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The Tour de Louisiane (Covington, La.) starts out with a 3 mile tt. It is basically a flat one way tt. Last year I rode a horrible 7:58 due to bad legs and a bad warm-up. That is only about 22 mph!

This year I have been blowing the doors off the previous year’s tt times. Today was no different. I started off fast and held on for a self timed 6:45. Last year 6:13 was the fastest time. The defending champion had race number 1, I was first at number pickup so I drew no. 2. That meant I had a good rabbit to chase 30 seconds up the road. I didn’t catch him…..

This afternoon I have an 80 mile road race. Yikes. Hope to find a way to gain time, but finishing with the pack might be hard enough!

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afternoon update

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Well, I made it. Even better than that I tried to get away several times, but in the end it was a pack finish for me. The winner of the stage got away from the lead group during one of the driving rain storms that made this long race bearable. At the start it was about 90 and sunny.

The cooling rains came in three big stretches as we made the 5 laps. Every time we did, the visibility would drop to feet as the rain hammered down. And they would absolutely drill it at 30 mph into that. When the field was split it was easy to tell which teams were represented in the lead pack. Once we reintegrated it was clear that La’sport was up the road but the rest was unclear. We would work together pretty well for a while and then the speed would drop (despite this the average for 80 miles was 24.9 mph, so it wasn’t that slow…). This got worse and worse as the laps counted off.

No one was talking about the break. It turned out to be just one guy that put about 1 minute on everyone. By the time we were counting down the final miles, I was pretty spent, but managed a mid pack finish. Same time as most.

My TT effort was good for 16th place out of 28. Most riders were in the range 6:40 to 6:50. Best time was 6:07 this year.

At this point I have a slight chance to improve my position in the Sunday crit to get in the money. I am pretty sure I am still in 16th. Payout is 15 deep.

Went to the Abita Springs brew house last night. Always been a fan. Good fresh beer! We also popped down to the city yesterday.

Andrea won her TT with a time of 6:52 (She smokes these short TT’s. She is always nipping at my heels. Don’t laugh, she will probably beat you next Saturday if you don’t bring your A game.) She expanded her lead with a win in the RR this afternoon.