifted a bit out of the east, so I had a nice steady fast ride out to Williams Blvd. at 25-27 mph with Jason and Charles, and then a long ride back at more like 16-17 mph. By then I was already thinking about the upcoming Tour da Parish ride on Saturday. Friday's Friendly Friday ride got kind of fast as usual along Lakeshore Drive, but I was being careful not to spend much time in the wind, considering. Afterward I rode down to the river to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride, which was a nice easy recovery pace.

With nobody to shuttle out to da parish on Saturday, I had an easy drive in the dark, arriving at the start of the Tour da Parish ride with almost an hour to spare, which gave the mosquitoes plenty of time to inflict a couple dozen bites despite the bug spray I had brought along. I probably should have tried for more complete coverage because the bugs had no trouble at all biting me right through my lycra kit. 

warmup

The start was a bit delayed for some reason, but the first part went pretty much as usual, which is to say that the front of the group basically attacked out of the gravel bypass at 1.5 miles, leaving me quickly maxxed out in no-mans-land. I should have held back and gone through there a little farther back so I'd have wheels to follow, but as it was I kind of blew up chasing and then was streamed by a bunch of riders before I could recover. It looked like there was a lead group of maybe six, and then a second group that was a little larger. My group came together fairly quickly and hovered just 40 seconds or so ahead all the way out to Delacroix. For a little while I thought we might catch them, but I don't think too many in our group were sufficiently motivated for that. There was little taste of tailwind after that U-turn, and I think the group ahead of us took advantage of it but mine didn't, so they were soon out of sight as our group just cruised along mostly at 23-24 mph. Turning onto the road to Hopedale there was more of a headwind and our speed became even more inconsistent as some riders seemed content to plod along at 18-20 on the front. Right after the U-turn there I unexpectedly found myself with Boyd who had dropped out of the second group at some point. It turned out that somone had dropped something right around the turnaround and the rest of the group had waited, which explained why we were suddently alone. Anyway, by then we had picked up a nice tailwind, so we had a really nice smooth 2-man time trial, mostly at 26-27 mph, which was actually fairly conservative considering the tailwind and the fact that Boyd was on his Pinarello e-bike. It was really fun, though, and although it felt fairly moderate, it was probably the most intensity I got that day.

Soon after turning onto Bayou Road, however, Boyd's rear tire exploded in dramatic fashion. I think we were about 5.5 miles from the end, so I turned back to assist. He was riding tubeless tires, so he pulled out a plug and after a few tries finally got it into what he assumed to be the puncture. Unfortunately, the tire still wouldn't hold air, and we found a four-inch section where the tread had completely separated from the casing. At that point we should have put a tube in it, but Boyd didn't want to mess with all the sealant and everything and decided to just ride in on the flat since we were so close. We should have taken the time to put a tube in it, as it turned out. So we were riding along at maybe 10 mph, which was going as well as it could when riding on a flat, when we came to a section of road that had a little bit of a lateral slope to it. At that point Boyd's tire slipped completely off the rim and he crashed, bumping me a bit as he went down. His battery, which is about the size of a water bottle, had come unlatched from the seat tube, and I had to pull out my tire lever just to get the flat tire back onto the rim, and so at that point Boyd decided to just walk the rest of the way since we were maybe 1.5 miles from the end, so I rode alongside to make sure he was OK (he had hit his head just a little bit, along with his elbow and knee). We couldn't get the battery back in place, and as it turned out later we were trying to do it with the battery upside down. He secured it in his water bottle cage, so it was ok, though. We came to a police officer at an intersection about half a mile from the end who offered to get him a ride back, so I went on at that point. I think the EMS people kind of insisted that he should get checked out at the ER, which he ultimately did. 

Later, as I was enjoying the fried catfish that they always provide I found Dustin manning his Deviate Physio tent and noticed that he was also a little bloody. He had been with the front group all day, and on the fast tailwind stretch, when they were down to like four riders, he'd unexpectedly hit one of the blue fire hydrant road reflectors that they always put in the middle of the lane. I think he had one hand off the bar at the time, so he crashed, but seemed to have survived it OK. Anyway, although I was feeling a little frustrated at not having been able to make it into that second group in the first few miles, I totally enjoyed the ride back from Hopedale with Boyd -- except for the flat tire and crash part of course. I think it took is over 45 minutes to do the last five miles. Boyd ended up going to the ER to get checked out because of the head hit just to be on the safe side (he was fine).

Sunday morning another front came through with lots of rain and thunder, so the Giro was entirely out of the question. Once it passed, however, the sky cleared up quite a bit, so I went out around noon for an easy ride out to the Spillway and back. It was a little windy, of course, but otherwise pretty nice. I took a picture of the upriver end of the "levee raise" project that has closed down two miles of the bike path near Larose since April with an end date of "whenever we finish," which does not appear to be any time soon.

This morning's Mellow Monday ride had a surprisingly decent enough turnout considering the 12 mph north wind. As usual, it eventually got fairly fast along Lakeshore Drive, but everything came back together by the time we were back onto Marconi, except for Jess who didn't slow down when we met  back up with Josiah and Claudia.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Melissa is setting records down in the Caribbean and is probably going to flatten Jamacia. Winds are about up to Category 5 levels. It's expected to take a sharp turn toward the northeast, so not likely to cause problems here, but the islands are going to take a major hit. We have been super lucky this year that nothing has so far made it into the Gulf.

Waiting for the Sun

The mornings have been getting a little cooler -- and darker -- as we suffer through the last weeks of Daylight Time. That combination usually means more people on the group rides, and more surprises on the road. We don't switch back to Standard Time until November 2, which seems way to late for those of us constrained to early morning rides. Next Saturday is the annual Tour da Parish ride that starts at 7:15 am. which, as usual, will be just after sunrise. Also, as usual, we will start heading east with the rising sun in our eyes, unless of course it's cloudy and/or raining, always a possibility this time of year.

The weekday rides were pretty typical, except for the extended darkness and flashing tail lights. I do wish people would figure out how to set their tail lights to a lower setting for these group rides. Yesterday's Mellow Monday ride got pretty sketchy on the way back along Lakeshore Drive. A front had come through in the early morning hours, so in addition to the wind there was a lot of debris on the road, including palmetto fronds, Water Hyacinth blown out of the lake onto the road, and a big upside-down road sign with aluminum L angle reinforcements sticking up that we barely avoided. I uncharacteristically spent a fair amount of time out of the draft over on the left along there just to be on the safe side (literally). These would not be my only close calls that week.

After a windy and fairly sparsely attended WeMoRi I somehow didn't quite set my morning alarm right and woke up Thursday morning knowing I'd miss the start of the 6 am ride. I rushed out the door into the dark, flew down Carrollton Avenue because it's shorter (but riskier), and went straight to Lakeshore Drive where I eventually found the group. Then, after most turned off for home and I continued out to the lake trail, I found one of the regular groups there. They had decided to change their route a bit that morning, so luckily I had a nice group for the ride out to the Casino. That ride featured some patches of fog that had my glasses going in and out of my pocket a couple of times.

On Friday I did the regular Friendly Friday ride. As usual there was a good sized group for that one, but the pace, while in no way slow, never got too much out of hand as it sometimes does. Afterward Charles and I rode down Carrollton to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride which was a nice conversational ride with a stop at French Truck on Maple Street at the end. Plans were already afoot for a group ride over in Waveland for Sunday.

Saturday's Giro had a decent enough turnout and provided a pretty good workout. A little bit of a southeast wind had me up to 36 mph between the bridges chasing down the front group that seems to always put the hammer down coming over the first overpass. It was a good workout even though I was being a little cautious about doing too much work since I was planning on a 70+ mile ride the next day over in Mississippi. I did a quick turnaround after I got home to make the Tulane - Army football game, which was surprisingly good. It wouldn't be until later that evening that I would hear about a crash on the northshore group ride that landed John Egan in the trauma unit at UMC with a broken pelvis. He had surgery the following day, which apparently went well. I texted him on Monday afternoon and he replied right away, so he seemed to be doing well under the circumstances, although dreading the extended recovery process he was about to start.

So on Sunday I was up before 5 am to head over to HQ to meet up with the Tulane group going to Waveland. Since I knew I'd need all three spots on my roof rack, and I only have two thru-axle adapters, I brought the Bianchi for this one. After a couple of weeks riding mostly the new Cervelo I can't say it's noticeably faster or anything, so it isn't much of a difference going from one bike to the other anyway. 

We started on the beach in Waveland with a group of around 20, I think. A few would be doing a shorter route, but most would be doing the full 73 mile route. Despite not being familiar with the bridge between Waveland and Bay St. Louis, some of the Tulane riders took the lead right away and turned onto the bridge traffic lanes instead of the bike path, so everyone followed even though the traffic lanes are specifically marked as "no bikes." We survived anyway since it was 7:30 am on a Sunday. Of course, the early ride surge of adreneline split the group badly and I finally had to get everyone to stop for a couple of minutes so the rest could catch up. After that the pace stabilized a bit as the short-route riders dropped back. As usual on these rides I was kind of monitoring the group from the back.

Pretty soon someone flatted, so we stopped for that. The weather and route were about as good as it gets, and we had a nice double paceline going for a while. Pirmin, Jaden, and Kenny were on hand doling out advice. We were about 32 miles into the ride and coming down a little downhill into a gradual lefthand curve when one of the riders hit the rumble strip and ended up off the asphalt and on the sandy shoulder. The instinct to try to steer back toward the road washed out his front wheel and he did a beautiful flip, landing on his back along with one of the riders behind him. Charles rolled over the rear wheel of his bike that went flying across the road, bumping my own rear wheel as I went past. Fortunately both riders survived with just a lot of road rash mostly on their backs. The rear wheel, however, was badly out of true so it took a little while for Jaden and a multitool to make it a little less wobbly. 

After a long store stop around 45 miles in, we got going again only to have another rider snap a rear spoke. We stopped again and wrapped the broken spoke around its neighbor so he could continue. Luckily another spoke didn't break. We were around ten miles from the end when the front of the group rather unexpectedly dropped the hammer. That split things up a lot and left me closing a bunch of gaps. Eventually five or six of us came together about 40 seconds behind the front group that itself eventually shed almost everyone except Pirmin and Josiah, I think. Anyway, that got me a little intensity, even though we never got anywhere close to closing the gap. Other than the crash and broken spoke it was a pretty good ride on a really nice day. After a stop for lunch I don't think I got home until around 3 pm.

Fall and Falling

Friendly Friday - almost sunrise

The last few days have treated us to some beautiful Fall weather. Here in New Orleans, of course, what we might refer to as "Fall" is fairly similar to what they call "Summer" in other lattitudes. The morning temperatures in the 60s and highs in the low 80s have provided some welcome relief to both cyclists and air-conditioner compressors, and by the looks of the long-range forecast, the cool mornings will stick around for a while. It still won't likely get cool enough for me to start the annual "where did I put those arm-warmers" search, however. The morning rides now are largely in the dark, at least until the first week of November when we shift back to Standard Time. At that point, sunrise will be around 6:15 am so at least it won't be pitch black when I leave the house for a few weeks.

After Six Gap I took it pretty easy for a week, logging only 207 miles, most of which were pretty low intensity. The Tuesday after Six Gap I managed to put a stick into my rear wheel just as we were about to drop down the curb from the little bike path section along the 17th Street Canal onto Old Hammond Highway. That broke a spoke in my trusty Campi Scirocco wheel, so I just limped slowly home. Fortunately, I wasn't riding the new Cervelo Soloist yet because I was waiting for a new saddle to arrive. I called Adam at Bicycle World that afternoon, and luckily they had a couple of suitable replacement spokes. The car was in the shop, so I rode straight over there after work to pick them up, along with a roll of rim tape. I forgot to ask about spoke nipples, but back at home I found one that would work in a box of antique Schwinn branded spokes I'd inherited from Billy Richards, so the wheel was back in action for the following day, albeit with one brass spoke among all of the other aluminum ones (the original Al nipple had broken). The hardest part about the whole repair was coaxing the broken nipple and aluminum washer out of the rim through the valve hole. There was also some rain that week that interfered with a ride or two, all of which was just fine because it wasn't until Thursday before my legs felt reasonably recovered.

Great weather for the northshore Sunday ride

Last week's Friendly Friday ride was, as usual, more fast than friendly, so I was kind of staying out of the wind as much as possible despite my legs feeling back to normal. It was practically my first regular ride on the Cervelo. Afterward, Charles and I booked it down Carrollton to meet up with the Tulane coffee ride, which is always a nice recovery pace on the river levee. They'd decided to stop at Shug's Bagels on Maple Street, so the plan was to turn off of the bike path at the Corps of Engineers crossing on Burdette. As we approached the Corps building I dropped back with a couple of riders who were a bit off the back. Then we heard the train whistle from a train that was slowly approaching from around Audubon Park. We sped up just a bit before dropping down the levee and making an immediate turn on the bumpy asphalt to cross the tracks. I was almost at a stop as I met the group that was waiting there when one of the newer riders kind of miscalculated the turn and quite unexpectedly slammed right into me. I ended up on the ground with one arm neatly lodged in the groove of the train track. Fortunately, nothing was broken, although I probably jammed or dislocated my left ring finger, which is still pretty swollen.

On Saturday there was a planned Tulane northshore ride starting from Abita Springs. Since October is Festival Season around here, there were a couple of minor complications, one of which was that they were having their Fall Festival where we usually park. Fortunately one of the riders who lives in Abita pointed us to a big public parking lot that I didn't know existed, so that was great. I was riding my Bianchi since I have only two thru-axle adaptors for the roof rack and needed to transport four bikes. We headed out with seven riders for the planned 64 mile ride with a starting temperature of maybe 59°F. Yes, I was a little chilly. Pirmin was there, back from Germany, and I think he, Josiah, and Dylan were on the front of the group most of the time. Of course the pace was moderate by design. The weather was spectacular, as was the scenery. There was a charity ride going on that day starting from St. Benedict's, so we ran into a few of the riders and passed a few of their rest stops along the way, although I guess we missed most of the faster riders. We were kind of going in the opposite direction for some of their segments. Anyway, it was a really nice ride. Unfortunately, people had stuff to do afterward, so we just packed up and headed right back across the lake. I was probably home around 1 pm.

Sunday was a Giro for me. Again, it was just a bit chilly riding out to Starbucks in the dark, but the day's weather was again practically perfect for riding. There were about a dozen on hand for the ride, which was reasonably fast, mostly around 23-28 mph with a somewhat unexpected surge up to 39 coming down the overpass and then an unsuccessful chase from there to Seabrook. I did feel kind of wiped out by the time I got home, but that wasn't surprising after a 297 mile week. I was riding the Cervelo that is mostly functional except that I haven't quite sorted out all of the button functions and Garmin 540 data screens, etc., and probably need to go through the derailleur alignment process. I thought I'd immediately need to change out the 80 mm stem for a 100 mm one that I have on hand, but the Shimano Di2 hydraulic brake shift levers are so long that I barely notice any difference except on the drops. I guess I'll ride it like it is for a while and see how that works out. The Reserve 40/44 wheels feel kind of heavy to me, but I think that may be partially because of the tubless-ready Vittoria tires that are currently set up with tubes, and perhaps also the 11-30 cassette. Also, with an internal width of 25 mm (compared to 17-20 mm that I'm used to) makes the 28 mm tires seem huge. Again, I'll probably just ride them like they are for a while before doing anything drastic. I've always leaned toward light weight when it comes to wheels, but I'll probably try some lighter non-tubeless Conti tires and latex or TPU tubes first.

This morning it was pitch dark when I left the house. I glanced up and said hello to Orion, turned on the headlight, and headed off. Along Fontainbleau just before the turn onto Vendome I saw two riders fly by from Nashville. I thought they might be the Tulane riders, so I upped my pace, finally catching them somewhere after Washington Blvd. It turned out to be Connor and Jess (who was recently accepted into the graduate program at Oxford). It sounds likek Connor may be moving to Colorado to start ATC work, having just passed the course. At the museum there was a pretty big group for a Monday that included three Tulane riders in addition to Jess. Dylan and Josiah sat at the front all the way out to Seabrook. Then, after the loop, riders started wanting to go faster and the group split. I stayed with the second group that was just cruising at 20 mph or so. As we approached the Elysian Fields traffic circle we found Connor and Jess over by the curb kind of going the other way. I figured one of them must have dropped something, but it turned out that Connor had flatted. Anyway, we mostly regrouped after Canal for the last stretch down Wisner, after which a lot of riders just kept going on their way home, leaving just a few of us back at the museum. We found the Tulane riders who had kept to their easy pace and we all rode back toward uptown.