Road Trip

Waiting for WeMo

Tuesday morning was another rain-out, bit the weather passed through quickly and by 10:30 I'd decided to get in some quality time on the levee despite the stiff north wind. I had already decided to taper off my effort levels a little bit this week since Sunday's Cheaha Challenge was lurking just around the corner, and the last thing I needed was to start that with sore legs. So the levee ride was actually quite nice. The sun was shining, the wind was mostly crosswind, and my 18-19 mph pace was just what I had been looking for. Of course, the two miles on River Road, thanks to the still-unfinished levee bike path section, was a bit stressful, but I again survived it without getting pushed into the ditch by an impatient truck driver.

Tuesday at the upriver end of the levee raise section - still unpaved, no activity anywhere

The next morning I went ahead and rode out to meet the WeMoRi somewhere along Marconi just as the sun was coming up over the eastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain. The group was a minute or two later than usual due to the fact that they had to ford the still-flooded and barricaded section of Lakeshore Drive. I think the group was a little smaller than usual despite the much improved weather. According to plan I was sitting in even more than usual, if that's even possible, but was still a little disappointed when a couple of riders rode off the front after the Wisner overpass. A somewhat haphazard chase ensued, in which I could not resist some brief participation, and the group came tantalizingly close to catching, but didn't. Having burned off the handful of riders willing to work, the chase then completely fizzled, a development that played nicely into my plan to take it easy.

Thursday morning I woke up already tired. I don't know what kind of marathon I must have been running in my sleep, but I very nearly turned back for home before getting to the lakefront. The ride itself was typical, but for reasons unknown I just felt dragged out the entire time. After most of the riders turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive, only a few of us were left for the long out-and-back to Williams Blvd. That ultimately turned out to be mostly just Matt and me, and fortunately Matt realized that I wasn't quite firing on all cylinders and did most of the work. Some days are just like that.

Friendly Friday - regrouping

This morning's Friendly Friday ride had a good turnout. The weather was pretty great, and aside from having to once again ride though the flooded part of Lakeshore Drive it was a fast one. I'm not sure exactly who all was on the front pushing the pace since I was spending most of my time near the tail end of the strung-out group. Unlike the day before, I felt fine and was going to make one big effort on the Wisner overpass, but that was thwarted when two of the riders ahead of me unexpectedly sat up, trapping me on the right edge of the road. Of course I should have been closer to the front, but thing had gotten reshuffled when we caught the stop light at Harrison.

Steve called last night to say he wasn't going to be able to make it to Cheaha, so I guess I'll be driving up alone on Saturday. At least it looks like the weather will be quite nice. I expect to get to Jacksonville around 5 or so to register and maybe take advantage of the $15 pasta dinner they are offering. Apparently there's also food available Sunday morning before the start, which itself is kind of confusing. In addition to a normal "non-competitive" century (that is apparently only 96.5 miles), and all of the various shorter distances, plus the "ultra" distance at 126 miles, there is also the UCI Fondo Qualifier thing that I guess is basically a race. That is broken up into age groups, with most doing the same 96.5 miles, except for the older age groups that inexplicably do just 84 - as if the extra 12 miles would matter. I registered for the regular non-UCI "century." They have group start times starting at 7:30 but separated by relatively small gaps that guarantee everyone will end up mixed together anyway. The three UCI waves start at 7:30, 7:35, and 7:40, and then my non-UCI groups starts at 7:42. Two minutes on a ride like this is just to help organize the start, I guess. It looks like the first 20+ miles are mostly flat with just one short significant climb, so I am fully expecting it to be fast enough to be dangerous with such a wide variation in abilities until things sort themselves out on the longer climbs.

The other day I compared the 36x30 low gear on the Cervelo with the 39x32 on the Bianchi and found them to be similar, with the Cervelo's lowest gear just a bit lower than that on the Bianchi when I have it set up in Six Gap mode. Since the climbs this Sunday are significantly shorter and less steep than Six Gap, I should be fine, at least in that regard. I ended up putting a new Conti 5000 on the front wheel since the one that had been on there had around 7,000 miles on it. Unfortunately it's a tan-wall version and doesn't match the rear, which I find surprisingly disturbing. I had had it on the workbench for months, and don't know if I ordered the wrong one or they shipped the wrong one.