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. 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.