That pretty much sums up the conditions from last nights ride. Tracking the weather yesterday left me wondering whether or not we’d be able to ride at all, but it appeared that there would be some relief from the rain in the early afternoon. Since I was not able to ride all week because of several consecutive days of rain I NEEDED to ride. We left Alterra with a significant tailwind which raised the tempo to near epic levels with relative ease and for some reason Bob could not contain his water bottle, dropping it twice before abandoning the ride. Heading out to Mequon, Bruce offered Gwen some strategic paceline coaching, which seemed to work since she managed to hang with us until the halfway point before turning around for a solo ride home. As soon as we turned to the west our tempo was met with a wall of wind, which put an end to our momentum and it was a struggle just to spin the cranks. At the first stop light I was already feeling exhausted and shortly afterwards I was dropped. Fortunately for me the remaining group slowed the pace so that I could struggle to get back on. With only 4 people left from the original group Bruce suggested that they needed all the help they could get. I kind of hoped they would have just left me. We pushed through the wind until the route direction changed to straight south. There are a few hills that travel east that we were able to fly up with the tailwind which was actually very cool. Despite falling off the paceline twice, encountering nearly every variety of weather and having a small group, it was a good ride that I am still feeling today..must get more coffee!
Sounds brutal! See you at this week’s ride!