Tour Tour Tour

Last weekend I made the drive up to Hernando, Mississippi for the second annual Tour de Hernando, put on by the Memphis Marx-Bensdorf club. Since the Sunday criterium was also serving as the LAMBRA criterium championship, I was bringing a bag full of medals with me. Of course, I knew that riders from Louisiana and Mississippi would be in rather short supply, since Hernando is a pretty long drive for most of them. On the other hand, it was an opportunity for the north Mississippi riders, who likewise don't often make the road trips down to races around New Orleans, a chance to snag some of the coveted USAC medals. This race offered a lot of different categories and age groups, including the 50+/60+ one I'd be racing in. That sort of thing can be good and bad. On the one hand, it's nice being able to race with people who are, at least presumably, around the same age or skill level as yourself. On the other hand, unless turnout is particularly robust, the field sizes tend to be fairly small, as was the case that weekend. The organizers had Start2Finish on hand, so they were using chip timing and posting results in real time. There was just one sprint finish in the criterium where they could have used an actual linescan type finish camera rather than a regular video, but I guess the judges were able to make the call with the combination of chip times and video. I had driven up to Madison on Friday to visit with my brother and two of his kids who live around there, and also to shorten the drive and eliminate one hotel room night. Since my Saturday road race didn't start until around 11:00 or something, I had plenty of time that morning for the 2+ hour drive from Madison to Hernando.

By the time my road race started it was already getting pretty warm, which isn't usually a huge problem for me. It was only 40-something miles for the old geezers, so I knew that wouldn't be my biggest problem. The course was pretty good and significantly more challenging than I had expected, but I was feeling fine and taking an occasional pull at the front. During one of those times when I was on the front, we came up over a rise and coming down the other side I could see an intersection with a police officer on the left. For some reason I had it in my head the the course was all left turns. So I flew down the hill and came through the turn at about 27 mph. Unfortunately turning the wrong way! I'd been so focused on the turn and the speed and the officer that I guess I didn't seen the directional signage. I quickly realized that everyone else had turned the other way, but by the time I slowed down and made a U-turn the group was already pretty far up the road. We were only 6 miles into the 8 mile lap. Of course I chased, and soon I could see that the small group ahead had split, but I never could get quite close enough to get back into the race. When I came into the start/finish area with one lap to go the officials told me I was the only 60+ rider left, so if I wanted to stop it would be fine, which of course I did. It turned out to be a pretty nice 37 mile workout in the hills with 1,600 feet of elevation and an average heart rate of 150 (probably elevated a bit due to moderate dehydration). 

Oops!!

On Sunday I got to the triangular criterium course early, since I wanted to make sure the medals were available for the first race. My own race was one of the earlier ones, so although it was hot, it wasn't too bad. We started with just 8 riders, of which I was the only 60+ one. From the gun, one guy, Ryan Jones from Huntsville, attacked. I went with him as he accelerated to 30 mph, but quickly realized that nobody else was coming. I probably should have made the effort to stay with him, but instead I backed off to the relative security of the rest of the field. Pretty soon there were just 4 of us. On the last lap, I decided to go to the back so I wouldn't interfere with the 50+ guys who would be sprinting for 2nd place. The finish was maybe 150 meters from the last turn, and was slightly downhill with a moderate tailwind, so despite coming around it last, I still passed one rider and almost another before the finish, topping out a 35 mph. It was fun. There were races all the way until around 2:30 pm, so I spent a lot of time getting more and more dehydrated and overheated. Since I'd won some cash for basically being the only 60+ survivor, I figured I'd give a little of it back by entering the Cat. 1/2/3 race. I told the officials that I would start at the back and do about three laps before pulling out. I knew I was way too dehydrated to be doing another race in the heat. I ended up doing four laps. Over the course of the day I think I consumed four or five soft drinks, plus the Skratch-enhanced water in my bottle. On the 5 hour drive home I stopped at a Love's and got the extra giant sized fountain drink, and later a cup of coffee at a Starbucks. I still didn't have to pee until after I got home at around 8:30 pm, confirming my suspicion that I was more than slightly dehydrated. Anyway, the weekend was way more fun than sitting on the couch after doing another Giro Ride.

The Tour de La:  On Monday I got a text from the St. Bernard Parish police officer in charge of the criterium telling me that there were some new speed bumps on the crit course! Yikes. I ended up skipping my Tuesday morning ride and driving out there to have a look. As it turned out, the four speed bumps between turns 1 and 2 had quite a bit of space between them on all sides, which was at least enough to convince me that our smallish fields would be able to handle them without disaster. Still, I got in touch with Howard who got in touch with the parish president about whether it was possible to remove them. I haven't heard back about that, and from what I saw, I doubt it is feasible, so I'm expecting them to be there for the criterium. Hopefully they won't cause a big problem. At least they aren't in the finish straight or immediately before a corner. I think they are basically there to slow cars down where there is a little off-street parking area for the park. Just goes to show you, if it ain't one thing, it's something else. It took us weeks, plus a postponement, to move the road race to a different course, and I had been thinking how relatively simple and secure the criterium arrangements had been. Oh well. Of course it's Wednesday now and as usual people are waiting to see if other people register, and those people are waiting to see if the ones who are waiting will register, so registrations are low like last year. All we can hope for is a last-minute flurry of registrations. Costs are the same whether there are 300 or 30 riders, and of course the reason races disappear is because of multiple years of low turnouts.

The Other Tour: So since we had to postpone the Tour de La this year, it now starts on the same day as the Tour de France. I went ahead and subscribed to Peacock so I should be able to watch the replays every day rather than try to record the occasional coverage on NBC. I've never really followed all of the Pro riders and teams, but I do like to keep track of those from the U.S., and on that note I was quite disappointed to learn today that Sepp Kuss wouldn't be racing this year. Every year I marvel at how he makes climbing the Alps, or Pyrenees, or whatever, look so smooth and easy. This year, though, it was obvious that he wasn't riding well at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and when he didn't start the final stage I knew he must be sick. Turns out he caught COVID and wasn't recovered enough to do the Tour de France. It's another blow for his team, Visma-Lease a Bike, this year. After dominating the grand tours last year, they have had nothing but bad luck since. Vingegaard had a bad crash in April and nobody seemed sure he would be able to race the Tour until just a few days ago, but under the circumstances you have to wonder if he is sufficiently recovered to make a run for the GC. It should be an interesting race this year.

Meanwhile back at home, I did some work on the washing machine the other day because it was galloping across the basement floor during the spin cycle. That was likely a combination of being overloaded with heavy cotton clothes, worn suspension rods/springs/etc., and/or a worn out and loose hub fitting under the basket. I replaced the four suspension rods the other night, so we'll see how it goes the next time we do a big load. I ran a small load of cycling stuff through it this morning and it seemed fine, but then that's on the Delicate cycle and they weigh  next to nothing, even wet. Danielle sent me a Fi dog tracker a couple of weeks ago, so Charley is busy improving his ranking by taking his daily 5-7 mile walks with Candy. I set up a Strava account for Candy so now it shows the dog walks automatically there too. The sidewalk that they tore up at the beginning of the month has, predictably, been abandoned without being finished, so there's just this big missing square of mud. Typical city incompetence. 

Up the River in Natchez

Thursday's lakefront ride. The group is getting larger.

It was another 300 mile week for me, which wasn't quite as taxing as one might imagine. The weekday rides, aside from being mostly hot and humid, seemed a little faster than usual but not significantly harder, probably due to the extra people who always seem to come out of the woodwork this time of year. When there are more than just a handful of riders in the paceline, I sometimes go miles before finally coming to the front to take a pull. For me, sitting in a paceline behind four or five riders can easily drop my heart rate down to 120 bpm or even lower, even at 27 mph. If it's like that for too long I'll sometimes slide over into the wind a bit, especially if I'm on the back. Otherwise, I'm always aware of larger riders behind me and the fact that they may not be getting much of a draft, and are probably back there cursing me every time I put my hands on the drops.

Anyway, Friendly Friday's ride had a quite a big turnout, as had Thursday's ride, and of course that made it relatively fast. The whole time, however, I was thinking about the next day's Natchez ride that I'd signed up for. Depending on who shows up for Natchez, the front group can get pretty competitive, and so I was trying to be careful not to blow up my legs too much.

Unlike last year, when I had driven up to Natchez on Friday evening, this year I decided to just get up early and drive up on Saturday morning. By "early" I mean 4:00 am. I decided to take the slightly longer, but easier route, staying on I-55 all the way up to US 84, so I'd be on nice 4-lane the whole way. The shortcut via US 98, that I often take, involves a long stretch on a 2-lane highway that can be either nice and smooth or frustrating, depending on how many local farmers you get stuck behind. Anyway, I arrived in Natchez just a bit after 7 am as planned. The organizers were still busy setting up the tents and registration table and all, so it was a little while before I actually picked up my packet. This event doesn't keep track of times or anything, so there aren't any numbers to pin on or stickers to affix or anything. My sense was that turnout was fairly low this year, for reasons I cannot fathom.

Natchez Trace

The weather was as good as it gets for early June. When I'd left New Orleans at 4 am the temperature there was around 80°F. By the time I got to Natchez it was more like 69° with much, much lower humidity, and the sky was clear and blue. There was a light wind that seemed to be coming more or less from the north, but I knew we wouldn't feel much of it since the entire route is lined with trees and dense forest. As usual, I was having lots of flashbacks from all of the Natchez Classic Stage Races I'd done there, starting way back in the mid-80s. Interestingly, this ride attracts a number of riders who you might consider to be semi-retired bike racers who also have long histories of racing there. I had a chance to chat with Curtis a few times before and after the ride about what can be done to increase turnout and eventually incorporate a criterium. I could be wrong, but I think that providing times and publishing the "results" might make it feel more like a challenge and pull in more riders.

So we started out with a neutral section from the river to the Natchez Trace, and fairly quickly fell into a paceline, at least up near the front. The Trace can be kind of deceptive because the road is graded and therefore has long sections that are just 1-3% but look like they're almost flat. You find yourself wondering why it seems harder than it should now and then. Although the pace was what I would consider moderate - figure 22-23 mph on the flat - we were apparently shedding riders pretty quickly. By the time we turned off of the Trace onto 553, which was 12 or 13 miles into the ride, we were already down to seven, including other old-timers like Frank, Heath, and Trey. Last year the pace seemed a bit faster, especially after we made the turnaround. 

This year I think the pace was a little more steady, at least until the last ten miles. We were on the way back, maybe 48 miles into the 62 mile ride, when Frank started to apply a little pressure going up one of the longer uphill stretches. It wasn't enough to put anyone off the back or anything, but I was starting to sense some competition creeping into our nice collegial ride.

Well, my instincts were right, and not long after that one of the guys launched a full-out attack down the left side that required a significant effort to close down. By then the dye had been cast, and what followed was a series of short attacks and chases, during which I think we lost one rider. We were still a few miles from the end of the Trace when another one of those took a while to close. As soon as it was all back together, Frank's race instinct took over and he launched another solo attack at just the right time when everyone was hoping for a bit of recovery. That put him maybe 15 or 20 seconds up the road before a little paceline formed to chase. At that point I was starting to feel the miles on the little climbs so decided to just tailgun and watch the show from the back. I guess we were less than a mile from the end of the Trace when Frank must have eased up a bit and the gap came down quickly, with everyone re-grouping as we exited the Trace. From there it's more of a casual commute through town to get back to the river.

Afterward there was cold Coke (or other Coke products) along with a nice lunch and live music. I sat there for a while, consuming a couple of sandwiches and telling old racing stories of questionable veracity before finally grabbing a cold Coke for the road and wandering back to the parking lot. It was still much cooler than the weather in New Orleans, so hanging around had been quite pleasant. I took the short route home down Highway 61 through Baton Rouge, which was quite smooth and relaxing, until of course I got to the I-10 raceway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. As usual, traffic came to a standstill for a little while over the Spillway where of course there had been a crash. The speed limit there is, I think, 60 mph. The average actual speed, however, is more like 75, and of course people drive like f'ing idiots there because they know the state troopers aren't going to risk their own lives on that elevated stretch by trying to pull anyone over. They just wait for the inevitable 911 call, I guess. It's only a matter of time before they install some sort of automated ticketing system there.

So back at home I had to decide what to do about Sunday. I needed to go out and mark the course for the Tour de La that will be June 29-30, so I decided to do the regular northshore Talisheek ride starting at 7 am from Mandeville. That went nicely and didn't even feel very hot until the last twenty miles or so. In fact, I hadn't even gone through one water bottle when we stopped at the store 42 miles into the 55 mile ride, where I got a can of Coke. 

After that ride I threw the bike back in the car and headed north to the road course that is somewhere around Zona, LA. That was practically an hour's drive from Mandeville, but on the plus side, I arrived at the church right when the last of the congregation was leaving, so I was able to park in the shade of the tree. Then I set the Garmin temporarily to Metric so I could mark the 200 meter mark and the 1 km mark. That done. I marked the start of the Time Trial right at the north end of the parking lot, then paced off 100 paces and marked the finish for the out-and-back 3-mile course. Then I paced back 50 paces and marked my measurement point. From there I started my Garmin again and rode 1.5 miles  up the road to mark the turnaround, then continued around the course marking all of the five turns on the course. There was hardly any traffic as I rode the 17 mile loop that we had used a few years back for a couple of Tulane collegiate races. I got back to the car kind of hot and thirsty, which was no surprise. That put me just over 300 miles for the week.

Hot Summer Rides

Waiting for WeMo

It's looking like the heat and humidity are here to stay for a while now, and even though I usually climb onto the bike before sunrise, by the time I peel off the lycra it's thoroughly soaked. Giro Rides that I was doing a month ago without putting much of dent into a single water bottle, now have me emptying two and wishing for more. Water that it, not heat.

Wednesday's WeMoRi and Thursday's lakefront rides weren't too terrible since the tropical heat dome that defined the next few days hadn't yet quite consolidated itself on top of us. The WeMoRi was fast in places and not so fast in others, leaving me with a little left in the tank for a short sprint at the end. Thursday's ride actually felt pretty nice, although that might have been more because the pace remained smooth and moderate than because of the weather. 

Big Friday Group

By Friday I was ready for a nice easy Friendly Friday ride, but when I arrived to find a particularly large group on hand, I knew it was not to be. Even so, it never got quite out of hand, and with so many wheels in the group it wasn't too hard to titrate the effort level without getting dropped.

By Saturday, though, conditions had become much more humid. As I rode out to Starbucks I wondered how that would affect turnout. As has been the case for the past few weeks, there was going to be a lakefront training race in addition to the regular Giro. Norman was on hand from Mississippi because his son had a swimming meet that day and he was squeezing in a morning ride and then riding out to Metairie for the meet. I was still a little bit on the fence about whether to do the training race or the Giro, but the decision became much easier when I saw people along Lakeshore Drive setting up for the annual Greek Festival run. That meant that the police were going to shut down Lakeshore Drive at some point, so since there was a reasonable turnout for the Giro, I decided to go with that instead. It turned out to have been a good decision because the race only got in two laps, plus they had a small crash coming into the Elysian Fields traffic circle that brought down Devin and one or two others. The Giro itself was pretty typical, with the speed being largely maintained by Norman. One thing I have noticed about the recent Giro Rides, where the group size has been down in the 6-12 rider range rather than the 25-40 rider range we had before the bridge closure, is that the smaller group guarantees that you will be doing more work overall, even at the slightly slower speeds. Afterward, I rode out to the lakefront bike path with Norman so he wouldn't get too lost finding his way to St. Martin's.

Monday's Hopedale Group

On Sunday, I did yet another Giro, this time with a much smaller group. I think we had about six or seven, and although there was just a minimal tailwind here and there on the way out, by the time we were halfway back the wind speed had doubled and, of course, it was a headwind. I got back home feeling completely exhausted and moderately dehydrated. The next day should have been a recovery day, but...

Under the Hopedale store - it's raised about 20 feet to limit the flood damage

Monday was Memorial Day, so there was a planned ride out to Hopedale that morning, starting at 7 from Stallings rec. center on St. Claude, which is around six or seven miles from home. We had, I think, six riders for that one. It's not exactly my favorite route, since it is mostly on a thin strip of dry land between marshes and bayous with no shade and no wind protection. On the plus side, there's a long stretch on the newly paved 40 Arpent Canal bike path, and beyond that practically no traffic at all. The pace this time was mostly moderate smooth paceline, with a long stop at the store at the end of the road. I knew from the start that I needed recovery more than miles that day, but, you know, whatever. Needless to say, it felt like a long day in the saddle, especially once the temperature got up into the 90s. As I rode back home afterward I was rationing the last precious drops of liquid in my two water bottles, finally sucking them dry a mile or so from home. I drank half a quart of orange juice, and had something to eat while I watched the last few kilometers of the Giro d' Italia, before peeling off the soaking wet lycra, again, and jumping into the shower.

So this morning being Tuesday, I headed out for the regular 40-mile lakefront ride harboring some serious doubts about whether I really wanted to be there. My legs still felt a little stiff from the three-day weekend, and I knew what I needed was an easy recovery ride. Then Matt showed up. On his time trial bike. There were only four or five of us, and I ended  up glued to Matt's wheel all the way out Lakeshore Drive until I finally let him go. At that point the rest of us settled down to a long 19-20 mph slog into a significant headwind all the way out to the casino where some asshole on a mountain bike came riding, intentionally, straight at me on the wrong side of the bike path. We really should have stopped and murdered him when we saw him stopped on the side of the road on our way back. Anyway, Matt waited for us at the Casino, so once again I found myself clinging to his scant draft at 25-29 mph all the way back to Causeway, after which I sat up. By then it was just Charles and me for the commute back. On the plus side, Canal Blvd. is fully open again, so we didn't have to negotiate the traffic and all on Harrison between there and Marconi. I guess the school is closed now, though, so it might not have been as bad today as it has been.

Crashes and Complications

Wednesday's WeMoRi was relatively sane, a key indicator of which is always me actually sprinting at the end. I'd put a TPU inner tube in my front tire after flatting on Tuesday, mostly as an experiment, but also because that tire has a couple of slashes in it, one of which I fixed with a sewn-in boot. I figured the TPU tube might handle all of that a little better than the latex tube I'd just patched. We'll see. At any rate, I'm pretty sure that the 30 grams or so I saved hasn't made me any faster.

Downriver end of the levee closure

I went out Thursday morning to meet the 6 am group at NOMA. The weather seemed particularly nice, and the ride was, as it typical, mostly just steady paceline. Then on Friday we had a pretty good sized group on hand for Friendly Friday. I knew I probably wouldn't be able to ride on Saturday because I was scheduled to help with Tulane's Commencement ceremonies at the football stadium, starting at 3:30 and running until a bit after 8:30. With the Saturday morning forecast promising steady heavy rain, squeezing in a ride just wasn't going to be in the cards. Friday evening the weather was still pretty nice, though, so I took the opportunity to hop on the 'cross bike for a few miles on the levee. I also wanted to see how the work was going where they closed the bike path about a month ago. The storms that had come through the night before had knocked down the temporary fence they'd put up there, but there was absolutely no sign that any actual work had begun, at least at that end of the 2-mile segment. I've noticed that a fair number of riders have been making the detour around the work area via River Road. I haven't tried that yet, but I could see doing it on a weekend day when traffic is presumably a little lighter.

Saturday morning, as predicted, was a complete wash-out. I might have been able to squeeze in an hour or so on the bike before reporting for commencement duty, but it just didn't seem worth it. So at 3:30 I walked over to the stadium where they had a big spread of food laid out for the volunteers, not that I was particularly hungry at 3:30 pm on a day when I'd been mostly sitting around. I headed down to Gate B for 4:15, and was quickly re-assigned to Gate C, which turned out to be nice because there was a nice breeze blowing through the Reily Center breezeway there. I spent about two and a half hours there with a few other volunteers, handing out programs and telling people where the bathrooms were, or where to sit without being in the sun. We eventually ran out of programs shortly before the ceremonies began, at which point I went back to the volunteer room and had something to eat and drink before going back out to the Gate B guest services table. When the ceremonies were about to wrap up I went over to Gate A where all of the ADA people would be exiting through the Athletics building to help direct people. That got to be a bit of a chore because everyone was trying to leave at exactly the same time, so people were sneaking through the ADA exit. I finally walked back home around 8:45, happy that it was over and that there hadn't been any protests or demonstrations, unless you count the airplane that flew overhead for a while towing an Israeli flag.

Sunday morning warmup

So with relatively fresh legs I headed out Sunday morning with the idea of doing what I'd done before - starting out with the Giro group, but looping around on Lakeshore Drive to meet the training race group coming up from NOMA. The first lap of the race got quite fast, and most of the group was chasing a small break until the gap finally closed as we went around the traffic circle at Bayou St. John. Then, coming out of the traffic circle things bunched  up and somebody zigged when somebody else zagged that three riders went down near the middle of the group. Fortunately, I was a few riders behind that and was easily able to skirt the pile-up on the right before turning back to make sure everyone was OK. No broken bones or bikes this time, as far as I know. The front few riders had continued on, so the rest of the group rode relatively easy before turning around out past Franklin to regroup. The rest of the race was a little slower. I guess the crash kind of took the psychological wind out of the psychological sails. Afterward, as I was just following wheels expecting the group to ride out along the lake trail to Kenner, I was surprised that they looped around on Canal Blvd. and did another fairly conversational lap of Lakeshore Drive. Just as well - I still got in the usual 60 miles for the day, including a bit of badly needed intensity.

Mellow Monday - Regrouping on Canal

Mellow Monday had a big group which, as it often does, resulted in a somewhat less mellow pace. This morning, Tuesday, everyone headed home after the lap of Lakeshore Drive except Matt and me. I had a 9 am meeting, so I turned back a little early, at the last outfall canal before the Casino. Fortunately I soon met up with Howard and a few others for the ride back into the wind to Bucktown before commuting back home.

Meanwhile, we finally heard back from the Stoney Point church about using the property to stage the Tour de La road race on June 29, and the news was bad. Somehow that date wasn't available either. So now we are waiting to see if we get a response from the other little church on the route, the one on Sunlight road. It's not the best place for a finish, and we'd have to come up with a new TT route, but at least we wouldn't have to re-do maps, distances, start times, etc. If that doesn't work out in the next day or two, I may opt to switch everything to the Tulane course, assuming we can get the OK from yet another church, this time the Oak Grove baptist church on Lee Road. So many complications this year.

Unexpected Developments

The rides last Thursday and Friday were predictable and routine. Of course, I should have known that some sorts of unexpected developments would soon materialize, if for no other reason than to maintain the cosmic balance and re-center the pendulum. Friday's Friendly Friday ride had a nice turnout and collegial atmosphere, just as it should have. I had recently updated the Tour de LA website and set up the BikeReg registration site, and was just holding off on making announcements and such because we still had not received the official OK from the church where we have staged the road race for the past couple of decades. It always takes weeks to get in touch with the church, and then even more time to get a reply, so this wasn't all that unusual, even though things were running a bit behind this year. I knew it was unlikely there would be a problem, but just to be on the safe side I set online registration to open the following Monday. Well, that evening we found out that the church had another event scheduled for that Saturday and we would not be able to use the venue. This was a huge problem because there is only one other possible staging site on the loop, which is a smaller church with limited parking, that is on the narrowest and bumpiest road on the entire course. Also, the time trial that was to follow the road race would have to be re-routed, and needless to say, we had never contacted the other church and had no idea if it would even be available. There is another course that we have used before for the Tulane race that would work pretty well, but with the race scheduled in barely more than two weeks it would be a real fire drill to make that happen. So it looks like we will have to re-schedule for the last weekend in June, which of course means re-doing all of the other arrangements - the criterium course, website, registration site, USAC permit, calendar postings, etc., etc. At the moment we are waiting to see if the original church will even be available on the 29th. If not, then Plan B goes out the window and we move on to Plan C. So basically, SNAFU. In the meantime, the Tour of Hernando, way up on the northern edge of Mississippi, will host the LAMBRA criterium championship. That will all be the week prior to the, hopefully, rescheduled Tour de La.

Friday

So with all those complications in mind, I headed out Saturday morning to meet the Giro group at Starbucks, and then split off and meet the training race group for a little intensity, followed by some Z2 out to The Wall and back. It was a plan. Well, in yet another unexpected development, when we got to Franklin Avenue we found that they had Lakeshore Drive closed for some festival involving beer and fried chicken, which doesn't really narrow it down at all in New Orleans. That meant that the normal training race route would not be possible. So having no idea if the race would or would not happen, or what route it might use even if it did, I decided to stick with the Giro group. That turned out to be a good ride, although of course somewhat lacking the sharp bits of intensity I'd been seeking.

It had been my plan all along to do the Sunday Giro, so I expected that to be basically a repeat of Saturday, and that's exactly how it all started. As I was having my pre-ride coffee at Starbucks an unfamiliar rider showed up and introduced himself. Josh was from the northshore, and I could not figure out if I'd ever ridden with him before or not. He had a nice new Trek with him. Soon the other riders started filtering in, and we headed out with 12 or 14 riders, I guess. As Giro rides have been lately, the pace was relatively moderate compared to the normal pre-bridge-closure Giro rides, which led to a handful of riders taking long steady pulls at the front, no doubt in an effort to substitute duration for intensity.

On the way back a few people went for the Goodyear Sign sprint, but then a couple of them kept the pressure on as they headed for the turn onto I-510. I found myself in-between, so I put my head down and started closing the gap. Behind me, the rest of the group also realized what was going on and they started to re-group to catch up. There was about to be another unexpected development. 

I was just about to turn onto the on-ramp when I heard the unmistakable sound of carbon and aluminum sliding across asphalt somewhere behind. Matt and Chris, who had been ahead of me didn't hear it and kept going. I hit the brakes and turned back to see three riders on the ground - VJ, Josh, and Jason. Fortunately the cars behind them had all come to a stop, because Jason was sitting in the middle of the left lane and the rest were in the right. I think Josh unexpectedly hit a small heat buckle in the asphalt and lost it, with VJ and Jason right behind. We collected the bikes and bodies and moved to the shoulder to assess the damage, and indeed there was damage. Fortunately, no bones were broken (update - VJ later found he had broken a rib), but the same could not be said about the bikes. Jason escaped with some minor road rash and a twisted brake lever, but Josh's practically brand new bike looked like someone had taken a belt sander to the entire right fork blade, and broken the carbon handlebar to boot. He was pretty scraped up, but otherwise OK. My post-crash analysis leads me to believe that VJ probably body-surfed on top of him and his bike as they went down. Although VJ's injuries were amazingly minor for someone who had landed on the road at 28 mph, it was clear that his bike had taken the brunt of the crash. Both fork blades were broken up near the crown, and the crank spider and chainring were bent and smashed up against the downtube. The front wheel also had at least one broken spoke.

So we were going to need to transport two people and their bikes. Josh called someone in town to come out and pick him up. VJ got in touch with Matt, who was still riding back with Chris, so Matt was going to ride back to his house and then come back to pick him up. The rest of the group eventually continued on, it being Mothers' Day and all, which by the way reminded us of another crash in the same place, also on Mothers' Day a couple of years ago. Anyway, I decided to hang around until Josh and VJ were picked up before cruising back  home solo. We were pretty lucky that the injuries were fairly minor, I think.

Tuesday along the lake

Monday night and into Tuesday morning some big thunderstorms came through with lots of rain and wind, but as expected, most of it had moved off to the east well before my usual 5:45 am ride time. I headed out to NOMA on damp streets and through the occasional puddle wondering if anyone was going to show up for the Tuesday ride. Not unexpectedly, only Charles did, so we rode a lap of a fairly deserted Lakeshore Drive, at which time Charles had to head back home for carpool duty, and I continued on to the lake trail. Fortunately, the bike path was essentially dry thanks to the fact that it hadn't really rained in well over a week. If the levee had not been so dry, there would definitely have been a lot of water still running off across the bike path. As usual, I was not very motivated riding alone, but at least I got the miles in, arriving back home a good ten minutes later than usual thanks to the combination of my own slower pace and the fact that, being alone, I was stopping at all of the red lights on the commute back through town.

Quick Getaways

Friendly Friday

The past week has felt decidedly like summer. Granted, the pre-dawn temperatures haven't yet risen into the mid-80s, but they've been consistently in the mid to upper 70s. Naturally, that has been accompanied by essentially saturated relative humidity. While some riders consider such conditions to be somewhat oppressive, I have to admit that I really don't. For some reason I just seem to function a little better when I'm nice and warm, or hot, as the case may be. The other reason I like this time of year, though, isn't so obvious. The warm morning temperatures mean I don't have to fuss with all sorts of wardrobe decisions in the morning. I can grab whatever summer kit happens to be on top of the pile, throw it on, and therefore make a much quicker getaway. In colder weather I often find myself running late for the early morning rides. Right now, though, I find myself showing up unexpectedly early. Of course, you have to take "early" in its weekday morning ride context, which is to say, "more than 60 seconds before rollout time."

Last Wednesday's WeMoRi was one of those where a 2-man break was already well off the front when I met up with it. I have learned to jump onto those when that happens, rather than wait for the rest of the group, because sometimes the rest of the group is in tatters from crosswinds or something. Jumping onto the tail end of a 2-man break is not as easy as it might sound, since for me it usually means going from 18 mph to 27 mph in a time span of about two seconds, which of course results in four or five minutes of being on the verge of blowing up. Fortunately, this day Eddie and Rob were trading pulls smoothly, and by now they know not to expect me to be disturbing that rotation as I smoothly make my transitions from one wheel to the next as they drop back and slot in ahead of me. I could probably teach an advanced class on tailgunning. Anyway, as we approached the turn from City Park Avenue onto Marconi, Rob peeled off for home as he often does, leaving just Eddie and me. Looking back, I could see that the rest of the group was still a long ways off. Eddie probably considered dropping back for a minute, but if he did, he didn't slow down very much. The ultimate result was that I spent the rest of the ride on his wheel. It was practically like motorpacing, and I guess the rest of the group had already given up the chase. It was a totally sufficient workout for me, despite having never taken a pull.

Thursday's ride was pretty normal. Out on the Lake Trail we picked up Kerry, which was nice because there was a pretty good east wind in our faces on the way back and we needed all the help we could get. For the record, we changed the return route to take Fleur de Lis down to Harrison, which eliminates a fair amount of traffic complication. It would be even better if we could turn onto Canal from Harrison, but they are doing road work on that section and it's pretty much of a traffic nightmare, especially since we get there when people are dropping kids off at the nearby schools. Also, for the record, the cats are still hanging out at the rocks on the lakefront just past Bonnabel like they were back around 2015 when we were doing the same route for the same reason.

Time Trial riders awaiting results and awards.

Friday's Friendly Friday ride had a good turnout, the result of which was a faster than normal pace. By then I was already feeling preoccupied with the upcoming Time Trial that we were putting on that Sunday. Later that afternoon I drove out to the LaPlace TT course with Candy and the dog to freshen up the turnaround paint and make sure there weren't any major road surface surprises. My plan was to mark the 5, 10, and 20 km turnarounds and then continue over the Highway 51 bridge for lunch at Middendorf's. The old bridge, however, was closed for repairs. We ultimately decided to go back to Ruddock and then take I-55 to the restaurant, which worked out OK. I knew they had a whole outdoor seating area that could accommodate people with dogs, but when we got there we found that they had it closed. Fortunately, they also have a nice air-conditioned "porch" area where Charley was welcome. I had some nice catfish. Charley had a lot of hand-fed french fries, which is how we keep him occupied when we eat out like that. On Saturday I went out to Starbucks, leaving with the small Giro group at 7, and then turning back on Lakeshore Drive to meet up with the training race group for 4 laps of the traditional course. That was a pretty good workout even though a small group got off the front. Also, there was a surprise appearance of Kenny B who I assume is getting back in shape for another cycling trip to the continent.

Sunday, I was up at 5 am and on the road around 5:30 to head out to LaPlace to set up for the TT. This is probably around the 15th year we have done the time trial on that course, and in that time about half of the road has been nicely re-paved while the other half has deteriorated. It's not that there are potholes or big cracks or anything, it's just that it's lost its smoothness and so just feels slower than it was when the asphalt was new. I'd brought the big PA system as usual so we could have some music, but ran into a couple of problems. First, we discovered that the fuse had blown. I did a quick non-OSHA approved fix involving a bent paper clip and got it working again, though. Then I tried an adapter I had to go from the USB-C plug on my newer laptop to an audio patch cable to the PA system, which did not work. After I got home I discovered that although the laptop has only USB-C plugs, it also has a regular earphone jack that would have worked perfectly if I'd known it existed! This year was about the lowest turnout we've ever had, with just under 40 registered. I had posted the race numerous times to the LAMBRA and NOBC facebook pages, had emailed to the NOBC Google Group, and had even emailed to all of the 2023 USAC license holders in LAMBRA, and naturally the event had been on the LAMBRA and NOBC calendars for a couple of months. Go figure. Anyway, things went quite smoothly, and there was only one error in the initial results due to me mis-reading a hand-written digit from the finish sheet that gave someone a time about four minutes slower than reality, which of course he immediately noticed. Barrett L, who is now 81 or 82, was there on his old Mercian, and we had three young Juniors on hand as well. Fastest time of the day was a 51:43 by Ben Hall. There was a significant headwind on the way back, so that was an impressive time.  

After we broke everything down and stuffed it all into the Volvo, we decided to go over to the Waffle House since we'd finished up a little too early for the restaurant we usually use. I was pretty hungry by then, so it was fine. With Eddie's sponsorship we came out about $300 ahead for the event, so we didn't actually lose money despite the low turnout. Most of the cost is for the police ($600) and insurance.

This morning I rode the usual WeMoRi, or at least that part of it that I normally ride. Rob and JP came past with a gap, so I slipped in behind them, but the group, what was left of it, closed it down eventually. After the Backdraft sprint a few riders split off the front and for some reason nobody left in the group seemed interested in chasing. Eventually, I think it all came pretty much back together, though. When the early sprint sagged as a couple of riders opened a gap about 400 meters from the finish, Eddie came flying past on the left, which I had been fully expecting, but at the time I was on the wrong side of the paceline, so I just followed wheels. It was a good workout anyway. 

Forked

The weekend seemed a little longer than usual this time. After a nice Friendly Friday ride on the lakefront, I wrapped up work early so I could head up to Hattiesburg for the Farm to Fork criterium that evening and ride the following day. I was holding out just a little bit of hope that I might be able to jump into the masters criterium, the second of three races that started at 6:30 pm. 

Packet pickup was the entire second floor of a local bank building, and with a criterium, ride, and foot races on tap there was lots of activity. The day before I'd received a copy of the pre-registration list, and knew that things were going to be a little more complicated than usual. The list was basically just a list of names indicating which race the riders were registered for. I immediately noticed a couple of problems. There were no USAC license numbers, gender wasn't indicated (there were prizes for both men and women), and I could see that there were people registered for the Master 35+ race who I knew were not old enough. In fact, one was 16. I'd emailed the promoter about it and so at packet pickup they were writing in license numbers on a printout of the registered riders (scratching through the bib numbers of those who showed up!). As I was leaving, I heard them tell someone that numbers should go on the right. I headed over to the start finish, arriving at exactly the same time as Ricky and Cole, the other officials. The race crew had already set up a low stage for the officials -- on the left side of the course -- along with one of those big generator powered lighting units. As I was getting the computer and printer set up for results, I noticed riders starting to warm up on the course, and of course they had their numbers on the wrong side. I stood out in the road for a while yelling, "numbers go on the left," which should have been obvious to experienced racers since that's where the officials were. Meanwhile one of the event staff was trying to contact the riders who had registered in the wrong race(s). Neither of us was particularly successful. We should have held up the start and made everyone re-pin their numbers where we could see them, but inexplicably we didn't. The first race went off fairly smoothly except, of course, for the unidentifiable riders, which made it particularly difficult to keep track of the multiple lapped riders. 

Friendly Friday

By the time the second race started it was getting dark. This race was an open-category masters race combined with elite women. As a result of the registration system not enforcing age or category restrictions, there were a couple of under-35 men, and a Cat. 5 women. This wasn't the world championships or anything so we didn't worry about it, although it could have become an issue when it was time to hand out the 3-deep prizes. 

Finish of the B race. One readable number, one semi-readable number, three unreadable numbers.

I spent this entire race at the laptop trying to straighten out the start lists and plug in license numbers that I was trying to read from an image sent as an email attachment on my tablet. By the time I had all of that straightened out, the second race had already started, so I started scoring the laps along with Cole and Ricky. We had two finish cameras set up that were working OK under the circumstances (darkness and lighting flicker rate issues typical of night races), but the big problem was the number of riders whose bib numbers we, and the cameras, could not see. This race had a wide range of skill levels, so despite the course being a bit over one kilometer, riders were being lapped all over the place and things at the judging stand were getting very messy. By the end we were reasonably confident about the first five or six places, but it wasn't until Tuesday that the rest of the places were assigned, some a bit tentatively, and thanks in no small part to some crowdsourcing of placings. Fortunately, the Cat. 1/2/3 race had a small field and despite the fact that half of them had numbers we couldn't see, it wasn't too hard to get those results right. I hadn't eaten a thing since about 4:30 when I finally headed for my hotel room around 10:30, reluctantly stopping at McDonalds along the way.

Past and Future all in one photo.

Saturday there was a 60+ mile ride that I knew was going to get fast. In fact, the average speed was a hair over 24 mph. There was initially a pretty big front group, but after forty miles or so we started losing riders, ultimately ending up with around 20. Then, maybe ten miles before the end, the group split for reasons unknown, and of course I was on the wrong end of that split. I figured we'd just roll in as the second group, but the gap just hovered at around 45 seconds, I guess. After turning onto the Longleaf Trace, it looked like the front group eased up, at which point some of the second group started to chase in earnest, finally closing the gap just before the end. Anyway, it was fun, and kind of a hard ride, even though I had mostly kept my nose out of the wind.

So Sunday Lisa had planned this ride starting on St. Claude right before the bridge and heading out to the newly paved 40 arpent canal bike path, and then down to Hopedale. That meant 81 miles for me, and as if my somewhat sore legs weren't bad enough, there was a brutal 18-23 mph headwind all the way down there. I immediately knew I wouldn't be taking any pulls, and wouldn't be contesting the two planned KOM segments either. The first planned fast segment was about 5 miles straight into the wind, so I didn't even try to stay with the group. When I came up to Steve, he got onto my wheel and I took a long pull and a nice moderate speed, only to pull off and discover he was MIA. I later learned that right after he'd gotten onto my wheel, all the stuff fell out of his saddle bag, so he stopped for a long while to collect it all. That was the last we saw of him. As it turned out, he had continued on but turned around at the bridge crossing before Hopedale. Then, on the way back, it looks like we passed him when he stopped at a gas station or something. Anyway, at the next intersection the group waited for me and then Dave, who said he thought Steve must had turned around (he hadn't), so we continued on. There were about a dozen riders, so although staying in the draft into that gusty headwind was no walk in the park, it was at least manageable even in my suboptimal state, and we made it to the end of the road where we stopped at a store that was a converted cargo container set about 20 feet above the ground, or water, which were basically the same. 

Tuesday morning Dawn Patrol ride. 

With the way the road curved, I knew that there would be a strong crosswind for the first few miles back before we'd feel the tailwind. Unfortunately, the way back started with a 10-mile KOM segment. I knew that starting at the back there would be zero draft, so Devin and I were never really with the group once it started. Eventually we saw riders getting dropped from the group ahead, first Mike, then Charles and someone else, and we got pretty close at the bridge crossing, but we didn't catch them before the next re-grouping. After that, I thought the pace would settle down a bit, but when we hit the highway with that 20+ mph tailwind, things quickly got out of hand. I dropped off when I saw the computer registering 36 mph, and again found myself with Devin and Mike and Charles. After that it was just the bike path and a commute back. Actually, I enjoyed the ride, and felt like it was a good time of year for a couple of back to back hard rides. It wasn't until a few days later that I learned that Dave, who had been on the ride, had suffered a heart attack a day or two afterward while at the gym. He was apparently scheduled for heart bypass surgery the following week.

So I Went to a Meeting

It all started back in 2014 when the local bicycle advocacy organization pushed a plan that would turn Lakeshore Drive into a 2-way bike path plus a 2-way narrow-lane roadway. For fitness and competitive cyclists, who have called Lakeshore Drive home for over fifty years because it has been the only unobstructed five miles of road in the city on which to train, it looked like a major disaster. We rallied the troops and, thanks mainly to a lack of funding I think, things settled down. Then, in 2021, two things happened without any input from us that made parts of Lakeshore Drive more dangerous and less useful for us, while also revealing a shocking lack of understanding about how cyclists like us ride. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East (SLFPAE), which really should not have any authority at all over Lakeshore Drive, but does by claiming they need it for flood control transportation, together with, I have to assume, the Regional Planning Commission, put up a big sign showing how they were going to re-make Lakeshore Drive from Canal Blvd. around to Lake Marina Drive. That was the first we heard of it, and by then the contracts has been signed and the work was ready to start in about two weeks. Fait Accompli. I contacted them about it and was told that it was all about pedestrian safety around the restaurants and the curve because of speeding cars. About the same time, the City, which strangely has control of the Elysian Fields traffic circle because it is on the city side of the levee, with some participation from SLFPAE, installed the crazy bike path that hugs the gutter there, reducing the 2 lanes down to one, and putting in a million random flex posts and road striping pretty much where the bike lane should have been if you were intent on putting one there in the first place. That bike lane puts whatever naïve cyclists who use it in a situation where traffic turning out of the circle have to cross the bike lane. It was better, and safer, when cyclists continuing through on Lakeshore Drive could just take the right lane to prevent cars exiting the circle from cutting across their paths. 

So since then we have eliminated any actual training west of Canal, and now have to merge into the left lane at the traffic circle while avoiding the flex posts, aka "death spikes," because there is no way a group of 25 riders going 27 mph could possibly survive the debris-laden bike lane, not to mention the survival of any casual riders or young children who might have been lured into it. Since then, I'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop, since the West End work was called "Phase 1."

Fast-forward to April 17, just 7 days ago, when I was scanning posts on "formally Twitter" that I loosely monitor for work. There, I found a post by City Councilman J.P. Morrell, that consisted of a screenshot of a Public Meeting notice regarding "Phase 2." Fearing the worst, I contacted the SLFPAE to see what the plan was, but was politely told they didn't have anything to share with me until the meeting. So fearing the worst even more, I posted it to the NOBC FB group and elsewhere. Bike Easy didn't know about it (for the record, nobody there now was around back in 2014), the NOBC didn't know about it, pretty much nobody I knew knew about it. It had apparently been announced in the newspaper (remember those?) and their social media page.  Why would anyone expect something about bike lanes on Lakeshore Drive to be on that Facebook page? Anyway, the meeting was yesterday evening at 6:00 pm, at Lakefront Airport. It took me 45 minutes to get there, since it was basically rush hour, and the Seabrook bridge has been closed for over a month, and various other roads I tried were also torn up for road work. Although clearly they didn't want actual input into their plans from actual cyclists, either through ignorance or design, I felt obligated to attend to at least explain what was going to happen when it came to things like group rides, or just individual riders going more than 10 mph. A few of the other people who I often ride with were also there.

The motivation for all of this proposed work appears to be entirely focused on reducing the speed of cars on Lakeshore Drive. The bike lane seems like more of an afterthought to justify eliminating two of the existing traffic lanes. This will, of course, be nice for casual cyclists looking at the scenery, enjoying the 20 mph winds, and navigating around the inevitable runners, baby carriages, dog-walkers, young children, and others who will be attracted to the bike lane, at least the 1.2 miles of it that will result from Phase 2. Riders like us, however, are being basically, perhaps even literally, thrown under the bus in the name of vehicle and pedestrian safety. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, at least for now. 

The main focus of Phase 2 is a continuation of the 2-way bike lane and narrow traffic lanes from Canal, where it currently ends, east to the Orleans Canal, which is essentially Marconi. That is a distance of about 2,000 feet. Past that to the east, it will be back to the normal two lanes in each direction, until you get to Elysian Fields where you hit the existing clusterfrack of ill-advised debris-ridden bike lanes in the gutter and flex post obstacle course where we are forced to merge into the left lane while simultaneously negotiating the traffic circle. 

The other part of Phase 2 involves some as-yet undetermined road striping or flex posts or something between Elysian Fields and Franklin that may have us remaining in the left lane, depending on what they actually do. So from the entrance to the traffic circle where the two lanes go down to one, that's a distance of just under a mile (like 4,000 feet). Part of the goal there is to do something about the lack of visibility for cars coming down the levee from Franklin and turning onto Lakeshore Drive. That might result in some kind of push-out at the intersection. Frankly, the problem there is not so much a lack of visibility. As we all know, it is a problem of not stopping at the stop sign. Beyond that, there is no plan from there to the Armory loop. So all of this will, obviously, make it a little more dangerous for us, and given the piecemeal sections of bike lanes I seriously doubt the number of cyclists using Lakeshore Drive will increase very much. We will be switching from right lane to left lane multiple times over the remaining 8-mile out-and-back. As we all know, the way that some of the bike lanes are laid out in this city defies logic, unless you assume that the designers don't actually ride bikes, in which case it makes perfect sense.

North end of Norman Francis.

So at the meeting I took the opportunity to, as diplomatically as I possibly could, explain to Stacy, the Public Information Officer, Ryan the Engineering Manager, and the two East Bank Levee police officers in attendance why it was unsafe for us, and others, to be riding in the bike lane at 20-30 mph, usually with a group, and that we would therefore be forced to ride in the remaining roadway lane, and that we would undoubtedly be blocking traffic when we do so. I also  took the opportunity to point out that putting in what is a crosswalk as the way for cyclists to cross over from the right lane of the roadway into the 2-way bike lane that basically heads into oncoming traffic was kind of stupid and that no actual cyclist was ever going to do it that way. Apparently they don't think we are capable of moving from the right lane into the left lane to make a left turn like we do everywhere else. This is typical of some of the other stuff coming out of the NORPC, like what they just did where Norman Francis meets Moss, and where Fontainebleau meets Broad, and the unbelievable thing they did on the northbound side of the Broad Street Overpass, not to mention the flex posts that are in the way at the overpass exit onto Poydras, or the corner of Toussaint and Wisner. 

Surprisingly, all of this did not seem to be a cause for concern to the administrators in attendance, I guess for a few reasons. For one, the speed limit in the areas with bike lanes will be lowered to 25 mph. For another, our presence in the traffic lane will turn us into de facto human traffic calming devices. Granted, it will no doubt incur the wrath of motorists stuck behind us who may or may not, intentionally or otherwise, murder us, to which the authorities will then be able to say, "well, we did provide them with a nice little bike lane, so it's their fault." We, as a group, also suggested lowering the speed limit for all of Lakeshore Drive rather than having it go back and forth from 35 to 25 mph, although I should point out that it would mean that we ourselves might sometimes be speeding. 

How this will all play out remains to be seen. I did not hear or see anything about a timeline, but as we know from prior experience at West End, this kind of stuff can be done pretty quickly and I expect that those wheels are already turning.

There were, of course, some motorists in attendance (I'd say there were probably about 25 people on hand for this meeting) who were leery about the single-lane sections and speed limit and various other motorist problems unrelated to the subject of the meeting. Interestingly, there were people there from Blue Crab restaurant who were not too happy about some of the apparently ad hoc road closures the police occasionally set up around West End when things get really busy there. There were also a couple of people from Bike Easy, the Ghost Bike guy, and one or two casual cyclists.

So to summarize:

• There will probably be another 3,000 feet or so of single-lane roadway from West End, increasing the total length to around 1.2 miles.
• There will be a 25 mph speed limit, at least in the sections where there is a bike lane.
• The police are expecting to receive in-car radar to help with the speeding problem.
• The purpose of all of this appears to be to reduce vehicle speeds since apparently they can't otherwise enforce the speed limit and are tired of picking up the pieces and sending people to the hospital and getting sued.
• The competitive and fitness cyclists like us are basically collateral damage.
• I don't actually think this will cause us too much of a problem for our early-morning rides.
• We should be worried about where this is going in the future.