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 50 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 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 that 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 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. 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. Nobody ever accused me of having a too-upright position anyway.