A Taste of Fall

Thursday Levee Ride

Hurricane Isaias ended up making landfall around Destin, with impact that looks to me to be around upper Category 2 level. What that ultimately meant for us, as is often the case when something like that goes east of us, was a north wind and a little taste of fall, which is to say that the morning temperature may have gotten down to 60°F. Rather surprisingly, morning temperatures since have remained relatively cool. On Thursday we had a nice little group for the long levee ride with a bit of a tailwind heading out and of course headwind heading back. Friday, when the hurricane ultimately made landfall, the wind was stronger and more northerly. Not surprisingly, Lakeshore Drive was closed due to flooding resulting from the combination of a high lake level and strong north wind, so Friendly Friday was more like Fractured Friday as we decided to do a couple of laps around City Park instead. I wasn't in the mood to suffer and dropped off the pace early, which was probably just as well since I think the group kind of splintered anyway. I went ahead and rode down to the river afterward, rather later than usual, but eventually met up with the Tulane coffee ride as usual.

On Saturday I had originally been planning to do the 6:30 SaMoRi but Chris said he was going to do the Giro at 7, so I went ahead and did that. As usual we had a smallish but motivated group, so it was a good enough workout even if I was sucking wheels most of the time. 

On Sunday Ben had put together a Tulane long ride out of Abita Springs, so it was an early wakeup to get to HQ around 5:15 am for a planned 6:30 am start. I don't think we ended up leaving HQ until more like 5:45, so we didn't roll out of Abita until almost 7, which was fine since it would have still been pretty dark at 6:30 and the temperature was actually below 60°F. I wore my sunscreen arm warmer things, and did not regret it. The ride itself was strictly Zone 2 and it was a pretty beautiful day for the six or seven of us. Of course the ride was followed by lunch at the Brewpub as usual.

Tuesday's morning ride out of NOMA had pretty much the usual crowd, and as usual everyone turned off at the end of Lakeshore Drive except for me and Jeff. As we traversed the parking lot shortcut to Bucktown Jeff inexplicably dropped his chain, and as often seems to happen, it got stuck behind the Trek chain catcher thing. Luckily he had a multitool with him, so he could loosen the little flap and get it out of the way, but in the process he managed to cut his hand badly enough that he was dripping blood on the chain. Anyway, at that point he decided to just head home at Bonnabel to tend to his wounds and get his bike back in order, leaving me to my own devices for the rest of the ride to the west. Fortunately I'd seen the Metairie group earlier, so I cruised along and waited to be swept up by it, continuing out to The Wall and back, which was nice.

This morning I accidentally got out the door a little early, so I got to Lakeshore Drive probably four or five minutes ahead of the group. I went ahead and headed east at a moderate pace, and didn't get caught until we were almost to Marconi. It was fast as usual but nothing unusual, so I think mostly everyone stayed together. As usual I was mostly just following wheels. Ben, Liam, and Jack were MIA, having decided to do a levee ride instead, apparently tapering for Saturday's "non-competitive" Tour da Parish ride. It's looking like Saturday will be cool and windy. The current forecast is calling for NNE wind at 19 (!) mph. The route starts off mostly easterly, then turns south down to Delacroix, then back north, then a long stretch out mostly to the east and then back west. Of course things could change a bit between now and then, but my guess is that a strong wind, especially a crosswind, will wreak havoc on a group like this.