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| A lot of this kind of scenery lately |
It was, I think, Thursday before my legs felt more or less normal again, which I suppose is about normal after a flatlander foolishly ventures up into north Georgia and rides 104 miles with close to 12k feet of climbing. Apparently going slower did not significantly reduce the damage inflicted, at least on my legs. Last week included a fair amount of wet roads and outright rain, and I think I washed down the bike and drip waxed the chain three times. over the course of seven days. It's just like that sometimes.
That Thursday ride was a late one, again because of morning rain. I went ahead and headed out for the levee around 6:40 am because it looked like I had a little window in-between the rain. A lot of the bike path was still pretty wet, and I rode through a short bit of rain shower, but otherwise I was glad I'd gone. Well, until I was three blocks from home and slashed the hell out of a basically brand new Conti 5000 on a sharp rock. The also new TPU tube immediately exploded through the cut, and by the time I rolled to a stop it had also been pinched by the rim. Later that day I sewed in a boot, so the tire will at least be usable as a backup. Fortunately I already had a tan wall Conti on hand that I'd mistakenly ordered a while back, so that got me through the next few days until a proper matching black one arrived today. I was a little surprised how much it bothered me having mismatched tires.
Last Saturday I went out with the SaMoRi again since they have now shifted to a slightly more palatable 6:30 am start and I figured my caffeine withdrawal symptoms would probably not kick in until it was over. Nothing much to say about the ride itself except that since most of the regular Giro riders are now there on Saturdays it was basically a Giro ride. The forecast for Sunday was not looking good, and in fact it ended up storming all morning. I finally slipped out on the 'Cross bike around 1:30 and found much of the levee bike path to be reasonably dry. Granted, I did get a tiny bit of rain along the way, and there were some areas that were pretty wet, but considering all of the rain around the area, I am chalking it up as a win, even if I got in only 33 miles. That brought my week's total to 251, so I'm going to call it a recovery week.
By Monday it was starting to look like something significant was developing in the western Gulf of Mexico. I was really hoping we would get all the way through the hurricane season without a single hurricane in the Gulf, but it doesn't look like that will happen. Anyway, the Mellow Monday ride was good, but the roads were mostly wet and once again the bike needed a bit of a wash afterward.
On Tuesday, things were thankfully dried out a bit, and after the usual fast bits along Lakeshore Drive I was left to my own devices for the out and back on the lake trail. The Metairie group, or what's left of it after last week's crash, was nowhere to be found, but a nice northeast tailwind lured me into going all the way out to the Wall anyway. Naturally that meant a relatively slow slog back to the east, but I wasn't in a hurry. That evening I decided to drop the fork as far as I could considering the hydraulic hoses that run through the headset bearings to see how it was all looking. I can't say it was looking all that good. The bottom headset area was pretty dirty, but at least the relatively new bearings seemed OK, so I cleaned everything off, slathered some Phil Wood grease on everything, and put it all back together. Before brake hoses went through the headset bearings I wouldn't have bothered with this cable since it was so easy and inexpensive to install new headset bearings, but now it's a real chore and if things don't go right you could end up having to run new brake hoses, bleed brakes, re-tape handlebars, etc., etc., so it's probably best to at least try to keep things reasonably clean and lubed.
The morning temperatures have started to come down a little bit. This morning as I rode out to the WeMoRi it was probably around 75°, which may not seem cool to some, but seemed cool to me. I think the 15 mph northeast wind may have contributed a bit to that feeling, though. With the slightly cooler temperature comes a lot more darkness, at least until we make the fall time change at the beginning of November. That has it's own consequences, as we saw later that morning. I don't typically make much of an effort to get out to the lakefront in time to meet the WeMoRi on its way out on Lakeshore Drive. This morning I did get out the door just a little bit earlier than usual, and considering the wind I was rather surprised to see the long paceline climbing the Bayou St. John bridge as I approached it on Beauregard Avenue. Of course, there was no way I was going to be able to chase it down, so I turned onto Lakeshore Drive a minute or two behind it, continuing to the Elysian Fields traffic circle where I looped back around to await the inevitable catch. As I was approaching the bridge I saw a headlight coming my way which turned out to be Ben's. He had broken a rear derailleur cable earlier in the ride and dropped off the back. He turned around to join me, stuck in his 52 x 11, and we continued at a relatively leisurely pace, turning onto Marconi still probably two or three minutes ahead of the WeMoRi group. Just as I hit the start of the Wisner overpass, Jaden and Liam went screaming past in a full sprint, followed shortly by the already diminished group into which I smoothly inserted myself as Ben peeled off to nurse his bike back home.
Things went fairly smoothly after that, at least until we got back onto Lakeshore Drive where Maurizio launched an attack just before the bridge. That had everyone strung out and on the rivet as we turned left around the fountain, still in enough darkness to make it hard to see what was coming. That's when MJ, I think, hit a pothole hard, followed by someone else, resulting in at least one, possibly two, flat tires. Of course the front of the group was blissfully unaware of that commotion and continued hammering away, pulling Maurizio back before we hit the Elysian Fields traffic circle. By that time I had been on the drops in full wheelsucking mode for a couple of miles. Somewhere before the bridge there was another attack, and although I was by then mid-pack at best, with two riders already way off the front, I still saw something a bit over 35 mph between there and the finish at Marconi.
So according to Charles' WeMoRi report, there were three flat tires and one broken derailleur cable during the ride, not counting Calder's flat tire on his way home. Liam and I stopped for coffee, but we were the only ones today.
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| No problemo |
So down in the Gulf we now have Tropical Storm Isaias, which seems to be heading for the Alabama/Florida border on the Gulf Coast, with landfall currently predicted to be some time late Friday or early Saturday as a Cat. 1 or Cat. 2 hurricane. Fortunately we will be on the "good" side, which will probably mean some nice northerly winds and some rain on Friday. Not ideal riding weather, but probably nothing to write home about.
