The Weather Gods Smile

It was looking pretty bleak for the Sunday training ride. Saturday's Giro had been washed out completely, and I spent the rest of the day looking out window at grey skies and wet streets, eating Oreos and generally whatever else was in the pantry that didn't require cooking. The forecast for Sunday was calling for a 60% chance of rain.

I got up a little early this morning and checked the radar on the Weather Channel. Three times. It was, basically, inconclusive. Like those satellite photos from Iraq showing the weapons of mass destruction. No way to predict where it would be raining and where it wouldn't, but it was definitely not raining anywhere on our route by 6:30 a.m., so I topped up the tires and headed out the door. Kaboom! The rear tire exploded as I'm walking out the house, so I pulled the tire and tube off my racing wheel, put them on my training wheel and then had to rush out to the Morning Call to meet whatever group of optimists might be there.

As it turned out, we ended up with 11 riders at the start, with a few turning back early for various reasons. For the first half of the 67 mile route, the skies didn't look bad at all. We even got a little sunshine now and then, but around the mid-point the streets were good and wet, like it had just finished raining. After a brief stop at a store in Folsom, LA, we spend 15 miles or so on wet roads with some very light rain. It was enough to spray water and grit all over everything, but not quite enough to soak through your socks and make your feet wet. I had stashed a couple of light shoe-covers in my pocket at the start, but never stopped to put them on. For the last 10 miles or so we had nice mostly dry roads and warmer temperatures. The pace got a bit faster, too. It was probably close to 78F by the time we finished. Only two flats - not bad considering all the riding on wet roads today. All in all, it was a great ride. I'm glad I didn't let the threat of rain force me to cancel it.

This time, the weather gods smiled on us. Actually, they messed with us a little bit just for fun, but I think they were smiling while they were doing it!