Fiddy Ride #2

I am not a fan of riding in cold weather, but after this endless Michigan winter 30 degrees and sun, with no snow on the roads is like a little slice of heaven. Sure the head wind felt like I was riding into one long constant fart out the back end of Jack Frost himself, and my toes got a bit cold (since I refused to wear my Lake winter boots), but the sun and dry-ish dirt roads made up for all that.

Today I did the dirt road/road ride that I wanted to do last week, but was thwarted by piss poor road conditions. What a difference a week makes! Today there was no snow on the roads, very little mud (except for a few shaded sections) and the ride went off as planned.

The front wheel of the Jake is all fixed up and good to go, so I rolled it today rather than the El Mariachi. I am about 90% sure that I want to use the Jake for the Barry-Roubaix, so I figured getting it out on some of the bigger rollers in the area would be a plus today. And it was.

Taking a pic of a climb NEVER looks as hard as it actually is, but taking a picture of a climb here in the central MI area is even worse. Take the climb below- It's NOTHING like I rode in PA, but damn I was still pushing hard in the big ring to get up this damn thing, but it looks like a freaking rail trail. I think it is partly due to the fact that there are no real turns on the climbs, you can see them coming from miles away, and the roads are like 50 feet wide. Oh well, it still burned like hell in the legs getting up it, and that is what matters I suppose.

Today I hit some new dirt roads, and some new sections of pavement. It was a blast. I would have liked it to be about 20 degrees warmer, but I will take what I can get. I hope to get out again tomorrow, but if not I have had a pretty good week (for me), with over 10 hours of riding and "doing stuff" so far, so I am not gonna complain.

This didn't help the cold toes, not sure what I was thinking as I walked off the road to take a pic (above). Cold toes in icy snow. Nice move J... Nice move...

I ended up with the second 50 mile ride of the week, and 3 hours on the bike. That is a good Saturday! Hope next Saturday goes as wells, since by this time next week the first race of the season will be over (YIKES!). I have also got some reports that the trails at Midland City Forest are in very good conditions, so I am tempted to go check them out this week. Still need to get the Spearfish dialed in for race season.

Time to enjoy a few beers, and get ready to go to enjoy some food.

Later.