Another windy ride…

I had a great plan to defeat the wind this time around. All I had to do was to ride north then west in the morning then by the time the wind picked up I would have smooth sailing with the wind at my back. So I planned on heading north on HWY 60 to HWY 16 and then west to however far beyond Stony Plain 50 km would be. This morning I found out the wind was already blowing from the south and east. The wind NEVER blows from that direction. Sheesh! Change of plan. No way I was going against that 35 KPH wind on the way home so I headed directly into it. I fought that wind for 50 km until I was about 10 km south of Leduc on HWY 2A. At the half way point I checked my average speed and it was 15.62 KPH. So much for trying to do the 100 km in under 4.5 hours! But man, tough as it was to do that 50 km into the 35 KPH wind, it was worth it for all the fun I had coming back with that same wind at my back this time. I easily kept it above 30 KPH almost all the way back home. On the flat, I could manage 42 KPH with that wind at a cadence of 74. I hit the Devon Bridge at about 31 KPH and downhill I maxed out at 65.7 KPH, but I had to touch the brake a few times. It still wasn’t enough, however. My final average speed was 19.21 KPH over a 100.34 km ride and a ride time of 5:14:56. Someday there will be no wind. Total distance this year = 690 km.

The toe clips helped a lot. I was able to find that extra power I needed to finish. The toe clips are a great investment of $10.00 and they aren’t even good ones.

You can see a short pointless video by clicking a link in the sidebar under “Videos”.