Wind blowing out of the north at between 20 and 25 mph failed to deter the 8 hearty souls who rolled out of Pulaski Park yesterday afternoon. At the Big Y we picked up another 3 riders to bring the number to 11, about 7 were A riders and the other 4 were B riders.
With so few riders and strong winds I made the decision to not split up the As and Bs at the Hatfield General Store but to continue to ride together, this was a mistake. My hope was that the B riders would benefit from the larger group fighting the wind at least for a bit and slip harmlessly back. This sounds great in theory but the realty was having B riders intermixed led to the creation of some gaps that caught some A riders out and in the vicious headwinds they either had to go full gas to catch or simply rode with B riders. Sorry about that A riders, lesson learned.
All that being said I am pretty sure the ride was demanding for all involved at least for the first half. The B riders still needed to push hard after the turn in order to beat the dark but with a tail wind to help we made it back in plenty of time. All in all it was a pretty satisfying ride and a reminder that cycling is an outdoor sport and can be hard.
