Wind was screaming out of the west today consistently blowing between 15-25 mph. Apparently that wasn't enough, gusts of 30-35 mph were also necessary.
5 showed 3 finished. Charles needed to get home a little early. He had some lame excuse. Something about needing to catch a flight for Florida that departs at 4:30 today. He's going on a cruise.
Out of the 100 miles ridden 60 were either directly into the wind or we were echelon-ing.
It was just 3 of us at 30 miles. I came out of this scenario pretty good as I was the shortest out of the 3. I'm 6 feet tall, and these boys are strong.
It was really just about watching the wheel in front of you, and taking your turn up front. The wind turned rollers into mountains. We are good cyclists, but I'd look down at my computer and see 14 mph and even 10 mph. I started to wonder if the ride would ever end.
At 50 miles we stopped to refuel. Pretty much just cross wind left. We took up 3/4 of our side of the road in our echelon formation and were now able to manage 20-21 mph. The noise in our ears was mind numbing.
Finally we came up on County Road 122, our turn east. We'd done our time, the shackles were off. 28 mph was now conversation pace, when just before 14 mph had kept us silent. We were flyin', free...felt soooo good. We could hear again, hear that beautiful sound of the tires humming on the asphalt. I sneaked a look at our average speed. It was 18.9. I felt pretty good about that, and allowed myself the thought that 20 mph was doable by the end of this effort.
BK had a light jacket on. Into the wind the front of it was plastered against him and from his shoulders back, it was flappin' like crazy, making that irritating sound. Now going 25 mph it fell silent and virtually motionless.
Started feeling those last 20 miles, even though they were wind aided. The small inclines were inflicting quad pain, and there was definitely heavy breathing going on, but we dug deep and persevered. Nobody was giving up.
We were all smiles at the end, congratulating each other, and acknowledging the hard effort. The wind didn't beat us, we didn't give in. This will be a memorable ride for me. 102/20.2
4 comments:
I think I hurt just from reading your post today. Wow, 25-35 mph wind gusts? Unreal. Good effort....hope your ears don't ring tonight!!!!
Bravo on the full C in spite of all that wind. Way to nail it.
With .2mph to spare. Nice :)
I see someone else isn't crazy about the wind, I had a crosswind yesterday so it didn't affect me much, but seemed to hurt more than help, Congrats on the 100 miles, impressive.
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