Coffee and Cold Air

Coffee Ride stop at the Fair Grinds coffee house

With this morning's temperature down around the mid-40s, it was finally time to look for the shoe-covers and skullcap. I knew the easy Friday coffee ride was going to feel particularly chilly since the wind was still blowing pretty strongly and the pace isn't normally sufficient to generate much body heat. The sky, however, was clear and blue (once the sun came up), so that was nice.  We hadn't even gotten off of campus before Dustin got a flat, but he set about going for the flat-fixing record and I don't think we were delayed more than five minutes. We'd started a few minutes late, though, so three riders had to turn back at Elysian Fields.  The rest of us did the usual lap of Lakeshore Drive and then stopped at Fair Grinds. I took a couple of photos of the antique artwork on the walls there.

Out on the Lakefront

This weekend there are cyclocross races up in Ridgeland, which is basically a suburb of Jackson, Mississippi.  I won't be able to make it up there tomorrow since I need to bring Danielle and her dogs to the airport in the afternoon, so I guess that will be a Giro Ride morning for me.  Jaden sent something out about doing an extended Giro out to Slidell, so if the timing looks like it will work I may tag along for that, and by "tag along" I mean suck wheels. I guess I'll bring the bike up to Jackson, but it will depend on what the officiating situation looks like whether or not I'll actually race. I'd really like to be able to post complete lap times and finish times for all of the races, but to do that I'm going to need a number-caller to help, especially for the first lap or so. Since they give the riders only one number, and half the time you can't read it until they are already past the finish line, it is nearly impossible to read and type in multiple numbers when a small group is still intact.

Jeff Davis Overpass, heading north

I had hoped to get new tires on the car this weekend, but it doesn't look like that's going to work too well, so perhaps I will have to take some time during the week next week to do that. I've been nursing a slow leak in one of the rear tires for a couple of months now, and since the tires have something like 37,000 miles on them now and we're planning a road trip to Orlando over Christmas, I guess I may as well bite the bullet and get it all over with.

The city has officially set December 10 as the date on which the old Wisner overpass will be closed for demolition and rebuilding.  There's a little interview with some members of the Crescent City Cyclists about it on wwltv.  The planned bike path part of the project may not really be usable by people going more than ten miles per hour, but I guess I'll have to see it first to know. It may turn out to be worth using on the way out to the lake, although I see no real possibility of it being useful on the way back unless you were already on the winding little bike path along the bayou that is entirely unsafe for anyone moving at any reasonable speed.

Too Long in the Wind

When I looked over at the thermometer this morning I knew what to expect. The cold front that had come through yesterday had dropped the temperature down to around 52F, but I knew that wasn't going to be the real problem. When I stepped out the door the sound of rustling dry leaves confirmed my expectation.  There was a cold stiff wind blowing at 15-20 mph out of the north-northeast, which meant that the ride along the lakefront would be an hour and a half of white-knuckle echelon practice. Surprisingly, there was a fairly good turnout as the group started out to the east along Lakeshore Drive. The wind was actually from the north-northeast, so in addition to the gusty crosswind there was a significant headwind component as well. Aside from a small group that had rolled off the front at the start, the main group stayed together out to the loop at Seabrook.  Once we started back to the west, however, the pace ramped up quickly as the tailwind started to kick in. The problem was that there was also a huge crosswind, so the eschelon immediately spread all the way across both lanes, and probably into the oncoming lane if I had to guess, which I do since I was doing my best to stay near the front.

Somewhere around Franklin Avenue I heard a pickup truck behind is just laying on the horn.  I didn't have to look back to know what was going on. I'd been hanging on for dear live as the rider at the front was motoring at 28 mph, looking back every now and then, apparently to see if I was still there. The commotion with the pickup truck must have forced riders out of the draft because soon there were just three of us.  I took a short pull and then eased up a bit as Daniel rode past along, mumbling something about people riding like assholes in the crosswind. I latched onto his wheel and found the sweet spot with my front wheel about even with his bottom bracket.  I think I probably spent 90% of the rest of the ride pretty much in that same position.

By the time we got out to the bike path in Metairie there were only a few of us left.  A couple of riders were way up the road somewhere and soon we caught Howard who got into the group and periodically pulled past everyone in futile attempts to either increase the pace or just increase the general level of suffering. I don't know what happened to him after we turned around out by the casino boat because he wasn't with us on the way back.  Most of the way back I was glued to Daniel's draft. He spent most of the time on the front.  Every now and then Brian, who had been in that lead group earlier, would come past and give him a break.  At one point we tried rotating through but taking short pulls was way more painful since you'd end up out in the wind so long while dropping back and then you'd have to accelerate again to get onto the wheel of the last rider (there were only four of us). We ended up reverting to Daniel and Brian doing most of the pulling.

When we finally turned south to head back home it was a huge relief, but within ten minutes I started getting really cold.  For one thing, it's always a little warmer along the south shore of the lake, and for another, we had slowed down and the combination of the cold temperature and damp clothing started getting uncomfortable.  All I could think of was the hot coffee I hoped was waiting for me at home.

The Western Sky

Damp roads from yesterday's rain, together with a slowly approaching cold front, must have kept a lot of people from riding this morning. I myself spent a little time staring out the window at the wet street while checking the radar.  Off to the west was a line of rain showers, but it was pretty clear that wouldn't arrive for a few more hours. The streets didn't look too wet, so I decided to go despite the 12 mph northwest wind. Just to be on the safe side, I wore two jerseys and arm-warmers.  A bit of overkill, but the possibility of being sprayed with water while in the middle of the WeMoRi group made it seem like a reasonable decision.

I got out to the lakefront a few minutes later than usual, so when I hit Lakeshore Drive I turned west rather than east, turning around at Marconi and then again near the bridge.  A minute later, as I was crawling around at 15 mph, Woody and Joe came flying past.  They surprised me a bit and despite the fact they weren't going really full-speed, it took me a little while to get up to speed and latch on.  Looking back, I couldn't see any lights at all. So I stayed mostly at the back until Joe took off just prior to the bridge and Woody didn't react. On City Park Avenue when Woody eased up I asked him if it had been a small group.  He said there were only like seven or eight people that morning. I ended up riding alone down Marconi until three riders came by.  They all turned off to go back to the parking lot at Robert E. Lee, so I continued on solo.  Looking back I still couldn't see anybody.  Then at Filmore I saw a couple of WeMoRi riders waiting. I turned around and waited with them until another couple of guys rolled past. Anyway, it was kind of a strange WeMoRi this morning.  Off to the west the sky was looking pretty dark, so I just headed back home rather than making my usual stop at Starbucks. As it turned out, the line of rain kind of petered out and most of it went to the north, so now the temperature is gradually falling as the cold front moves fully through. We should be down to the low 50s or maybe even the upper 40s tomorrow morning. I'm thinking it will feel colder than that.

As I was contemplating the weather and my lackluster morning's training, only three blocks from home, my rear tire went flat. Sigh....   Just rode it in on the rim.

December First and 77

It was one of those mornings when you have the best of intentions.  After an easy ride on Monday morning that probably never cracked 20 mph, I had the idea I'd work some intensity into this morning's ride. That idea feel by the wayside almost the minute I swung my leg over that tattered Selle Italia SLR that I've been meaning to replace since this time last year. I may give the Specialized Romin that's currently on the track bike another try. If that doesn't work out I guess I'll have to bite the bullet at try to find something that's both light and comfortable enough for my well-worn and thinly padded crotch. The SLR has been pretty significantly changed since I got my current one, but that may still be my best shot.

So the first day of the last month of 2015 started out with a rather lackluster ride on my part. I guess it was around 70 degrees when I headed out in the dark, and now, at 10 am, it's 77 with the relative humidity at 73%. Perhaps that had something to do with it.  I'd spent half the night breathing out of only one nostril, so there's probably something in the air that's messing with my head. It always clears up a lot once I start riding, though.

I followed wheels out to the lakefront where a pretty large group came together for the lap of Lakeshore Drive.  I'd guess around 25 were on hand.  The pace was moderate until the last few miles, so that was good, although as easy as it would have been to move up to the front to take a few pulls, my head just wasn't in it today. Out along the lake the water was almost dead calm with a very light offshore breeze out of the south.  It was the kind of wind that makes sailors take along someone who smokes so they can tell the direction it's blowing. The pace picked up heading out to Kenner on the bike path, but the calm air and ample draft made it easy to roll along near the back at the 24-26 mph speed the group was maintaining.

Riding to work this morning I was getting showered with falling leaves here and there. The trees know it's supposed to be winter. Off to the northwest there's a somewhat stalled cold front slowly sagging in our direction, but it's not expected to give us much rain when it finally comes through around dinner time. By tomorrow morning we should have a pretty significant north wind but the temperature out on the lakefront will probably be down to only 60F or so. It's not looking like we'll see anything requiring much more than arm-warmers and base layers for at least the next then days. I'm not complaining. Next weekend's cyclocross races in Jackson, Mississippi should be dry and comfortable with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.

Springtime in November - Headsets and Holidays

The weather the past couple of days has been pretty spectacular, especially considering that it is the last weekend in November and lots of people elsewhere are selecting clothing options with frostbite protection in mind. As I write, it's 79F here in New Orleans. We won't see the 40s again until probably Thursday.

After an easy post-Thanksgiving ride on Friday I pulled the fork off of the Bianchi and headed over to Bicycle World to pick up a new headset.  I was a little reluctant to attack the somewhat stuck lower race with hammer and screwdriver, so thought it best to let the pros use proper tools instead. I installed the headset, applied liberal amounts of grease in a probably futile attempt to prolong its life,  and set the preload, knowing that it would probably change a bit after my next ride. I made a mental note to bring a multi-tool along for the Saturday northshore ride. With the weather expected to be in the 60s and 70s, I was looking forward to a nice ride in the rolling hills north of Covington -- in shorts and summer jersey.

So I headed across the lake solo, listening to 60s on 6, to meet the 8 am group ride out of Abita Springs.  Naturally I'd forgotten to bring a multi-tool.

There was a pretty good turnout of around 20 riders, a typical northshore mix of triathletes, bike racer types, and those ubiquitous fast recreational types. It was also one of those ride routes that we'd probably never do if it was just bike racers. On the plus side the scenery was great, traffic was barely non-existent, and one of the dead-end roads we used had a couple of nice climbs on it. I was feeling pretty good and enjoyed chasing the occasional rider who would roll off the front. It's always amazing how good a new headset makes the bike feel after a couple of months of riding with a notchy one. You always get used to the old pitted headset and don't quite realize how bad it is until you finally break down and install a new one. Anyway, by the time I got home I could feel just a very slight bit of looseness in the headset, so before I went upstairs I got out the torque wrench and re-adjusted it. Should be good for a while now.

This morning I went out to the Sunday Giro Ride.  It was a little warmer and fairly humid, but there was hardly a breath of wind. Although the holidays, together with the fact the Palmer riders were off on some kind of team meeting/ride thing, had reduced the group size a little bit, we still started off with at least twenty-five. As it had been on Thursday, the ride was unusually smooth and steady.  Out on Chef Highway a long double rotating paceline formed up right away, with the speed gradually inching up into the mid-20s.

All back together

As we approached the Highway 11 intersection I was kind of expecting things to get faster and the paceline to start to get shorter, but then I heard a very odd noise up ahead.  Riders suddenly sat up as Big Rich coasted backwards, looking down at his rear derailleur.  As I passed I saw that he'd lost the upper jockey wheel. Most of the group continued on, but Jeff and I stopped with him. In the big ring he was still able to ride, albeit with a slack chain, so we rode backwards on the nearly deserted 4-lane on the off-chance we might be able to find the missing jockey wheel. We never found it, of course, so as Rich headed off to limp back home with Jeff, I continued on to find the group on its way back. With a bit of a southeast wind starting to blow, the pace remained comfortably brisk all the way back. Rich, who had taken a shortcut, met up briefly with the group around the base of the Seabrook bridge, but by the time we turned off onto Marconi he was nowhere to be seen.  I wondered if he'd taken a different route.  A few rider were ahead of us and then everyone except Mignon turned off on Harrison, so it was just the two of us for the ride back uptown. I had been telling Steve about what happened to Rich's bike and he said he had a spare broken Campagnolo 11 speed derailleur at home, so I texted that to Rich.  Later, however, Rich told me he'd actually had a spare one himself, so it was already fixed.

Thanksgiving Day Giro

The emails and text messages started going 'round early on Wednesday.  Would there be a Giro Ride on Thanksgiving morning?  With nobody actually in charge of these rides, it took some time for a consensus to emerge, but by Wednesday night I was fairly certain there would be at least a few riders on hand. Locally we're at the beginning of another warming trend that should last until at least next Wednesday when the next cold front comes through.

Howard, just elected to his parish council

I went out with just arm-warmers, arriving at Starbucks with plenty of time to pick up my free birthday Americano as other riders started to arrive. There was a pretty stiff wind blowing straight out of the east, so I was glad to see that most everyone was in "holiday ride" mode. Out on Chef Highway we were riding directly into the 15-20 mph wind, and although we had a nice paceline going at first, it soon became apparent that 90% of the group wasn't really interested in seeing the front. So three or four of us kept things going, which wasn't too hard since we were probably not doing more than 22 mph most of the time. I knew things would be dramatically different once we turned around.

Noel

As expected, once the group started feeling the tailwind after the turnaround, the speeds started ramping up.  Still, even with the tailwind, we were cruising along at a relatively comfortable 28 mph or so most of the time. As we got closer to the Goodyear Sign Sprint, it got faster, of course, and I think some of the guys hit around 38 mph.  Apparently my 34.8 average was good enough to KOM that Strava segment, probably because I started it near the back of the paceline but finished closer to the front.

This morning I went out for an easy ride on the levee. I'm off work today and my only firm plan is to pick up a new headset from Bicycle World and install it so I won't have to keep steering in 2-degree increments.

WeMoRi Breakfast Ride

The WeMoRi (Wednesday Morning Ride) is one of those odd weekday morning rides that probably started out as one thing and ended up as entirely something else. Starting at 5:45 am, it's dark for most of the ride, and in the winter it's dark and cold. Nonetheless, there are usually about ten miles of the ride that are very fast, followed by a more social lap around City Park. It can be a pretty hard ten miles, and combined with the darkness and flashing lights and traffic and stop lights, the first fifteen miles or so can be somewhat stressful. For some reason, however, it has developed a loyal following and evolved into almost its own informal club. Periodically there are WeMoRi kit orders, and every month or two there's a brief post-ride get-together over coffee and cake, doberge of course, to acknowledge the regular riders who have birthdays that month.  New Orleanians will use any excuse for a party. For some reason, the November get-together is held at one of the riders' houses located just off of Robert E. Lee, which is part of the regular route.

I don't think I've ever started the WeMoRi at the start.  I usually leave home shortly before the ride starts 7 miles away at Robert's Fresh Market out on Robert E. Lee. That gets me to Lakeshore Drive as the group is heading back toward the west.  It's also usually about the time the speed really starts to ramp up. Today, Danielle and I got out there a few minutes early, so we rode up and down Lakeshore Drive between the fountain and UNO watching for the flock of blinky lights. This time we merged in right as the group was hitting the Bayou St. John bridge. For some reason the speeds were staying relatively low today.  Granted, I went from 16 mph to 30 mph in the space of one-tenth of a mile, but in general there were a lot of sections where the group's usual speed of 27-30 mph was down into the 23-26 mph range. Surprisingly, toward the end of the fast lap around the park, a light rain started to fall.  We rode around the north end and down Wisner looking at a rather menacing grey sky off to the southeast and decided to shorten the loop a bit by cutting through the park on Harrison and heading for the group birthday party a little early, which unfortunately was a little too early for coffee since the person picking it up had also been on the ride. Anyway, we had something to eat, and eventually some coffee, which was nice. Traffic this week has been noticeably lighter than usual since I guess most of the schools are out and some people are probably already out of town.

USAC has officially released the 2016 Schedule of Fees. It incorporates a lot of the new policy changes aimed at bolsternig grass-roots participation in racing and other similar events. The regular racing license for Cat. 2 and 3 riders goes up by $5 to cover increased drug testing (Cat. 1 licenses go up $25).  One-day licenses thankfully drop back down to $10. All of the other changes are summarized on the USAC website.  One thing I like is a document that discusses insurance and specifically addresses the kinds of cheaper insurance that some event promoters get and what that insurance does, and mostly doesn't, cover.

Fractured Paceline

It was another chilly, windy morning, at least by my standards. I went out in tights and long-sleeve jersey, knowing it would warm up once the sun rose but unwilling to suffer on the ride out to the lakefront. From a block away I scanned the meeting corner looking for flashing lights.  There were none. I rode down the block a bit, wondering if I'd be riding into the north wind alone.  Finally the riders started to trickle in, all a little late. Some were missing entirely, others had lost time searching for long-unused cool weather gear. Two of the missing would join up with us along the way. Out on Wisner Avenue there's an overpass alongside the bayou that crossed the railroad tracks and Interstate 610. It's been scheduled for demolition and replacement, and although the start date had been pushed back a couple of times, it is now imminent. This morning all of the light posts were gone, there was a big crane or pile-driver parked in the grass, and a new temporary access road for the construction trucks.  Perhaps it will still be open tomorrow morning for the WeMoRi, but clearly its days are numbered.  Once it's closed, it will be at least a year before the replacement bridge, complete with recreational bike lane, is ready.  The bike lane that's planned will likely be useless for us since it will be tied into the little winding bike path along the bayou and will be a 2-way path, all on one side of the bridge.

My fears of a low turnout were for naught today.  By the time we started into the Lakeshore Drive headwind the group was up to its normal count of 20 or so. I had already decided to stay as protected as possible.  I am sore in all sorts of odd places as a result of my recent cyclocross endeavors.  Surprisingly, my lower back isn't much of a problem (it was hurting quite a bit toward the end of the race despite my slow pace). My inner thighs, upper hips, shoulders and right arm, however, are still rather achy, and my quads feel like they got a pretty good workout too. Anyway, once we made the loop around Seabrook and started back down Lakeshore Drive with a nice tailwind the pace predictably picked up.  I was tucked in near the front as we approached the bridge when I heard someone say something way behind us.  It didn't quite sound it had the usual urgency of a flat tire, and the guys in front seemed to ignore it, but then we heard more yelling and finally realized someone had flatted. We all sat up, but by then we were approaching the traffic circle, so rather than turn around we continued on at an easy pace all the way to the end of Lakeshore Drive.  Looking back, we still couldn't see anyone coming. As it turned out it had been a big sidewall cut that had required a boot. When we got to the bike path I was with a couple other riders with the small lead group about fifteen seconds ahead of us.  I told them I was going to soft-pedal until the rest of the group arrived, so they went ahead and bridged up to the front group which then picked up its pace.

Out at the last little bridge I saw Robin stopped and realized he was watching a bald eagle that was eating a fish out on the breakwater and was being harassed by an osprey that was trying to steal his breakfast.  I stopped for a little while until the rest of the group finally caught up.

The ride back into the headwind was a long one.  I just glued myself to Brian's wheel for most of it since he always seems happy to sit on the front and tow everybody for miles on end.

Cross-Training

Saturday night an actual COLD front came through - the first real one this fall. And so, it was with a bag stuffed full of winter riding gear that I headed up to Natchez on Sunday morning for the third cyclocross race of the DSGP series. Although the temperature south of the lake was in the 40s thanks to all that nice warm water, up in Natchez it was somewhere around 34F when I fired up the Volvo around 6 am. It was supposed to warm up to around 40 by the 10 am start, so I didn't think that it would be an issue for the racers.  I was more worried about the officials, which included me, standing around in the shade. I was bringing the old Pennine along, with plans to ride the Cat. 1/2/3 race since the Masters race is combined with one or two others and officiating is a little more complicated. I was also going to be trying out CrossMgr, a cyclocross program for officials that I expected would help with tracking lapped riders.

The drive up to Natchez was really pretty beautiful.  I took the scenic route through St. Francisville and Woodville since the drive time is about the same anyway. With a clear blue sky and crisp fall air, it looked really nice.  Nice enough that I hardly noticed the strong north wind and steadily dropping thermometer.

Arriving a bit before 9 am, I set up the laptop and got CrossMgr up and running so I'd be ready for the 10 am start. With a copy of the registration spreadsheet from Ricky linked to the program, I was ready to go right about the time I started shivering from the cold that was creeping through my jacket despite the fact I was also wearing my thermal knickers underneath my jeans. The Cat. 5 race went pretty well, and other than one rider I missed entering on the first lap, CrossMgr worked quite well.  I was almost disappointed we didn't have more lapped riders. Then I totally screwed up the Masters race when I tried to make a correction mid-race and mistakenly logged a number of riders as crossing the line when they hadn't yet.  Then, when I tried to fix that problem by starting over mid-race I didn't account for how the program used lap times to estimate number of laps and completely mangled those results. I guess I should have watched the instructional video first!

The 1/2/3 race was the last of the day, and although it had warmed up a bit by then, I dressed nice and warm since I was planning on using it more to practice neglected and non-existent CX skills while off the back.  I predicted I'd be lapped three times over the course of the 1-hour race (and I was). Most of the other riders were wearing basically summer kits or skinsuits with maybe a thin extra layer somewhere. My plan for the day was to start at the back and gradually work my way backward. With no warmup at all, I was well off the back of the fast-moving group by the time we were halfway around the course, so everything was going as planned.  I approached all of the technical sections with a great deal of caution, especially on the first lap, since my secondary goal for the day was to avoid crashing. Unfortunately, that over-abundance of caution brought me into a big patch of deep sand that I hadn't ridden yet way too slowly. I bogged down and had to walk out of it. OK, lesson learned. For the subsequent laps I just plowed through the sand, sometimes rather sideways, at full speed and in a big gear. It was so deep that my chainring was full of sand coming out the other side.

By the time the race was halfway over I'd already been lapped by Scott and a few others and my lower back was starting to ache.  Even so, I was finally starting to get a little more comfortable on the dirt and was in general negotiating the barriers and Belgian gates without a problem. What I wasn't doing, however, was powering through the fast sections and downhills, using them for recovery instead. There was one steep downhill that started with a root-infested drop-off to a concrete curb, across the street, and then a plunge down the other side with a sharp off-camber right turn at the bottom.  I was taking that one pretty gingerly, although I assumed the leaders were taking it mostly in the air judging by the destroyed stakes and tape around the bottom. Anyway, it was fun and although my legs, back, and certain more delicate anatomical structures took a bit of a beating, I was glad I'd been able to put in an hour on the old steel Pennine.  I was also quite pleased with CrossMgr and plan to study up on it a bit before the next officiating stint.

Gridlock and the Giro

The Tulane Cycling Center has six WattBikes.  They don't see a lot of use until the weather starts to get cold and rainy, like it is right now.  So naturally one of the head units stopped working a few weeks ago. The folks at Woodway, who handles them in the U.S. suggested that the battery might have gone bad, so I went out to Battery World to get them to put together a new battery pack, using the same odd connector that was on the original one.  I figured there was about a 30% chance that the problem was actually the battery, and so I wasn't surprised to find that after I'd installed it the unit would work but was continuously draining the battery. So I emailed our contact there and explained the problem, hoping for a replacement head unit. The next day I was surprised to get a reply indicating that they happened to be in New Orleans at a trade show at the Convention Center, and if I could get the old bike down there, they would swap it out for a new one at the end of the trade show that afternoon.  I rounded up Ben and after stuffing the WattBike into his car we headed down to the Convention Center at around 3:20 for the short drive down Tchoupitoulas, planning to get there by 3:45.  Well, about a mile or two from the Convention Center traffic on Tchoupitoulas was at a stop and we were basically trapped.  For the next TWO HOURS we inched forward, literally, finally arriving as they were tearing down the trade show. It looked like there was something going on at the upriver end of the Convention Center, but gridlock like that just doesn't happen in New Orleans, except when streets are closed off for Mardi Gras parades. I really don't know what caused such a backup, but by the time we got there we were hungry, irritated, and the car was almost out of gas. Although our original contact had already needed to leave for the airport, there were a couple others still there packing things up, so we finally swapped out the bikes. Anyway, we now have one of the newer models with the newer head unit that, I think, has Bluetooth, so that's good.

This morning I rode out to the Giro Ride wearing shorts, jersey and arm-warmers  It was a little cool, but I knew a cold front would be coming through later in the day dropping temperatures by a good 20 degrees before tomorrow. The Giro itself was remarkably smooth and steady.  All the way down Hayne and Chef highway it was smooth paceline at 24 mph with almost everyone taking pulls. Along the way we got a few raindrops here and there, but it wasn't until an hour or two after I got home that the rain really started.  It's looking like it will stay this way until evening when the cold front pushes all the way through. Tomorrow I'm planning on driving up to Natchez for the third cyclocross race of the DSGP series. The forecast for tomorrow morning in Natchez?  35 degrees at 7 am, 43 at 10:00 when the first race starts. On the plus side, zero chance of rain. I'll bring the bike and perhaps do the masters race if I'm not needed for officiating.  I'm planning to try out the CrossMgr software to see if that will help us keep track of the lapped riders.  Should be interesting.

Morning Ride Complications

A quick glance at the thermometer had me searching through the bike drawer for a long-sleeved jersey and knickers this morning. I figured it was a bit much, but knew I'd be chilled on the ride out to the lakefront without the fleecy comfort of those items. After waiting a few extra minutes for Brian, who didn't show up until we were out at the lakefront, we headed north in to a moderate headwind to meet the group. We were a bit late, but things went normally for the out-and-back on Lakeshore Drive, which is to say it started slow and ended fast.  I remarked to someone that perhaps there were a few people who were trying to make up for yesterday's rained-out WeMoRi.

Anyway, the ride out on the lakefront bike path to Kenner was pretty messy. There was still a lot of water on the path that was draining down from the levee, so every once in a while I'd get a face full of wheel spray. At least I wasn't worried about my headset getting water in it.  I'd finally pulled it apart last night and found the bottom race and bearings to be just completely rusted and trashed.  I cleaned them up as best I could, applied a liberal coating of grease, put it all back together, and fired off an email to Marc at the bike shop asking him to go ahead and order me a replacement. Trying to figure out which headset works for which bike nowadays is really difficult, so I figured I'd leave it to the experts this time.

So after a pretty fast ride out to the casino, we turned back toward town, still with a pretty good crosswind of course, but nobody seemed interested in pushing the pace much.  I guess we were halfway back when Will, who had been right in front of me, suddenly sat up and dropped back.  I looked down to see he had a flat rear tire. Everyone stopped, but it took forever for him to get that Continental tire back onto the Mavic rim, and as soon as he put the wheel back on the bike everyone started rolling out.  Problem was, his chain and derailleur were all jacked up, probably because he'd put the bike upside-down to take the wheel out. So one little group is rolling off ahead of a smaller group and we're chatting and soft-pedaling expecting Rich and him to catch up. Finally I look back and they are like half a mile back down the road and stopped. I figured the tire had gone flat again, but anyway we just continued out to Causeway where I stopped to wait.

As if the wheel spray in my face and up my ass, and the interminable tire change weren't enough, on the way back we had to detour from out usual route through the park because a film crew had taken over the main road and the circle around the art museum.  By the time I got home I was about half an hour behind schedule.  On the plus side, I got a new pair of mountain bike shoes today.  My old ones had literally come apart at the seams at the last cyclocross race, and when I found these on closeout, in my size, with an additional 20% off plus free shipping, I just couldn't resist. Perhaps I'll get to try them out this weekend at the cyclocross race up in Natchez.

The Next Front

It's 8 am on a Wednesday and it's been raining for hours.  The next cold front is moving through the area that will bring morning temperatures down into the 50s and upper 40s through the weekend. So rather than riding, I've been sitting around drinking coffee, eating more than I actually need, and watching the morning news shows. On the plus side, I guess that gives me a little time to catch up on the blog.

November started off with a cyclocross race just across the river in New Orleans. À propos to the event, it rained all morning, turning the course into a sloppy, muddy, partially flooded, fire-ant infested quagmire. Naturally, the riders loved it. I was signed up to help with officiating, along with a few others, and had brought my bike just for fun. After wading around in the water and mud for a while I slipped out in-between races to ride a lap around the course, largely out of curiosity but also to decide if I really wanted to spend an hour riding it in the Cat. 1/2/3 race, for which I was entirely unqualified. Although I was able to stay mostly upright, it was quite clear that my legs would not long survive pushing my low gear of 42x27 through the mud for an hour. The one lap I did, however, was reasonably satisfying. It turned out to be good that I decided not to race. When I took off my mountain bike shoes I discovered that the sole had pulled halfway off from the rest of the shoe. I took it as a sign.

The next weekend was the annual Varsity to Varsity ride that the LSU collegiate team hosts. I offered to drive a few of the Tulane riders up to Baton Rouge, after which I drove back to New Orleans, met up with another Tulane rider, and started riding upriver to meet the group somewhere along its 104+ mile route. Out around Ormond we ran into Steve, who turned around to join us.  We ended up a bit past Reserve by the time we met the group, so that turned into a 90-mile day, which was perfect.

Last Thursday I rode out with the usual 5:45 am group toward the lakefront. It was warm and humid and we were fully expecting to get in the usual morning ride before the next front came through.

Saturday Giro Paceline

Well, right when we got to Lakeshore Drive the temperature dropped about 10 degrees in literally 30 seconds and a 30+ mph wind swept across the lake as it started to rain.  We rolled along to the west debating what to do until everything to the west just turned to an opaque grey as if a big curtain had dropped. It was pouring rain at West End, so we quickly turned around, nearly getting blown right off the road in the process.  The rest of the group bailed out on Marconi, but I continued on Lakeshore Drive to look for Danielle who had turned east when we'd hit Lakeshore drive. I rode out almost to Elysian Fields, by which time I should have seen her coming toward me, so I stopped and tried, unsuccessfully, to call her.  Touch screens do not work well in the rain!  I figured she had turned back earlier and was already on her way home, so I headed home myself. The crosswind on Lakeshore Drive was scary strong, and riding over the Bayou St. John bridge was pretty much a white-knuckle affair.  As it turned out, I'd just missed Danielle who had bailed out at Elysian Fields or Franklin, stopped at a Burger King to try and call, and then headed home.  I got home shortly before she did. Anyway, it was a dramatic morning.

Coming over the firetower hill, heading north toward Enon

Last Sunday I ventured across the lake for a nice ride in the country.  The weather by then was nearly perfect and the pace was moderate, so it turned into a really good ride for this time of year. By yesterday morning it was already clear that the weather was going to go downhill by evening and there were already warnings about high winds and serious rain for that evening.  The morning ride featured a strong southeast wind but temperatures still rather warm.  Nobody seemed willing to ride at the front into the wind and I ended up riding out ahead of the group all the way past the turnaround at Seabrook. I eased up as the tailwind took effect and prepared to latch onto the group that I knew would be going 30 mph when it caught.  Everyone stayed together past Causeway on the bike path until someone let a little gap open as we went over the Suburban Canal bridge.  After rounding the two curves following the bridge a few of us took off in pursuit to try and make the bridge up to the front group that was probably 10-15 seconds ahead. I took a pretty hard pull at 30 mph and closed a lot of the gap, but then whoever was behind me basically attacked. I barely got his wheel when he went past at 33 mph, but then I blew up just about 50 meters before catching the group. So close!  I waited for a couple others to catch me and we ended up with a nice 3-person paceline the rest of the way out. Naturally, the ride back was into a nice headwind.  Brian spent most of the distance sitting at the front pulling everyone at a steady 20 mph with me on his wheel and Joe coming around to take a pull now and then.

Looks like the rain is finally ending.  Time to go to work.

Intermission

Back in the day, and I mean way back in the day, there was something called the "off-season." Sure, there were rumors of riders up in the northeast racing in the cold and mud, but for the most part they were entirely unconfirmed. By the end of October everyone was riding slower and shorter and spending time catching up on long-neglected chores, or studies, or bike maintenance. It was time to re-grease the bottom bracket and headset, patch the pile of flat tubulars, and pull out the long-sleeve wool jerseys and long tights.

Those days are gone.

What was once the off-season is now the scant one or two weeks between the last road race and the first cyclocross race.  Sometimes less.  So this weekend was, as close as I can tell, it. After a nice Friday coffee ride with some of the Tulane riders, I got up Saturday morning in the dark to ride out to the Giro Ride. If I'd been able to see the sky in the pre-dawn darkness I'd have seen nothing but clouds. The hurricane that had plowed into the west coast of Mexico was now an area of rain half the size of Texas inching its way toward Louisiana.  Things were not looking good for Sunday, so I had stuck a packet of HammerGel in my pocket with the idea of maybe putting in a few extra miles afterward.

The typical group was on hand for the 7 am roll-out under a dark, cloudy sky, and one of the guys, surveying the roster, remarked that it would probably be a fast ride.  But it wasn't. Not that it was exactly a casual pace, but it was definitely one of the smoothest, most steady rides of the year.  It seemed that almost everyone was on the same page. Indeed, I had the feeling that the weekend was a kind of intermission for everyone - a time to throttle back a bit between road and cyclocross seasons.  Now, I'm quite sure that most of the riders in attendance had no plans whatsoever of racing cyclocross, but it was just that all of the necessary cues had come together on the same weekend.  There were no nearby races, there were no nearby charity rides, it was the last and darkest weekend of daylight savings time, and it was cloudy and breezy.  For a change I made a few intentional efforts rather than merely attempting to respond to the efforts of the guys on the front.

So as the Giro was winding down along Lakeshore Drive I mentioned I was thinking about doing a few extra miles on the lake trail bike path. When everyone else turned off at Marconi, Ben, Jaden, Grayson and I continued on.  I was thinking we'd ride out to Kenner and turn around, but once we got out there we decided to do the ride around the back of the airport to the river bike path and come back into town that way. That particular route involves a couple of little quirks. One is the gate at the pumping station near I-10 which was closed. That required a bit of a detour in order to get past I-10.  The second thing about the route is that the road around the back of the airport, right at the end of the east-west runway, is gravel.  Fortunately it was in pretty good shape since we haven't had much rain around here in weeks.  Once we got to the river we checked out the levee bike path, but was still closed, so we rode down Jefferson Highway all the way in to Moss Street where we could finally get back on the bike path.  By that point I Grayson was starting to struggle a bit and I figured he was probably about to bonk, but since we only had about six or seven miles to go I didn't say anything.  Well, a little while later Jaden looked back and couldn't see Grayson.  We turned back and found him sitting on the side of the levee.  Jaden gave him something to eat and he told us he's just ride back in easy, so we cruised the last few miles.

Ready for 'Cross

Well, as predicted, it started raining around 3 am this morning and probably won't stop for the next day - or two. With 88 miles yesterday I decided to take a rest day today. Of course, that didn't involve actual "rest."  After a couple cups of coffee I ended up heading down to the basement to transform the Pennine from "rain bike" to "cyclocross bike."  It's a very retro version of a not-quite correct cyclocross bike, but for the kind of cyclocross riding I'm likely to do it will suffice.  First, I removed the fenders. Then I rescued the clincher cyclocross wheels from the corner where they've been all summer and put the on the bike. Since they are 700C and my regular wheels for that bike are old 27" I then had to readjust the brakes. Since I have an antique 5-speed freewheel on the cyclocross wheel that is something like a 15-27, I then had to remove the antique Simplex derailleur and replace it with an equally antique Suntour long-cage derailleur. That completed the transformation, such as it is.

Next, I finally decided to re-wire the light fixture in the hallway that has a bad socket that's been sputtering lately and trying to burn down the house, so I headed over to the hardware store in the rain to pick up three new light sockets so I could re-wire the whole thing, which of course involved a little creativity since they didn't have exactly the kind of socket I needed. That's about when I got the email that my bank account was overdrafted.  Turns out the last couple of deposits I'd made went into my savings account instead of my checking account.

In the middle of all of this, the damned swipe-card door lock on the Tulane cycling center isn't working AGAIN.  Since I'm the only one on this side of Lake Pontchartrain with the key, and since the lousy rainy weather had everyone wanting to put in some time on the WattBikes, there were a few text messages and emails going around and a couple of people coming over to pick up or return the key.  This whole thing with the door lock has been very frustrating.  Kind of like the situation I had with my AT&T Internet.  They are trying the same "fixes" over and over again and expecting a different result each time, which of course isn't happening.  Something's broken but I don't know enough about how the thing works to guess whether it's the lock itself, the wireless connection to the server, or the underlying data that the lock needs in order to know which ID cards are valid for that room.  I guess we're going to have to exhaust every other possibility, more than once, before actually replacing the lock or figuring out what the real problem is.

While You Were Riding

I hated to miss three days of riding, especially this time of year, but duty called. Arriving via shuttle with Andy Hollinger of Texas in Colorado Springs on Friday afternoon, with a clear blue sky and temperatures in the 60s, my first thought was, "I wish I had my bike."  Alas, I was travelling light and really wouldn't have any time to ride anyway.

In keeping with the "breath of fresh air" mentality currently driving things at USA Cycling since the arrival of the new CEO, this year's annual meeting of the Local Associations was combined with the Race Director's meeting and was held mostly at the Marriott hotel near USAC headquarters.  Although I do miss the years when we met at the USOC, I must admit that the amenities at the hotel certainly made for a very nice meeting. There had been meetings all day on Friday that were focused on Mountain Bike, which of course I missed, but at least I was there in time for the open bar and dinner at USAC headquarters that evening. I wish I could remember all of the names of the people I meet at these meetings.  Perhaps I should invest in a body camera? Anyway, we started out at 8 am Saturday for a full day of sessions, the first of which was an overview of new directions by the new CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall. One thing that really separates this particular CEO from his predecessors is that he has a legitimate road racing background (on top of an impressive business one) that includes everything from Cat. 5 to Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem and the 2000 Olympics. Notably, he commented during the meeting that all the time he was racing he was basically unaware of the army of people, mostly volunteers, that kept the whole U.S. bike racing thing going.

I have a lot of scribbled notes from the meeting, which I think was about the best one we've had yet. In no particular order, here are the things that I thought particularly significant:

Overall take-away:  There is presently a lot of enthusiasm and, dare I say, excitement at USAC. Nonetheless, USAC and in particular the Board will have to make some hard decisions about policies for 2016. Funding priorities will shift, probably gradually, a bit away from elite athletics and more toward membership. Despite claiming around 70,000 members, racing licenses are down 1-2%, events are down 3-5%, and the number of Racer-days is down about 20%.

Finances: USAC has been bleeding for the past couple of  years and will certainly not be able to reverse that trend during the 2016 year. The current annual run rate loss is around $1M. On the plus side, however, there is a very healthy reserve in place that will allow for a strong balance sheet, so dramatic cuts will not be necessary right now and there is some time to make changes aimed at increasing revenue and decreasing losses. A couple of the key points regarding budget and costs are:  (1) the attempt to make National Championships self-funding has clearly failed. The national championships lose about $700k annually. (2) The elite athletics program, which should be funded almost entirely through the USAC Development Foundation, the USOC, and other sources, lost $1.4 million. It will take some time to unwind some of that (i.e. contracts, houses in Italy and Belgium, etc.), but clearly the goal is to minimize the amount of membership revenue that is subsidizing the elite athletics programs. Even so, our successes internationally have been mainly in women's road racing and BMX, and we basically don't even try to compete in track. Unlike other countries, USAC doesn't get any government support for its national teams. (3) The membership programs (licenses, event permits, etc.) actually generates about $800k in "profit."

Policy Changes:  Derek is clearly very interested in expanding anti-doping, women's cycling, safety, and advocacy.  Those are all things that have generated a lot of feedback from the membership.

Organizational Changes: There will be a Membership Director position for which they are currently recruiting.  The entire IT system will be completely re-built with the help of an external consultant. They expect this to be substantially done by the end of 2016. There are real efforts to work more closely with organizations like USABMX and ATRA. Another goal is to make national championships self-funded within two years. As we've all seen, USAC is trying to increase its relevance to non-traditional events like fondos, charity rides, etc.

Possibilities:  Some things that might happen in 2016 include making the Race Director certification optional until it can be improved, reducing the cost of 1-day licenses or providing rebates to promoters for them (if it doesn't impact annual license sales too much), doubling anti-doping testing and removing the Local Association funding requirement.

Insurance: The take-home message here is that we have one of the best insurance advisors in the country (Willis Global Sports Services) working with USAC *for free* (he has strong personal connections to racing) to make sure we get the best coverage at the lowest cost and have solid risk management policies in place. USAC currently charges $3.60 per rider per day for races.  The actual cost works out to about $3.40. Bike racing averages 2.5 deaths per year at USAC events and the average claim that the insurance company pays is $635,000, with the largest $4.25 million.  Since 2004, USAC's cost for insurance has been around $6M, but the insurance companies have paid out more like $16 million. For the record, rider surcharges cover the general liability event coverage while license fees cover the excess medical rider accident coverage.

Marketing: This brief session was focused mainly on the really large races like Joe Martin and Cross-Reno so some of it just didn't apply to local events, but there were a few take-aways for me:  Partnering with a marketing firm as a sponsor can work well.  Holding a raffle with the sponsor's information printed on the back of the tickets can work. Making a big inforgraphic for an event can work. Expanding the podium to the top 5 or 7 riders is appreciated.

Local Association Agreements: USAC is relaxing much of the documentation requirements for the local associations. In the past we had to submit financial statements, tax returns, etc.  Now we will  just need to provide them upon request, going back three years.

Fees: As usual there was a ton of discussion about the various fees and also as usual there was little consensus.  Most people would like a lower 1-day license fee, especially if it would allow them to build it into the registration fee so that the Cat. 5s are paying the same entry fees as everyone else, even if the promoter is not making much per entry.

Race Director Certification: The requirement that people be certified Race Directors in order to get event permits has been pretty much a failure. USAC is looking for an advisory committee for the RD program.  Certification will probably not be required for 2016.

Tools:  Check out the UCI "Road Races Organizer's Guide."  It is very comprehensive and basically tells you how to run the Tour de France.  USAC will try to provide more demographic data for the Local Associations and promoters.

Women:  There was a short panel on women's racing that mostly covered some current successful programs like littlebellas.com and betibikebash.com.  The bottom line is that we need a woman to step up and take ownership of promoting women's racing.

Racing Rules:  Yeah, that wasn't covered at all. USAC just announced the new Technical Director, Chuck Hodge.  The Sport Committees are meeting this week in Colorado Springs, so I guess we won't hear anything solid about rule changes for a little while yet.

Rocktoberfesting

This morning's ride on the lakefront was pretty nice.

Rocktoberfest is a late-season local criterium that's been held off-and-on since 1999. It had been started by the Lakeshore Cycling Club, and later adopted by the NOBC after that club dissolved. Until this year, the last time it was held was 2009. So how is it that it happened in 2015?  Well, it all started with a call from Eric at Eastbank Cyclery. For a couple of years we'd been kicking around the idea of holding a criterium at The Esplanade, a shopping mall out on the western edge of the metro area, in the city of Kenner. This particular mall has a "ring road" around the parking lot, and has always looked like it would be a good place for a race. The mall itself had been struggling for at least a decade, and recently the city of Kenner, and the parish economic development group had kind of taken it on as a project. Eric knew some folks on the city council and gave me a call way back around March or April and I told him we could probably resurrect Rocktoberfest.

We had funny Octoberfest hats that wouldn't
stay on in the wind.

So next thing I know we're meeting with the mall and council member and JEDCO folks and as far as they're concerned it's a "go."  Of course, nobody is offering to put up any actual money, and although I'm not saying it out loud, I know from experience that an October race is unlikely to garner huge participation. I suggested a few things to make it more attractive to the local community, like having beer, music, perhaps a swap meet, etc., but also made it clear that I was not a festival promoter and could really handle only the bike race part. So months later I line up the USAC event permit, and then find out that we also need to get a permit from the city, and another from the mall, and special language for the insurance certificate, and two police officers, etc. We've also included a pretty big prizelist in hopes of drawing in some riders. The bottom line is that we need about $2,000 cash just to have any chance of breaking even. One of the club members somehow found us the sponsorship, and in fact put up half of it himself.  Meanwhile, as the event date is approaching I'm detecting some actual interest locally, so as long as the weather isn't miserable, I'm feeling OK about participation.

We ended up with around 70 entries, which was around what I'd expected. Really, though, there should have been more like 125 just from the local people.  Here we are putting on a safe criterium right in town with a low entry fee and large prizelist and I could probably name 25 people who "train" every day but didn't come out to race. I don't really get it. How many Giro Rides can you do?

Anyway, since we had Ricky and Mark officiating in addition to myself, I went ahead and rode the Masters race. Since I cut the toe pad or whatever that thing was that Bont had glued to the front of my shoes off, I clipped in without incident for a change. Despite the small field, the race was fairly fast.  Rob was launching attacks and then for some reason getting pulled back. Meanwhile, I was really liking the course.  It was an L-shaped course with a long sweeping stretch into the start/finish, marred only by a brisk north wind. Starting the last lap I was in a pretty good position but spent a little time in the wind before the last turn and when I hit the headwind I pretty much just sat up rather than start the 500-meter drag race to the line. Still had a lot of fun, though. There are some photos here.

The event went off smoothly, so other than the kind of low turnout, it was quite successful.  If we can find someone who can put on a little festival inside the course next year we could really have something. Especially if there's beer.

Back at home I'd been suffering for months with increasingly flaky internet service, and the week before the race it had gotten completely out of hand. Over the course of the past two months I think I'd had six service calls.  AT&T was very responsive every time, but the technicians were having a hard time wrapping their collective heads around what I kept telling them, which was that there was a problem somewhere outside with the line. Before the last service visit on Tuesday they had replaced the modem three times, replaced the wire from the modem to the wall jack, replaced the wall jack, replaced the wire from the wall jack to the NID (in our case, conveniently located in the basement), replaced the wire from the NID to the pole outside the house, and replaced the connection box on the wire next to the pole. Every time, they would take a shot at replacing something else, then plug into the NID and announce "it's not the modem, it's a line problem."  Anyway, on Tuesday the same guy showed up who had spent a few hours with us on earlier visits.  First, he replaced the modem again (we now have the top of the line modem, BTW) then sat there running diagnostics and shaking his  head. Finally he said that he was going to get them to switch us over to an entirely different wire pair because the one we were on must be defective.  No kidding??  A couple of hours later I got a call saying they had made the switch and the modem looked like it was working fine.  I went home that evening cautiously optimistic. Indeed, the internet connection has been solid as a rock for the past two days, so I am starting to feel a lot better about the whole thing.  I really didn't want to have to switch everything over to Cox but I was about at the end of my rope.  The entire experience had started to feel more like a science experiment, however, and I just couldn't let it drop without finding out the answers.

Once Again to Dahlonega

Last weekend was our annual road trip up to Dahlonega for the Six Gap Century.  This year I went up with four of the Tulane riders, and with two minivans everyone had lots of space for a change. After meeting up at 6:30 am at the Tulane Cycling Center, we hit the road a bit after 7 am.

I was driving up with Charlotte.  Ben S., Andrew and Quentin were in the other van.  Almost immediately I lost track of the other van, only to find out later that they had decided to stop and get coffee and gas without telling us. We thought we'd stop for lunch at Firehouse Subs around Auburn, and although we did, we got stuck in football game traffic so we told the other van, which was a good fifteen minutes behind us, not to try. Anyway, we finally regrouped up in Dahlonega where we registered and watched the last half of the Cat. 1/2 Women's race. There was a 3-person break until one of them crashed right next to us coming out of the circle, leaving a 2-up sprint between Debbie Milne, who is 46 this year, and Megan Heath, who is a 16 year old rider with Frazier. This time age and treachery failed to win out over youth and skill, but it was close! So after watching the first part of the Pro/1/2 race (Michael Mcbrien of Team LaS'port took 2nd) we filled up on Mexican food at Pueblos and headed back south to our hotel about half an hour away.

After a particularly bad night's sleep we were up pretty early with the goal of getting to the parking lot an hour ahead of time. Unfortunately we ended up leaving a little late and by the time we got there the main lot was full, but we found a nice spot along the little road leading to the football stadium (for future reference, there's a bathroom there!). Preparations were a bit rushed, and as I discovered about an hour later I failed to put the bottle of HammerGel I'd prepared into my pocket.  Luckily I had already put two gel packs in there as backup, so at least I had something.

We rolled down close to the front of the rapidly growing crowd where we found Steve and Pat, and waited for the start.  There had been a light mist falling all night and the roads were all fairly wet and the sky cloudy, but at least it wasn't actually raining. I had my arm-warmers on to take the chill off of the first hour or so.  The start this year was pretty conservative all the way to the first Gap, which isn't actually one of the "Six." As usual, that one was fairly steady and I was pleased to find that all seven of us were still basically together. Andrew rolled off the front on the first of the main climbs (I think), and Pat rolled off the back, but the rest of us stayed more or less together all the way to the top of Hogpen.

This was the first time I've ridden this with a heart rate monitor, and I actually found it to be helpful.  Go figure. On the first long climb I found that my comfort zone was right around 88% of max. I was OK up to about 91% for short periods, but 88%, which is around 165 bpm, felt very sustainable, so I decided to make that my limit. This proved to be effective at keeping me out of the red, and as a result there were only a couple of times when my speed dropped down close to Garmin auto-pause territory. Granted, the arbitrary limit probably cost me a few minutes, but in general I felt considerably more comfortable and controlled on the climbs than usual. I ended up with an average heart rate for the whole ride of 150 and a max of 174, so kept it under control and really never pushed it to the limit.

So I had been considering stopping at one of the rest stops to re-stock on calories, but as I came over the top of Unicoi or Hogpen there was someone holding out half of a banana, so I grabbed it and stuck it into my pocket before the road plunged downward.  The downhills were mostly wet this year, and between that, a couple of slower riders ahead of me, and a car on the Wolfpen descent, my downhill speeds were definitely slower than usual, maxing out at only 48 mph.

Climbing - slid all the way back on the saddle

The Hogpen climb was notable especially for the fact that we rode up into the mountain mist (aka clouds) about halfway up, which was pretty cool.  Amazingly, everyone was pretty much still together at Hogpen, where Ben and Quentin stopped for refreshments, but I kept on going. I think Steve was already a minute or two ahead of me by then. He always does those long climbs a couple of minutes faster than I. Ben broke a spoke near the top of Wolfpen Gap and ended up having to get a ride in the sag wagon from there. After Wolfpen I was pretty much on my own and definitely feeling the miles and climbing. I stopped briefly at one of the rest stops where I filled a bottle with Coke (it was delicious) and picked up a little Payday bar in case I bonked. My quads were tired, but most of all, though, my neck was killing me from the downhills. My back was relatively good despite all of the seated climbing I was doing, and I have to credit my Bont shoes for keeping my right foot more comfortable than it's ever been on this ride.

Post-ride pasta and salad at the school cafeteria

As usual, I latched onto a couple of guys who came past me on the last ten mile stretch.  We traded pulls for a few miles, and then with maybe four miles to go a larger group came by, so we stayed with them to the finish. I ended up with an official time of 6:11:39, which was significantly slower than usual (ride time was about 6:10), which was 79th overall and 11th in the 55+ age group. Andrew ended up finishing at 5:56:01, placing him 53rd overall and 9th in his age group. Quentin came in at 6:28:47, at 106th place.  Steve's time is still missing from the results, but he should have been a few minutes ahead of me. Charlotte rode the shorter 5-Gap ride, finishing in 4:51:45, which was 23rd overall, 7th in her age group.

The ride back was the usual drag, with light rain all the way from Montgomery home. The drive was helped by caffeine and the fact that the rental van had satellite radio, but hindered by a drawn-out search in Mobile for a gas station that would take the university's fleet gas card, and then by some significant rain all along I-10 from Mobile. It was a pretty good trip, however, and by Tuesday most of the soreness had worn off and I was back to the regular training routine.