Beautiful day....

Fatty and Jackal....
Windy in Hudson....

I knew that I wanted to ride sometime today but wasn't sure when. The sun is shining and the temps are hovering right around 50 F. The wind is out of the NW at 35 mph. Sounds like a perfect day for a ride, eh?

I got up a little late this morning and went to check email. Fat Albert was already up after a hard night of partying and was asking if I'm watching the Giro. I pull it up on my 'puter and we exchange banter for the next hour or so. He asks if I'm going to ride today. About that time I get an email from Jackal saying that it's cool (46F) and windy, how 'bout a ride? I guess it's unavoidable at this point. :) After I called Fatty a pussy for wanting to wait for the rain to stop before riding the other day, I couldn't back out of a windy ride. Funny how that works, huh?

We met up at 63 and Ridgeway with plans to head south. I hate starting a ride with a tailwind. That means you fight a headwind on the way back when you're probably tired. (builds character) These other guys don't seem to mind it so I won't complain about it. We met John and Kathleen with a few others heading north and waved and yelled at each other as we passed. From what I could see, they were all smiles riding into the headwind. I know that I was just starting my coffee when they were heading out this morning. Good seeing you, guys and gals!

The trip south to Hudson was almost too easy. When we got there we rolled through town and then headed east toward the Eagle Center blacktop. The wind was so strong that it was hard to maintain a straight line, even when going west with a quartering tailwind. I'm probably the heaviest of the group and the first hill out of Hudson saw me coasting past Jackal and Jeremy. I heard some derisive comments from those two about "there goes Schleck again". I don't know if they were referring to Frank or Andy, but I know it wasn't meant as a compliment. Fatty was on his CX bike and said "hey! I'm outta gears". Jackal took off so I took off too and The Corpulent One gave chase. That's a 5 mile section of rollers, a couple of them pretty serious, but it was easy with the tail wind. Fatty rolled up beside me and made a comment about me being too quiet. I told him that I was just thinking about the impending trip north and west.

To the idiot in the Audi: I don't like you.

When we got to the Eagle Center blacktop we turned north toward Orange. Holy Crap! Holy Crap! Whoa! The speeds came down from the 25 mph range to the 10-12 mph range. It was hard to keep the bike on the road. To say it was windy would be an understatement. It was BROOTAL!

When I finally made it into Orange, Jackal and Fatty were waiting for me. We turned west and rode through town and then out to Ansborough, where we headed north again. When we got to the intersection with Shaulis, Fatty continued north back into Waterloo and Jackal and I went west to hook back up with the bike path which took us north back to town.

It was a good ride. I'm not sure if it was fun or not. Parts of it were fun. Parts of it hurt like hell. I'll just say it was good and leave it at that. 29 miles in 2 hours.

I need a shower and some lunch.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!