Saturday, March 28, 2009

Rosedale Ride 09

I participated in the Rosedale Ride again this year. This one always sneaks up on me being early in the year, so I registered at the event this morning. I considered whether riding would be a good idea, a vigorous cold front came threw yesterday, lowering the temps to the high 30s this morning, and making it very windy. Very, very windy. Did I say it was windy? ;-)

There was a very good turnout, the announcer said about 1500 folks had signed up. Waiting for the start was tough, not moving gave me the chills, but I knew once we started, I'd get warm quick enough. They only made a few adjustments to the route from the year before. I was worried about some of the roads, they have been working on them recently, and were in pretty bad shape, but it seems a lot of paving has occurred since I last traveled the roads, only one bad section remained.

Negotiating the wind was an adventure, I'm guessing my speed varied from 5 to 30 mph depending on the direction I was going. I tend to not have my bike computer set to speedometer, I don't want it to depress me ;-) I suppose having the route go into the wind for the first part was a blessing, you have more energy then.

There were more than the usual number of folks picked up by the SAG vehicles. I don't think it was mechanical issues, I think it was due to the wind. It was brutal at times. I hope that does not discourage these folks from participating again.

It was fun and challenging, and the ride is for a good cause. Hopefully I can do the ride next year.

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