words....

The new loop for the Tuesday/Thursday ride is pretty damn good. Two issues though.
People rushing the front when the pace slackens, only to be in the way when the pace picks back up. DON'T DO THAT SHIT!! 
It's dangerous for everyone, and it's limited to just TWO people doing it at this point. I can say, with a degree of certainty, that if this stupidity takes me down, expect two things.
1) A beating
2) Writing a check to replace my broken shit.

The Saturday plan was to leave "downtown" and go meet the Lexington crew for a Lake loop.  0500 wake ups suck, period. It's dark. No one looks outside, so when the time came to load up, and make the rounds to pick up Il Prof and TVH, the moisture falling from the sky was noticed.
A quick peak at the radar, and it was decided to bail, and go back to bed.
Up @ 0900...that was nice...and a quick call to TVH.  He was headed out to ride. I told him I'd meet him wherever, so he called Il Prof, and the mad scramble was on.
Roughly 15 minutes passed between phone call, and bailing out of the house.
The three of us met, and knocked down 45 miles with little drama, on what turned out to be a nice morning.
I returned to an empty house, ate a little bit, and went back to sleep.
Saturday was a good day...

Which brings us to today.
I don't know what was going on, but I think the Gods of Cycling wanted me to stay home, and told me so throughout the ride.
Rolled out of the driveway...rode a block...rear flat.
Ran home and changed it with a tube that I truly did question when I installed it, but it was all I had, so in the tire it went.
Already late. Made a call to tell the group as much...
Hauled ASS to the spot, only to get caught by a train.  F*CK! Made the turn to go around Train #1, only to get caught by Train #2.  Come on guys...
Finally met the group after Train #2 let me go by...
Made it out of town, and started the "ride" portion of the ride, only for the aforementioned suspect tube to let go.  Flat #2 of the morning.
Quick change, and gone. 
The next 2.5 hours were uneventful. Hell, we even missed one of the fastest Strava sections by FOUR seconds!  Dammit...
Rolled back into town, came to a red light and KAPOW! Complete blowout of Tube #2, and destruction of a Vittoria Open Corsa CX. Flat #3, and time to walk...
Fortunately, JMR big ringed it to his truck and came back to get me. Big thanks my friend!
SO let's count : 2 trains, 3 flats, one dead high $ tire, 55 miles, and overall, a damn good time.
Whatever bad cycling Karma I had following me should have been taken care of by that ride alone.
To be sure, I will say a little prayer to Coppi, Anqetil, Pantani, et al. before I hit the sheets.

Didn't watch the Tour at all this weekend.  Checked results, and went "Hmmmmm...."
Rest day #2 tomorrow, then into the Alps. It's gonna get interesting for the remaining podium spots...

10pm Sunday. Time to hit the rack...