Last January WTR

It seems like just yesterday that we started up the annual Winter Training Rides, and yet here we are already at the end of January. I was more than ready for a long ride in the country after having missed riding last weekend altogether, and so I was predictably up rather early this morning. We (well, actually "I") moved the southshore meeting place from Starbucks to Morning Call this week because I knew the parking lot at Lakeside Shopping Center would be both packed and inaccessible by the time we returned. Nonetheless, there were a few of us there under the green disk picking up basic sustenance for the trip across the causeway. Although the sky was still overcast and depressing, we had a group of sixteen at the start as we began our long plod into a relentless north wind. I had already made a last-minute saddle height adjustment in the parking lot, but luckily that seemed to do the trick and I was comfortable for the rest of the 70 mile ride.

The pace today started out pretty slow and didn't really get fast until around the halfway point when the group split and the front half started going hard on the way to Sie Jenkins Road near Plainview. Of course we all regrouped at that point, and one small group decided to take a slightly shorter route home. After a seemingly endless headwind, we finally got a little push from behind as we flew back along Lee Road. Things were going nicely until all of a sudden all hell broke loose in front of me. It turned out that one or two of the guys hit some sort of roadkill that consisted mostly of bones, putting a huge gash in one guy's tire while at the same time ejecting Ed's clip-on light. From my vantage point back in the paceline there was just this explosion as the tire blew, riders scattered, and pieces of plastic and bone were flying all over the place. We were lucky to be able to boot the slashed tire well enough to make the remaining 20 miles or so back to the cars.

So the Look Keo pedals felt fine, although my random setting of the release tension proved to be a bit too enthusiastic, which is to say I almost fell over before getting my feet unclipped. All-in-all I thought it was a great training ride, made even nicer when the sun finally came out for the final ten miles. I just can't explain how much more pleasant it is when the sun is out.