Yesterday was scheduled to be the longest ride of the trip — 119 miles. In anticipation of heavy winds, our ride leader provided the option of doing an extra 40 miles on Wednesday afternoon. Many of the group took him up on that – they piled in the van and drove out the first 40 miles of Thursday’s ride, and then rode back. For once, there was a tail wind and they all got back to camp within less than 2 hours. Everyone was now pumped for the remaining 80 miles on Thursday. Having now completed the first 40, our leader took the whole crew out to the 40 mile mark to start our ride. But that tailwind from the day before? It was a headwind now, and it had other plans for us. Only 3 of the 12 riders completed all 80 (not that there was ever any chance of me doing it!). When the wind is blowing into you to the tune of 20 MPH, with even higher gusts, you are pedaling as fast as you can down hill and not going more than 7 miles an hour, feeling blown every which way, and trucks whizzing past at 75 MPH, it’s time to make a decision – and it’s an easy decision to make. Three of us got on the van at 10 miles, and, at each water stop thereafter, a few more got on, until there were 9 of us in the van by lunchtime. We cheered on those that were able to finish, but I don’t think anyone regretted their decision to call it a day.
The wind continued today, but it was significantly less, and, with a great cloud cover, it was a perfect day for riding. We are joking amongst ourselves however, that it doesn’t matter which direction we are headed, the wind is changing to meet us head on.
Tomorrow — more of the same!
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