I did a group ride in the hills East of Gilroy on a cold and windy day but it was still fun. It was probably about 20 mph average, gusting maybe to fifty, so not much compared to what folks are going through in other places like the UK. Last night I got woken up about two O’clock by a funny tapping on our windows. It’s been so long since it has rained I thought, “what’s going on, is someone throwing pebbles at our windows”, then I realized it was raining and got excited because we sure need it. This was just scattered showers, but still welcome. It was still raining on and off in the morning but was supposed to clear up in time for the ride so we went anyway. I rode to the start at Mendoza ranch and could tell it was cold on the way. Fortunately, I had my neck gaiter for face protection. The sun kept peeking in and out of the clouds so it was still quite beautiful. We got sprinkled on intermittently, then about halfway through it started to come down harder, and we could tell we were heading towards some ominous clouds. This prompted a route modification, instead of continuing south on Canada Road we headed north back to Roop then out Coyote Lake Road to the dam, which except for some more sprinkles left the storm behind us. From the dam, I left the group and headed for the lunch stop (I needed a head start because I was riding the whole way by bike while they’d be driving part of the way).
There was a huge cold headwind on the way back. I sure was glad for electric assist. I dug deep into my battery, it was giving me about 400 watts of assist. This got me there about three times as fast as without assist. Fifty miles total in three and a half hours. Lunch (indoors!) tasted great.
Share this:
Related
Published by
Published
February 23, 2022February 22, 2022
