Texas State Weekend

Gavin won the Cat. B tme trial, crit, and overall

Last weekend I drove over to San Marcos for the Texas State Ultra collegiate races. From the outset, I had a feeling I was driving away from the good weather and toward the bad weather. I was not mistaken. I was still nursing a sore jaw after having an implant screwed into my jawbone earlier in the week, so I figured I'd get in just a little bit of training and hopefully some more moderate riding. Gavin, Frank (Haoting), and I made the trip in one minivan, with the three women in the other, and Dustin and Joey from LSU going up in Dustin's car. The 8 or 9-hour drive went pretty smoothly and we arrived around 10:30 or so, I guess, which wasn't bad considering we had not left until around 2:00. The temperature was already down to 40 or so, and predicted to drop farther by morning. I went to sleep hoping we'd be able to get in the road races before the rain.

Riding back after taking photos on the hill

Naturally, when I looked out the window at 6 am the next morning it was raining, and although it was predicted to end around 8 am, when the races were scheduled to begin, by then there was no chance we'd be seeing any dry asphalt all weekend. This is at least the third time I've been to this race and the weather each time has been cold and wet. Anyway, although the rain was technically over, there was still a cold mist for the whole road race. Riders were piling on whatever warm clothing they could find, so actual team jerseys were kind of rare. Julia, who is on the Tulane team, raced all day in an LSU jacket. I had planned on starting behind the A men and then eventually dropping back to follow the B men, but I was still rushing spare wheels to the follow car when the A race started, so I lined up with Dustin behind the B race. I was wearing my heavy NOBC jacket, a warm long-sleeve base layer, a short-sleeve wind-front base layer, and a thin long-sleeve Nike base layer, along with full tights and shoe-covers. It was a bit of overkill, but then again I knew I wouldn't be actually racing and might very well end up riding by myself, so better safe than sorry. The road race started out fairly easy, but I immediately realized we weren't doing the loop that I thought we'd be doing. There had never been any course map available, and after the race I realized that we were doing the old loop, but in the opposite direction. Basically, I was totally lost most of the time. So we were probably just about half-way around the first of three laps and I'm not paying much attention and I look up and there's this fairly big climb up ahead. I was still in something like the 53 x 15, loafing around at the back of the pack, when it finally dawned on me that this thing was way more steep than I'd thought. By then I was bogged down and afraid to try and force a shift while standing on the pedals, so pretty much everyone rode away from me before I got to the top. I came over the top and got together with another rider and we traded pulls at a nice pace that was obviously not going to be sufficient to close the gap which was probably already up to 45 seconds or so. This was fine with me, and apparently with him as well. Around the end of that lap we picked up one of the A women who had started with this group and gotten shelled when there had been a big surge, so I got in a nice little 40-something mile paceline ride without ever getting too cold. Mission accomplished, although I'd have liked to have done one more lap just for the miles. Gavin ended up placing 3rd in this race, but the other races were kind of a disaster for us. Kaitlyn and Julia were in the Women's B race. Kaitlyn crashed twice and Julia crashed once, but Julia ended up winning anyway. Kaitlyn smashed up her hip pretty badly and didn't finish. She would later ride the criterium on Sunday, though. Meanwhile, Frank, who was in the A group, somehow took a wrong turn while off the front and ended up on a highway somewhere, finally finding his way back but not finishing the race. Oriane finished 9th in the Women's C race. Oh well. Still, a 1st and a 3rd were good.

Cleat troubles on a 16% - 20% grade section of the TT

That afternoon was the infamous Time Trial on Fulton Ranch Road that features some short sections of around 20% grade. It was still very cold by the time that started around 2 pm. Gavin posted the fastest time in the Men's B category that would have put him 6th in the A race, while Julia did the same in the Women's B category. Oriane, who had just gotten her first pair of cycling shoes the week before, had a cleat come totally loose part-way up the climb. Dustin and I were halfway up the climb taking pictures and when we saw her walking her bike Dustin ran over to see what happened. He kind of hand-tightened the cleat bolts and got her going again, so at least she finished. Frank had a good time that put him 12th among the A riders. Everybody was happy to head back to the hotel after that to clean up. The bikes and clothes and shoes were all covered with mud from the wet road race, but considering the forecast for Sunday, nobody bothered to clean any of it off.

trying to warm up

So Sunday the rain stopped in time for the races, but the course was wet throughout because of the mist that was falling. Fortunately, the whole thing was at a big sprawling high school with fairly new roads. The loop was over a mile around and not very technical at all. It was still pretty cold - around 40 I guess - and never really warmed up at all. Everybody rode the Crit, including Frank and Oriane who had never ridden one before. Considering the wet roads they had instructions to just drop off the back whenever it got sketchy.

Gavin, on the left, realizing he has a flat rear coming into a wet downhill turn.

In the Women's race, Kaitlyn went for one of the early points primes, won it, and then dropped out of the front group. Julia stayed in there and ended up winning the sprint, locking up the omnium in the process.

Julia swept the B race.

In the Men's B race there was a lot of action. Frank came off the back fairly early as expected, but Gavin was looking for a win and was up at the front a lot. I was taking photos part-way around the course where there was a little downhill turn when the group came by and I heard Gavin yelling "flat!" A piece of metal wire had gone through his rear tire. Luckily we had spare wheels in the pit, and with the course being so long, he was able to cut across to the pit, change the wheel, and jump back in just as they were coming around again. A couple of laps later he was off the front with another rider who quickly dropped off. Gavin then just put his head down and went for it. There was still a lot of time on the clock, and there was definitely an active chase going on behind him. After a while a 2-rider break separated from the pack and was hovering around 12-20 seconds behind him, so we were starting to worry that he would be caught. Somehow he found a little extra for the last few laps and pulled it out a few more seconds, winning the criterium and the overall, with lots of room to spare.

So although Saturday hadn't gone as planned, and the weather pretty much sucked the whole time, it all worked out OK with some good results to show. After stopping for lunch we hit the road for home around mid-afternoon, getting back in to NOLA as a thick fog was settling in around 10:30 pm. It was a fun trip, although I wish I could have gotten in some more riding myself.

Burned, Drilled, Fogged, and on the Road

The weather around here has been unseasonably warm for about a week now. Naturally it's about to change pretty significantly, but it's been quite a relief to be able to ride in basically summer kit for a few days. Being early February, I have had a really hard time not over-dressing. Basically, I can't accept the thermometer at face value, and pulled on the arm-warmers a few times when they really weren't needed.

Last weekend, after a pretty routine Giro Ride on Saturday, I went with a small group of Tulane riders up to Independence for an easy 60+ miles in the country. The strongest riders weren't there, so I actually had a pretty relaxing ride. I needed it, I think. A week or so ago I broke down and visited the dermatologist, which of course resulted in a liberal application of liquid nitrogen and a scrape biopsy on a little spot on my back. Amazing how they can pick out that one spot from among the thousands of others on my sun-ravaged body. I guess I was about the last generation before sunscreen became readily available. As a child I would get sunburned to the point of blistering at least once or twice each year. Back then we used "suntan lotion" which was basically mineral oil that did essentially nothing but provide an excuse to rub your hands over your girlfriend's body on the beach. So anyway, with the LN2 burns are slowly healing, I found myself at the dentist yesterday for phase II of an implant I need to replace that tooth that had to be pulled back in December because it had cracked underneath an old crown. I had already been back the week before when they did a CAT scan of my mouth in order to figure out where to drill -- in to the bone. So I wasn't exactly looking forward to this little visit during which they would slice open my gum down to the bone, force my mouth open way past its normal limit, drill a hole into my jaw bone, thread the hole, screw in a post, and then stitch up the gum. After that I went home and briefly - very briefly - contemplated whether or not to go to work. Luckily I decided to stay home, because an hour later when the anesthetic started to wear off, I knew I was going to be in for a couple of uncomfortable days on Ibuprofen. It's still a bit swollen and obviously tender. Fortunately I am well-stocked on avocados and soup at home.

Levee fog - one of the better sections

This morning I ventured out to the levee for the Thursday ride. Although there were heavy fog warnings out, there was really no fog until I got to the river. There, there was plenty of fog. I guess there were six or seven of us by the time we got to the playground. So there we were riding along the levee bike path, in the dark, in a paceline, in fog so thick you could barely see the rider in front. It was stressful, even at a relatively sedate 22 mph. I was spending a lot of time about a bike length behind the rider in front of me, just so I'd have a slim chance of avoiding a crash if something suddenly appeared out of the darkness in front. By the time we got to Williams Blvd. all but three had turned back. We decided to continue on to the Big Dip. Things improved ever so slightly after sunrise, which I can only assume happened somewhere above the fog layer, but it was still pretty sketchy for most of it. At one point Rich, who was on the front at the time, hit the brakes pretty hard when we came up on a police car that was stopped on the bike path in a particularly foggy area. Once he finished playing with his phone he said something to us on his loudspeaker, but we couldn't understand it. I can only assume it was along the lines of "Slow the f^*k down!" Anyway, we all survived, and thanks to the shortened distance I had time to stop for coffee, which I sipped carefully in order to avoid hitting the injured gum where the stitches were.

Tomorrow we'll have a small component of the Tulane cycling team heading off to Texas State for the first collegiate road event of the brief season. Naturally, a cold front is coming through tonight and the temperature in San Marcos will be in the upper 30s for the start of the road race with rain in the forecast for Sunday. At least it shouldn't be as bad as it was a few years back when the whole weekend was basically freezing cold rain. I'm going to bring the bike and hopefully tag along with the A or B race in order to get in some miles. That never really works out too well for me. I tend to sit at the back so I don't affect the collegiate race, which means I inevitably hesitate when the pace surges and get gapped off at some point.

Nice in Natchez

the group about to roll out on Saturday morning

The weather around here has been pretty unpredictable kind of the way the Space Mountain ride at Disneyworld used to be when most of it was in the dark and they let us ride it while holding onto our infant daughter. So it was with some not insignificant sense of relief that, some time around the middle of last week, I felt confident that it wouldn't rain this year for the Tulane cycling team's training camp up at the Natchez State Park, which is close to Natchez but closer the the Natchez Trace. Although I felt certain that we would remain dry, which is actually kind of rare for this particular training camp, I felt equally certain that it would be cold. Cold and dry, being orders of magnitude better than cold and wet, I went home early Friday afternoon and stuffed my bag with all of the warm cozy cycling clothes that would fit. The only thing I didn't pack was a pair of knickers since I just knew it would be too cold for that. Naturally I was wrong.

Waiting at Bruff Commons

After loading the car with my gear, plus the bike, plus a small tree saw (I was determined to have a fire in the fireplace at the cabin), I swung by Tulane to pick up Anna and Oriane who I'd be bringing with me.We got there before dark, which was nice, and as we were driving into the park we saw Dustin heading the other way on a mission to procure groceries for the weekend and pizza for the night. Remind me never to go grocery shopping with Dustin unless he's picking up the tab, by the way. So we hung out in the middle cabin of the three that would be housing 15 riders, two of which were LSU riders. It's been a joint Tulane/LSU training camp for a few years now. Finally, Dustin arrived with a stack of pizza boxes and a few hundred dollars worth of food. Since I no longer have the metabolism of a 23-year-old cyclist, I knew immediately I was in over my head. Drinks consisted of stuff I don't normally drink much of, like milk which I don't drink for reasons related to my gut microbiome's reaction to my mild but sometimes dramatic lactase insufficiency. Fortunately I had brought along a couple bottles of leftover Porter or Stout or something, along with a few cans of Coke.

Just some of the food on hand

Interestingly, the male/female ratio this year was 0.875 which may have slightly reduced the amount of pre-ride trash talk. The training camp is much more about team-building than actual training, and this year I knew that the wide range of fitness levels was going to make it impossible to keep things together for long on the rides. I decided I'd try and ride herd on the rides and try to keep from leaving any of the riders alone and exhausted out in the middle of nowhere. Besides, I'd had a pretty solid three weeks of riding and had already started slacking off earlier in the week, so an easy January weekend wasn't going to cause me any undue anxiety.

Saturday morning we decided to wait until 10:00 to start the ride, which turned out to be perfect. Although the morning temperature had been in the mid-30s, by the time we started it had warmed up considerably. If I'd packed knickers, I would have worn them. I had brought knee-warmers, which I loaned to one of the riders, so I ended up with my thermal long tights, long-sleeve base layer, long-sleeve jersey, and wind vest. The wind vest was in my pocket by the time we got out of the park four miles later. Right from the start it was easy to tell which riders were going to be having trouble staying with the group because of the hills. I think it was Anna who was riding flat pedals with running shoes since her first pair of cycling shoes hadn't come in yet. The 60+ mile route for the day would take us north on the Trace for a bit, then back down Church Road and from there west and south to Natchez via a zig-zag route that included a mile or so of dirt road. My strategy was to ride with the main group while keeping track of who lost contact, and then backtracking at the intersections to pick up the stragglers and ride with them back to the intersections where we'd regroup. That assumed, of course, that everyone would wait at the intersections to regroup, and also that I could keep track of who was behind the group, neither of which happened. We did all regroup at the old Church on Church Road, where we took a group photo.

Post-ride on Saturday - everyone inside eating

On the way to the next intersection a few riders came off the back right away. As I'd planned, I stayed with the front group to the intersection and then turned back to pick up the last rider, or at least the rider I thought was the last rider. When I saw Julia a couple of minutes back I turned around and rode back to the intersection with her. Unfortunately, neither of us realized that Anna was yet another minute or two behind her. When we got to the intersection I was a little surprised that the group hadn't waited for us, so we continued on Emerald Mound road for a mile where I was sure they would be waiting at the Indian mound site. But they weren't. No worries, though. I was really enjoying the easy pace through the countryside with Julia and knew we'd all end up in Natchez at the Steampunk coffee shop eventually, plus I had the route on my Garmin. Well after making a few turns, we got onto a road where the Garmin kept telling me to turn right, which I knew couldn't be correct. As it turned out, the route was slightly offset from the actual road, so the Garmin kept trying to get us onto the road that it thought was twenty feet to the right, but wasn't. Anyway, once the road started heading north I got worried and stopped to check the map, which I couldn't do because we had no data service out in the middle of nowhere. I decided we must be going the wrong way, so we turned around. Luckily, about 100 feet later a guy in a pickup truck off to the side of the road yelled at us that the rest of the riders had indeed gone by earlier in our original direction, so we turned around again.  A little while later I got a text from Anna asking which way she should turn since she was by herself. I assumed she was somewhere ahead of us and had been dropped by the lead group, but after calling her figured out that she had been behind us the whole time and had turned the wrong way on Emerald Mound road. I gave her directions to ride to Natchez via the Trace, which I knew would be shorter.

Anyway, we all finally got back together in Natchez and had a nice ride back to the park, which was around 15 miles. Before we got off the Trace I doubled back to pick up the three riders who were off the back but had now learned to stay together! That night Dustin made an enormous batch of RB&R from scratch, which was pretty good. I'd spent the first night with my own bed since all of the girls had wanted to stay in the same cabin, but after they had improvised some of the sleeping arrangements, one of them was more than ready to take me up on the offer of taking my bed and letting me sleep on the couch. I'd slept on those couches before and knew that I'd fit nicely and would sleep fine, which I did.

Since things had gotten so split up on Saturday we decided to shorten Sunday's ride and instead just ride straight into Natchez on the Trace, do some efforts up and down the Bluff, and then ride back. That worked out nicely. It was slightly warmer on Sunday, even though we started at 9 am instead of 10, so I was pretty over-dressed with the long tights but since it never got very fast, I was OK. As I had before, I doubled back before we got off of the Trace to pick up the last three riders who were about a mile back. We were about 100 yards from the turn off of the Trace when one of the National Forest officers stopped us to tell us rather sternly that we had to ride single-file on the Trace. I had completely forgotten about that odd rule they put in place a few years ago. Fortunately, the larger group had escaped their notice both days!

Riding up the bluff in the 39x25

All-in-all it was a really nice, relaxing weekend for me, so I was really glad I'd gone. Back at home I went through a few hundred photos, posted the nicer ones, and shifted gears to get ready for the return to reality on Monday. Although I got in a short easy ride Monday morning, I knew that Tuesday was probably not going to happen. Indeed, when I woke up the streets were wet, there was a 30 mph wind blowing, and it was supposed to start raining fifteen minutes later. A cold front blew through precisely during my usual morning ride time. Now it's clear and sunny, but still windy and cold. The low tonight is supposed to be around 36, which isn't nearly as bad as it will be north of us, and I should be able to do the WeMoRi in the morning without much of a problem.

This morning I had a dentist appointment, which included a CAT scan, to prep for an implant to replace the tooth that had to be pulled back in December. That'll end up costing a couple thousand, of course, which will be on top of the five grand in property tax I'll be sending to the city tonight so that they can keep digging holes in my street. Remember those four traffic barrels that were in front of my house since January of 2018?  Still there.

Weekend Winter Rides and Little Crashes

Saturday morning Giro heading out.

Winter training rides tend to be predictable primarily with respect to their unpredictability. On the one hand, the time-honored winter training rides offer opportunities to make new friends, have long conversations about racing past and present, and generally catch up on some of the social interaction that tends to go quickly out the window when everyone's on the rivet, legs burning, and otherwise unable to form complete sentences. On the other hand, winter group rides always bring together a much wider diversity of riders. Some are seasoned bike racers putting in early season Long Slow Distance miles, some are newer riders jumping into their first serious group rides. Others might be long-lost ex-racers trying to get back into shape and rekindle the excitement that got them on the bike in the first place. In fact, winter is probably the best time for new competitive riders,or returning riders making a comeback, to start doing the faster group rides since speeds are often a bit slower, for shorter duration, and the stronger more compulsive riders are a bit more likely to have mercy on those at the back. Sometimes they will even speak to them and offer advice. Conversation turns from powermeter stats and Strava KOMs to topics like which shoe covers are the warmest and where we'll have coffee. So anyway, it's that time of year now. You would think that the group rides would be safer with the somewhat lowered competitive drive and cold weather and bulky clothes and all.

You would be wrong.

Looking at the hourly weather forecast early Saturday morning I was pretty sure we would get the Giro Ride in without much of a problem. The temperature would be in the 50s and it would be cloudy, and we might get a little bit of spotty rain, but the real cold front wasn't going to come through until later in the day, so while Saturday morning was looking fine, Sunday was still a bit up in the air temperature-wise. Over at Starbucks I was a little surprised how many riders were on hand as we rolled out along Lakeshore Drive. As is often the case when the temperature is in the 50s, practically every possible permutation of wardrobe accessories were in play. Some riders, presumable those with young well-lubricated knee joints, were in shorts and arm-warmers. Others, like me, in knickers and arm-warmers and various base layers. The occasional rider was in long tights. None were uncomfortable. As usual, the pace ramped up quickly when we hit Hayne Blvd. I knew there were four or five guys at the front who were looking for a workout, so I was trying to be attentive to any gaps that might open while also avoiding the infamous line of manhole cover cracks on the road. Turning right at the end of Hayne I made an effort to move closer to the front as we came into a bit of a headwind and things got a little strung out. We came over the I-10 overpass and down onto I-510 at only 25 or 26 mph, which was pretty normal, if not slow, for that little downhill. This is where the group has to cross two lanes of interstate traffic that is turning off of I-10 and onto 1-510, so that we can get into the exit lane. It's always a little dangerous here and numerous riders, including myself, will be looking out for cars and calling out if it's clear or not. That day is was clear and there was no need to slow down at all. The problem, however, was that the road there has just recently received a nice new asphalt overlay, but the shoulder hasn't. That leaves a two or three-inch drop-off at the edge of the lane. Well, as riders were crossing the two lanes to the right and then curving back to the left to line up with the lane, a couple of them overshot and caught that edge. I was ahead of that, chasing a group that already had a little gap, and at first all we heard was someone screaming something. We all figured it was just a flat and continued on a bit until we were off of the interstate. That's when we found out that two or three riders had crashed. The front group was already up the road, but the rest of us waited or turned around to assist, riding carefully the wrong way on the shoulder. By the time we got back to the crash site there was already a little group riding back, nobody was on the ground, and a couple of the riders who had crashed were heading our way ready to continue. So it was all good and we pacelined out to Venetian Isles, turning around to meet back up with the front group that was, I'm sure, disappointed to discover that they hadn't actually dropped all of us. There was another little surge on Hayne as we got a few drops of rain.

Sunday, somewhere near Bogalusa

Sunday morning we had an NOBC Northshore Ride scheduled and the weather over there was as cold and overcast as predicted. I think it was right around 40 when we started (my Garmin always seems to show a couple of degrees colder), and there was a pretty significant northwest wind blowing. On the way over I had been thinking that there might be only three or four other riders, considering the weather and the fact that there was a big Saints game that afternoon, so I was quite surprised to find maybe twenty people ready to go at 8:00. As usual, there was a pretty good mix of riders on hand. A few were hoping for a nice easy 63 miles in the country, most were hoping for a moderately challenging workout, maybe a couple were looking for something harder. We had mapped out both an "A" route and a slightly shorter "B" route, and a few people had planned to turn back early anyway, so by the time we were on Choctaw Road the group was down to about a dozen. Dustin had convinced Kaitlyn to ride, although she really didn't have the miles in her legs yet and had just gotten back in town for the Spring semester the day before. She had a pretty hard ride, coming off the back every time the pace heated up. Fortunately, everyone was fine waiting for the two or three riders off the back to regroup at the intersections, and most of the time they were only a minute or so back, so that was fine. I put in a little effort on the back stretch as usual when Dustin kind of attacked one of the little hills and rode off the front. Three of us came together after that and mounted a bit of a chase, although the best we could do was maintain the gap which was probably around 45 seconds or so.

After we regrouped and made the turn near Bogalusa to start heading back, everyone was in a nice long paceline rolling down Hwy 60 when all of a sudden riders are going down right in front of me. Jaro's head was sliding across the ground in front of me as I swerved hard to keep from plowing into it. In fact, my front wheel brushed his helmet, but luckily it wasn't enough to take me down. I think three riders hit the ground on that one. Fortunately the car that had been behind us stopped and waited patiently while we picked everything up off the road. I'm sure they had some good stories to tell at church that day. Although it might have been much worse, everyone involved was back on their bikes quickly, and whatever injuries there might have been must have been fairly minor. The only evidence of a crash could see were some tears in some shorts and Jaro's slightly twisted handlebars. Anyway, by the time we got to South Choctaw Road, maybe twelve or fifteen miles from the end of the ride, it was clear that Kaitlyn was running on fumes and a couple others were getting near the ends of their ropes as well. Between intersections the group would split, then we'd wait to regroup, then we'd repeat. All this time the sky was dark and the temperature wasn't rising at all, so some of us were starting to get pretty cold from the sweat generated earlier in the ride.

Afterwards a few of us stopped at McAllister's for some badly needed food. Even after sitting in the relatively warm eatery and consuming a nice helping of hot mashed potatoes, I was still feeling pretty chilled when I got back into the car for the drive across the Causeway. I cranked the thermostat up to 75 degrees, set the cruise control at 65, and tuned in to "60s on 6" on the satellite radio, gradually getting my core temperature back to almost normal by the time I got home. 

Winter rides.  Gotta love 'em.

Back to It

Sunday northshore ride - 20 degrees warmer by the time we finished

It was "back to work" on Wednesday, but not until after heading out for the 5:45 am WeMoRi. Outside, the streets were wet and it was foggy and chilly, and I wondered how many might actually show up at the lakefront. Although the thought of staying in bed definitely crossed my mind, I went out anyway, reluctant to throw in the towel quite so early in the new year. I was running just a little bit later than usual so when I got to Lakeshore Drive I turned west, expecting to be swept up by the group at any minute, but the minutes passed and passed and still no group. I figured I must have missed them, so rode back to Wisner, cutting across the City Park loop at Filmore and then turning left so that I'd meet the group as it came up Marconi. I rode all the way to I-610 and still no sign of the group, so I turned around and wondered if perhaps nobody had showed up at all. I was already wet so I went back to Lakeshore Drive and somewhere around Bayou St. John finally met up with a trio of riders that, as it turned out, was pretty much the entire WeMoRi that day. Someone's pedal had come off at the start, so they were running way behind schedule, and as I was riding around searching for them I somehow managed to miss them entirely. Thursday morning's situation wasn't much better, and I ended up with a shortened levee ride then as well.

As bad as the weather had been for a solid week and a half, it was finally looking to be improving for the weekend, so we scheduled an NOBC Northshore Ride for Sunday. I rode the Saturday Giro, which was pretty much a typical winter Giro with a few fast sections and a few slower sections. I'd put on a new chain the prior Thursday, and was quite happy to have done so early enough that there was no skipping on the older cassette. I changed it at around 2,800 miles, which seems to be about the limit for me. If I let it go much more than that it's almost guaranteed that I'll be buying a new cassette too.

S. Choctaw Road

So Sunday morning I met up with Randy Holmes who is back in New Orleans. Randy started racing back when he was about 14 years old, around the same time as I, but hadn't really lived in the city for a long time. He was anxious to see how much things had changed on the northshore. Anyway, when we arrived at the Lee Road ballpark there was a nice turnout of maybe fifteen or so on hand. It was pretty chilly, but the sky was clear and we were expecting the temperature to rise by about twenty degrees by the time we finished the planned 63 mile ride. I'd be trying out the route function on my new Garmin 520, and although I pushed a number of wrong buttons, I did get it working nicely, not that I needed it much on a route that I'd mapped out myself.

The weather on Sunday was practically perfect for riding. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s, minimal winds, clear blue sky, and just the right size group. We stopped a number of times to re-group at intersections, which allowed for a couple of fast segments for those who were interested. Noel it getting ready for a trip to Cuba where he's planning on doing some fast group rides and perhaps a race, so he was doing a fair amount of work at the front. I was feeling fairly good and really enjoyed the faster parts of the ride, especially the little climbs. Scott G was on the ride trying to get back in shape, and by the time we were halfway through he was already struggling. When we got to Choctaw Road he took the shorter route to Enon where we re-grouped, but by then his legs were toast. Once we turned onto Tung Road I told Steve I was going to backtrack and pick him up. Steve did the same. By then he was pretty far back and definitely in limp mode, but fortunately only about four miles from the end. Even at 15 mph he'd immediately come off of my wheel on the slightest of inclines. I'd look back and be surprised how far back he would be. But I knew exactly how he felt because I've been right there on more than one occasion. Anyway, it was a really nice ride that day.

The weather on Monday and Tuesday was still pretty nice, although it was quite foggy and fairly windy on the levee Tuesday morning. We just had a few people show up, so we turned around at the Big Dip which I guess was OK under the circumstances. I was definitely still feeling the effects of Sunday's rolling terrain. This morning I went out to meet the WeMoRi, and once again my timing was less than perfect. Riding along Lakeshore Drive in a strong double-digit northeast wind looking for the group I saw a lone rider going pretty fast, but there were no lights behind him. I turned around and followed, but it wasn't until I was on Robert E. Lee until a 4-rider break caught me. I latched onto that because, looking back, I could tell that the rest of the group was way behind. We turned onto Wisner and picked up a pretty good bit of tailwind. I was sitting on the back of the rotation trying to come to terms with the dramatic increase in effort, and was finally starting to come around when we hit the Wisner overpass. Naturally there was a surge there, which wasn't much of a problem, but coming over the top someone at the front really put the hammer down. I was behind Rob who was on his track bike, and about halfway down the overpass a gap started to open. Rob was maxed out in whatever fixed gear he was riding and I'd guess he probably hit something around 200 RPM for a while there, but it wasn't enough as we were going close to 39 mph by the bottom. I finally, and reluctantly, came around him since it didn't look like the pace was going to ease off, and with great effort finally closed the gap, but it didn't last long. Just after I finally got a wheel we went around the corner onto City Park Avenue and there was another surge. I made a very brief effort before blowing up. I knew Rob would be heading straight home from there, so I was on my own most of the way down Marconi until the next group finally caught me. By then the 3-rider break was a good minute plus up the road. Behind us there was yet another little group as well. I guess the crosswind on Lakeshore Drive must have shattered everything on the way out. Anyway, at least I had a nice tailwind all the way home.

Tonight winter will be returning and by morning it's supposed to be 42° F with another cold front coming through on Saturday. Still, we're not expecting anything much below that for the next ten days, and some lows will be in the mid-50s, so I really can't complain. Things don't get uncomfortable on the bike until it gets down into the mid-30s, really.

Rainy Restart

Most of the group at the Spillway. There was a second group a couple of minutes back.

The plan was to do a nice 50-mile ride out to the spillway to kick off the new year. The forecast was looking better than it had been for days, lots of people were interested, the temperature would be in the 60s, and we wouldn't be starting until 8:30 am. What more could you ask, right?

Shiny roads

I woke up a couple of times in the early morning to hear rain outside. Actually, what I mostly heard was the stream of water pouring down from the broken gutter just above my bedroom window, but at any rate, it was not what I'd been led to expect by the National Weather Service, aka weather.com. By 7 am the text messaging started. Looking at the radar, I was sure that the line of rain that was barely moving to the east would be past us by 9:30, so I sent out emails and FB posts pushing the start time back by an hour. Around 8:30 I found out that a number of people hadn't gotten the message before riding down to Z'otz on Oak Street where we were to meet. A little while later it started raining again and the radar started looking worse rather than better. Well, like me a lot of riders were determined to get in a ride on New Year's Day, come hell or high water. I left the house around 9:00 and when I got to Z'otz  few minutes later I was a little surprised to see a half-dozen riders huddled under the sidewalk awning waiting for the ride to start. I stuffed my raincoat into my pocket and went inside to get a cup of coffee, and then sat down in my usual spot outside to wait for whoever else might show up, which was basically Pat by that time. It was still raining and I wouldn't have been surprised if a number of riders had just called it a day at that point and headed home, but as it turned out everyone mounted up and headed out on Oak Street in the rain for what promised to be a rather soggy start to 2019.

We soon picked up Mignon and Mark and a few others up on the levee, and before long the pace started to pick up. Howard went to the front and upped the pace a couple mph, which split the group, and we didn't really all come back together until around the Big Dip, despite some slow-downs to negotiate the leftover piles fireworks that were littering the bike path.

Clean Slate

It was one of those rides where it was sometimes actually raining, sometimes not, but always wet because of the wheel spray. The pace was kind of erratic as there were a few riders determined to get in a workout, a few more determined not to get dropped, and a few others who didn't care one way or the other. In a way it was rather fun. If it had been colder I would have been absolutely miserable, but fortunately I'd over-dressed with the expectation of being wet. Over-dressing when the temperature is in the 60s means wearing an old jersey under your regular one and pulling on the arm-warmers. So I was never really cold except for a few minutes after we stopped to take a documentary photo at the spillway.

So once again I am re-starting with a clean slate. Last year's miles are just a matter of history now and a new year of riding has started. In the rain. With friends. I am taking it as an omen of a good 2019 that despite riding in the rain for three hours, nobody had a flat!

Finishing Off 2018

Audubon Zoo Lights

I woke to the sound of wet tires on wet roads on New Year's Eve. I turned the alarm off without even looking out the window, although I admit that I checked the weather radar ten minutes later. There's always hope, you know. In this case, however, the thought of yet another wet ride on wet roads followed by cleaning the bike for, I think, the fourth day in a row, was just too much. I pulled the covers up over my head and didn't put my feet on the floor until at least 7 am. After a cup of coffee and a somewhat over-ripe banana I checked the radar again. It looked like there might be a window of an hour or two without significant rain. I rolled out from the house a bit after 8:30 on the old rain bike for an easy ride on the levee. Although I got a bit of light rain for the last five miles or so, I logged the final 26 miles of the year, nudging my annual mileage up to 12,391 - just a bit higher than my 2014 total of 12.379. It always amazes me how close my annual totals are. Over the past five years, my average works out to 12,131. Riding along the levee I noticed that the big old dead tree near the country club where the eagles often perch had apparently been blown down during the recent storms. Not to worry, though, as I saw both of the eagles perched on a nearby tree as I went by.

It was very busy in the kitchen

So the holidays went nicely. Danielle and Shannon were here for a week and a half. I got in some nice rides, even though a lot of them were wet and messy, and we're planning on a nice New Year's Day ride on the levee tomorrow out to the Spillway. After that I guess it will be back to the grind, but the past couple of weeks have provided a nice diversion.

We went to the Zoo to see their new Christmas lights display, which was fairly impressive. Then, right on queue, the dishwasher stopped working. Actually, it was working great but would hang with one minute left on the timer, apparently waiting for the water temperature to get up to the proper level, which wasn't happening. All indications are that it is a bad control board. With the impending holidays and no time to wait for a new $250 control board to arrive, we hustled over to Lowes and bought a new one, which of course wasn't cheap. I got to work installing it and, of course, discovered I needed a different fitting for the water supply connection. Naturally it was half an hour before closing time at Lowes, so I had to rush over there to get what I needed, but it all worked out and we were happily washing dishes later that night.

High Point - City Park

Christmas Day was over at my sister's house following a visit with Dad at Poydras Home. Candy had made something like five pies. There's still a lot left a week later. Also cookies. Also chocolate.

Christmas Eve Giro Ride Group

The weekend before Christmas I did three Giro Rides, including the Holiday Giro on Christmas Eve, so that was nice. By Monday's ride, though, it was getting pretty windy and the forecast for the rest of the week wasn't looking all that good. We did manage to get in the WeMoRi before the rains started, though. Thursday was super-windy, and there were only a couple other riders out, so we did a shorter levee ride, turning around at the Big Dip. It still felt like a workout, though. Friday morning was a wash-out, but the rain stopped in the afternoon so I went out for a long solo ride to Ormond and back. Everything was wet and dirty by the time I got back, but otherwise it was good. I wasn't expecting much of a turnout for the Saturday Giro, considering the threat of rain, wet roads, and holidays. By the time we started I'd already decided to turn back at the end of Lakeshore Drive. It was chilly and wet and I knew if I got rained on I'd be really uncomfortable. I didn't regret my decision. Again I had to wash the bike and lube the chain and throw my dirty clothes into the washer.

Dec. 30 Giro - Lots of fog, but not too cold.

That afternoon the weather improved a bit so we went out to City Park so I could explore the Couturie Forest trail which I hadn't seen since we used to do mountain bike races there. There's a big "hill" there that was originally a dump for debris from construction of the nearby I-610. Back when we rode mountain bikes there it was basically a pile of broken concrete and rebar and dirt. This was before mountain bikes had suspension. Also before City Park knew there was a trail back there. Now there's a "lookout" on top of it and nicely laid out trails with occasional signage and lots of newly planted trees. It was nice, although in a more civilized way than it used to be. Anyway, Danielle and I walked the trails while Candy walked a lap around the golf course and Shannon did a long run around the park.

Poydras Home Visit

While we were there we rain into Dustin and a few other riders who were still on the bikes from the Giro Ride. As it turned out, only two riders did the whole Giro that day, and they ended up riding around the city, eating pastries, and fixing flats. Later that afternoon we send Danielle, Shannon, and the two little dogs back off to Olympia and returned to a very quiet house.

It's almost 9:00 pm right now and I can hear fireworks all over the place. The streets are still wet and the temperature is in the 60s. The city is doing three or four separate fireworks displays this year. It remains to be seen whether I'll still be awake to hear the last one at midnight, but after that it will be back to the regular routine I guess, at least for six days until the Phynny Phorty Phellows and Twelfth Night Revelers kick off the Mardi Gras season!

Grey Winter Skies

Some days it's better to turn around and sit down with a cup of coffee to contemplate the meaning of life.

Friday morning started out chilly and windy. I knew that my usual Friday morning Tulane Coffee Ride routine was in serious jeopardy because it was exam week. Also chilly, windy and dark. I went out anyway and almost immediately regretted it. I was a little under-dressed, not so much for the temperature, but definitely for the strong and gusty wind. I continued on anyway, of course, just in case someone might show up. Nobody who gets out of a warm bed and goes out on the bike on such a day deserves to ride alone. Well, except for me I guess. It was no surprise that there was nobody there at the Reily Center for the coffee ride, so I just continued on through campus and into Audubon Park, and from there onto the levee bike path where I felt the full force of the northwest wind. I was pretty miserable and considered turning around immediately, but somehow talked myself into riding slowly out to the Huey P. Long bridge before turning around and making a bee line for the Zotz for coffee. There, I could see the clouds building up as predicted ahead of the next minor cold front. My Strava stats for the day?  An average speed of 12.9 mph, and a max of 19.2.

Saturday morning was considerably colder, and there was still a strong wind out of the west. I went out to Starbucks to meet up with the Giro Ride group, wondering what the turnout would be like. There were other things going on, of course, and the deeply overcast sky and strong wind were not particularly conducive to a big group anyway. Arriving around 6:30 I met up with Trevor, a visiting rider from somewhere in England who was here for a conference and had rented a bike from Bicycle Michael's in order to get in a couple of rides afterward. I was wearing a thermal base layer under a long-sleeve jersey. He was in basically summer kit plus arm-warmers. He said it felt like spring compared to what it was like back home. My quick assessment told me that if the ride got fast he was likely to be in just a bit over his head, but if it was just moderate and steady he'd probably do fine. Eventually other riders started rolling in, and my the time we left there was a smallish group that wasn't too unusual for this time of year. I noted, however, that there was nonetheless sufficient horsepower in attendance to make for a fast ride, especially considering that we'd have a pretty strong tailwind on Hayne Blvd. and Chef Highway. Tailwinds are fun unless you find yourself at the back where the draft doesn't really do you as much good as you think. On the way out on Lakeshore Drive I rolled up alongside Trevor and told him to expect someone to put the hammer down once we came down the overpass onto Hayne, which was exactly what happened. It was the last I saw of Trevor, among others, as I was struggling just to stay somewhere near the front as the pace settled in at around 30 mph. It stayed pretty much that way all the way out to Venetian Isles. Fortunately, Pat stayed with Trevor and I think they got back in with the group for a while on the way back. As fast as the ride had been on the way out, you'd have expected it to be a hard slog into the wind on the way back. It wasn't really, as nobody seemed willing to do too much work into the headwind. By the time I got home I was getting cold because of the lower effort level combined with the sweat generated on the way out. It wasn't until I had some hot soup that I really warmed up.

Post-ride on Sunday at the Lee Road Ballpark

So on Sunday I decided to go across the lake to do a little 50+ mile ride that Mignon had told me was happening. The weather was still chilly - around 50 degrees - but now there was a light mist falling that made it feel ten degrees colder. We had a small group of seven or eight, which was expected. I was hoping it would be a fairly easy ride. Perhaps it was the weather, but I just didn't feel like doing much intensity at all. Fortunately, everyone else was pretty much on the same page. I did a little work for a few miles on Hwy 439 before Sie Jenkins Road but that was about it. When we re-grouped at Sie Jenkins and Hwy 60, Darren took out a Pop-Tart. We rolled kind of slowly waiting for him to catch up and when I looked back just before we turned onto S. Choctaw I could see him coming, maybe a minute or so back. No problem, I thought, since we weren't going very hard at all. Well, that was the last we saw of him until much later. We figured that, for some reason, he must have decided to go straight down to Hwy. 16 and Enon, so we continued on. Well, when we got to Enon, there was Darren walking his bike. He'd flatted and not been able to fix it, so he'd gotten a ride with a passing pick-up truck down to Enon. His timing was perfect. We got his flat fixed and rolled in the remaining six or seven miles to the Ballpark. Afterward, I was surprised that I could feel some soreness in my quads.

Consistent, at least. Easy to see the broken collarbone years.

Anyway, it was a pretty chill weekend of riding for me, which felt about right for this time of year. Strava says I'm at 11,885 miles for the year with a couple of weeks left, so that's about normal. In fact, it's amazing how consistent my annual mileage has been. Although I make no effort to hit any particular target each year, I guess my routine is so set in stone that it just kind of comes out the same every year.

Cold and Wet Weekend Off the Bike

Grayson excited about finishing up his time at Tulane

Things were already looking bad for Saturday when Wes came by on Wednesday to pick up medals for the LAMBRA Cyclocross Championship. Although the championship races themselves were scheduled for Sunday, there was also a full slate of races planned for Saturday. The venue had already been moved at the last minute from Audubon Park to Behrman Park across the river. The latter was sure to be considerably sloppier, but tearing it up with knobby cyclocross tires would cause considerably less of a problem. We talked about the predicted 100% chance of rain and 20-30 mph winds and decided that if it still looked hopeless in the morning, the Saturday races would be cancelled. It did. They were.

I'd gone out Friday morning with the Tulane coffee ride group for the last coffee ride before final exams and Grayson's last coffee ride before graduating. The weather was still pretty nice. The cold front wasn't supposed to come through until Friday night. I wasn't holding out much hope for the Saturday Giro Ride, but it was looking like maybe a 20% chance it might be slipped in before the rain started. When I awoke on Saturday morning the streets were still dry. I looked at the radar for a long time and ultimately came to the unavoidable realization that it would definitely be raining by 7:30 or 8:00, and with the strong winds already blowing I figured that even riding over to Harrison Avenue for coffee would be futile. As it turned out, a few riders did show up. They even got in a few miles before, of course, it started raining. For myself, I figured it had been a good call. The rest of the day was wet and chilly as the cold front moved through.

Finish line all ready to go

By Sunday morning the rain was gone but I was scheduled to officiate the cyclocross races with Michelle. The temperature had dropped down to the low 40s and it was overcast and I knew it would be staying that way for most of the day. I also knew I was going to freeze my ass off sitting under a tent at the park where the ground was going to be just barely above the definition of swampland. I wore my warm cycling baselayer and slightly water-resistant boots. On the plus side, the races didn't start until 10:00 and the course was just 20 minutes away, so I had the luxury of making coffee, cooking a couple of eggs, and loading up the car in daylight.

Sloppy cyclocross on Sunday

I arrived at the course about two hours early to find just Wes and a lot of muck. He'd situated the start/finish on the opposite side of the course from the road since that was basically the only relatively dry ground. That was good, but it meant dragging all of the tents and assorted equipment through the muck. Three trips later, I set up the fence posts for the USAC snowfence, put up the tent and tabled, and camera, and got the computers ready. The night before I'd set up CrossMgr with the details for the five races, so everything was pretty much configured and ready to go. All I'd need to do is copy the registration data into Excel files so that the software could associate the bib numbers with the riders names. We got the first race lined up and ready and that's when I heard Wes telling them that the first lap was going to be a little shorter than the others. That was, I think, to avoid having the group encounter the barriers within the first 500 feet. As it turned out, the first lap was a minute and a half shorter than the rest, which totally messed up the software. CrossMgr uses the lap times to determine what the lap cards should read. It also uses them to predict when the leader(s) will be approaching the finish line on each lap. Well, the short first lap times completely screwed all of that up. We ended up starting the next races on the computer 1:30 earlier than the actual starts in order to compensate, which worked out reasonably well.

Anyway, by the time the second race was starting I was already shivering enough to make hitting the right keys on the computer kind of a hit-of-miss proposition. Fortunately the fields were fairly small, thanks no doubt to the weather, so it all worked out OK and we got the results done very quickly after each race. I didn't get home until around 4:30 or so, and got the results up on the website after grabbing something to eat. Bottom line: no bike riding for me last weekend.

The last couple of mornings have been around 40 degrees and windy. I rode on Monday mostly alone until I ran into Pat on the way back. This morning was a little less windy but felt at least as cold as Monday had. There were just three of us up on the levee, so we shortened the ride, turning around at the little dip. I think the temperatures will be generally warming up from here on out, although a little cold front coming through on Thursday has the forecast for that day showing 100% chance of rain with thunderstorms.

Wild Swings

It was a wet but surprisingly fast Giro Ride on Saturday

Here in New Orleans it's now the time of year for wild swings in the weather, and not surprisingly, ride turnouts. While the relatively recent popularity of computer game bike rides, aka Zwift, has definitely reduced the number of riders willing to show up to ride actual bikes in actual weather, I think that perhaps all that riding indoors also increases the level of, shall we say excitement, when the weather suddenly goes from dreary to spectacular. We certainly had samples of both last weekend.

I woke up Saturday morning to dark wet streets. Based on the forecast I hadn't really expected to be able to ride at all, but looking at the 5:45 am radar I couldn't see any rain in the immediate vicinity, so after a bit of deliberation, and resigning myself to a post-ride bike-cleaning session, I slipped out the door around 6 am into the 100% relative humidity. The streets were still wet from the earlier rain, but not so much to get me wet, at least at the slow speed I was going. Arriving at Starbucks twenty-five minutes later I wasn't too surprised to find no other bikes around. I was already thinking that the full Giro was probably not going to be a possibility since I don't much like being out on Chef Highway with just one or two others anyway. Eventually, as I sat outside sipping my coffee, a few more riders started to arrive, and by the time we rolled out at 7:00 I guess there was at least a dozen.

The Garmin showing its age

There was still no consensus as to whether to cut the ride short, but once we crossed the interstate, the virtual Rubicon of the Giro Ride, there was no turning back. Of course by then I was already fairly wet just from wheel spray, so when it started to really rain a few minutes later on Chef Highway, it didn't really matter much any more. I was glad I'd charged my retina-burning tail light, but even with that I kept thinking about that ride in Florida the week before where an inattentive drive had plowed into a group and killed two. On the other hand, I was feeling pretty good and ended up doing a fair amount of work.

The rain had stopped by the time we turned around for the ride back into an increasing headwind, which itself was delayed by a broken spoke on Bullard. All-in-all though, I really couldn't complain. On a day that I'd initially thought would be a complete rain-out, I'd gotten in a respectable workout and we'd done the full Giro distance. On the minus side, it became clear that my trusty old Garmin was no longer water proof. After I got home I opened up the case and set it in front of a fan for the rest of the day. I may have to start wrapping it in a plastic bag on rain days. It's got something over 80,000 miles on it by now and the rubber sides that hold the buttons in are cracked. I had to put a piece of electrical tape on one side about a  month ago when one of the buttons fell out entirely.

Sunday's weather was practically perfect

The forecast for Sunday was looking much better than Saturday. Rain was unlikely, the temperature would be in the 60s and 70s, and the wind would be essentially calm. We had whipped up a somewhat last-minute NOBC ride on the northshore, and given the nice weather forecast it was looking like we would have a good turnout. I had tried a new mapping website called Plot a Route that I really liked, especially since it allowed you to download a tcx file that included cue sheet data which lets the Garmin tell you how far it is to the next turn. Anyway, I drove over with Pat to the Lee Road Ballpark where we found I guess twenty riders in various stages of preparation for the planned 65 mile route.

We had a great group on Sunday.

Looking around, I could see that there were a few riders who were likely to be pushing the pace despite my request to keep things at a "winter ride" pace for the first 25 miles. Mignon told me she had been sick all week and was still recovering, but wanted to try and make the full ride, so we should be sure to wait for her if she got dropped when the pace got fast. Indeed, the pace got plenty fast once we got off of 1072 and onto Choctaw Road, but everybody was fine with waiting for those who hadn't made the split. The next section, from Hwy. 10 to Sie Jenkins Road, had been designated, at least by me, as the "fast" section, so I was a little surprised when everyone rode smoothly up the first of the three significant climbs there. When we got to the second climb I was on the front and put in a little effort over the top that not surprisingly split one or two off the back. I was feeling pretty good and really enjoyed the effort along this stretch, so much so that it seemed Sie Jenkins Rd. came up way too soon. Despite the fast pace, we hadn't put all that much time on the rest of the group, so after a brief regrouping we continued toward Bogalusa, made the two right turns, and headed back toward S. Choctaw. By then I had the arm-warmers in my pocket and was well into my water supply. The weather was about as good as it gets, so everybody was having a good ride. We continued regrouping the intersections and after a quick stop at Enon headed toward firetower hill that doesn't have a fire tower any more where I was fully expecting to see some action. I think a few of the guys were targeting a Strava segment there. I stuck with the surge about two-thirds of the way up, then dropped off a bit to come over the top about fifteen seconds back. Luckily they soon eased up a bit and I was able to regain contact, after which the pace gradually increased pretty much all the way back to the ballpark. It was one of the nicest northshore rides I've done in a while, so I was really glad I'd gone. The rest of this week is looking to be colder and then wetter, so situation normal for early December. By tomorrow morning the temperature is supposed to be back down to 47, and then Tuesday night a bit lower to 43 before a gradual warm-up again leading to rain on Friday and Saturday ahead of the next cold front. I'm supposed to be officiating cyclocross here in New Orleans on Saturday and Sunday. It's still too early to know for sure but it's looking like Saturday morning is going to be raining and windy and Sunday just cold and windy. Oh boy.