Warm, Cold and Windy

It was warm and humid when I went to sleep last night, but by morning it was cold and windy. The cold front that caused all the rain finally sauntered through. Well, almost. When I opened the door at 6:15 am I looked up at the cloudy sky and tree limbs blowing in the wind and turned right around to put on an extra layer. I was glad I did.

The Giro Ride group out at the lakefront was quite large today, especially considering the sub-par weather. Once we hit Hayne Blvd. the pace just got faster and faster. As usual, I was sucking wheels somewhere near the end of a very long string of riders wondering who was on the front. By the time we turned onto Paris Road and picked up a little tailwind it already felt like a race. The pace stayed in the 30-35 mph range until Jay flatted near the service road. A few of us stopped to assist while the rest of the group continuted the hammerfest, and by the time we were rolling again we'd picked up a few people who had come off the back earlier. Our little group got a nice paceline rolling down Chef Highway and pretty soon we could see the group coming the other way after the turnaround. The return trip was a little slower, so I made a few little efforts for the sprints and overpasses. Coming up to the Goodyear sign sprint I found myself on Tim's wheel with Brandon on mine. Tim motored us past everybody and when I backed off just before the sign Brandon passed me and they kind of rode off into the sunset for the next few miles while the rest of the group came back together. Finally near the end of the ride the sun came out. Nonetheless I arrived home with cold feet, probably because I'd stopped for a while to chat back at the parking lot.