Requiem For A Road

I stole this picture from the internet

Oh, Dirty Mac. You have been such a faithful servant lo these many years. How many days, divided neatly into 10 and 20 minute segments, have I spent in your loving embrace? How many snot rockets have I paid you for your fealty? The bond between us has been strong, but now it has broken.

This damned traffic light SUCKS!!!! The stop sign that preceded it wasn't ideal, but it worked. At worst it was a few seconds of stop time, but usually sort of a Hollywood stop and back on your way, sir. The timing is so heavily weighted to traffic coming off the Clara Barton that you can easily wait two minutes to get through. Before, many drivers would give somewhat inappropriate right of way to cyclists (others would try to kill them, often through regrettable but comprehensible lack of awareness - I HATE THAT BIKE LANE). Now, the drivers coming off of Clara Barton sardine themselves into the backup for the Brickyard stop sign that there is a permanent state of near gridlock, with the corresponding frustrations and utter loss of civility.

I suppose the 20 minute interval can still be done between Seven Locks and the light. It's not that big a deal in the scheme, but it's backwards progress for all. The stop sign worked. The backups at the Brickyard stop are double what they ever were, and the Clara Barton traffic doesn't clear the light, which leaves westbound MacArthur drivers screwed. A bad setup.

Since the board of fare for last night included doing an hour steady as she goes at tempo, and I was clearly going to get hit by a car or die of frustration if I did it at MacArthur (I swam as a kid - it's easy for me to think of going up and down MacArthur as doing laps - I actually used to enjoy it), I crossed myself, said a short prayer and headed to Hains. To get there, I went road bike on tow path. This is an interesting thing to do. I broke all sorts of dipshit-o-meter records last night, riding carbon clinchers on the tow path. It's all in the name of SCIENCE! (seriously, it is - I can not possibly not ride them in any situation) but that doesn't make me feel any less self conscious.

The Point was actually lovely.

Fair Hill on Sunday. I honestly have no idea how that will go, this year with the move to Cat 1 it's just ride as hard as possible and how I do is how I do. That course is fast. It's not a dirt crit, but it's fast. We'll see. This is the first weekend in a few with just one race. Next week same deal.