Make Mine a Metric

I’m back on the bike after a long layoff due to the flap fracas. My first ride was on February 9, and I’ve done 400 miles so far. That’s including 66 miles yesterday on the Pedaling Paths to Independence Ride to support the Community Center For the Blind.

On Thursday, our ride coordinator posted this on Facebook:

Some break: When registration opened at 8:30 it was pouring rain. And cold too. Here is the data from my Garmin:

There were about 10 club members interested in doing the ride, and the plan was to meet at 8:45. Only Kent and Charles and I were at the start, and we waited until 9:30 when the rain finally quit to set off on wet roads in frigid and damp conditions. As you can see from my Garmin the temperature was mostly in the upper 30’s and averaged 41 degrees. And there was some rain in the last two hours of the ride. The sun stayed away all day too.

How to dress for such weather? Non-cyclists might be interested in what I had on. Which was almost everything I had. Here’s a list:

• Short sleeve base layer, long sleeve base layer
• Heavy bib knicker
• Long sleeve flannel jersey (my warmest), with arm warmers pulled over the sleeves.
• my O2 rain jacket (maybe the best cycling rain gear ever made, and under $40)
• my SBC vest
• shoe covers over shoe toe covers (2 layers)
• Glove liners under long fingered gloves (2 layers)
• A skull cap, topped with a knitted balaclava (2 layers)
• silk sock liners topped by wool socks (2 layers)

My riding companions were similarly clad. Here is a photo from the Farmington Fire Station rest stop.

For the first two hours, the three of us rode smoothly and stayed together into the irritatingly cold but fairly gentle SE wind. On Sonora Road my phone rang, and I was going to ignore it since most calls are from robots. But my phone is paired with my Garmin, which flashed ‘Missed call from Eddy Freggiaro’. Oops, that might be important. I always answer calls from my parents’ number. Today that meant digging through all those outer layers to get to the plastic phone bag stored in my jersey pocket. It was a minor matter, and I was soon back riding and catching my two soft pedaling companions.

As we crossed Highway 4 for the long stretch north to Milton, Kent was showing some signs of fatigue. Charles rode ahead a bit, but I stayed back. I was pretty hungry despite the brownie I ate at Farmington, but Kent was kind of bonking. Later I also learned he was having stomach issues, perhaps from the coffee he drank trying to get warm in Farmington. Kent is a tea drinker and I’ve never seen him drink coffee until yesterday.

When we finally got to Milton the turkey sandwich and chips tasted great. Of course we had some raindrops during lunch to remind us that there were a couple more hours of cold and wet riding to deal with.

Kent and I were so focused on food we didn’t notice that Charles wasn’t present until we were getting ready to leave. He couldn’t have missed the lunch stop, could he? It is off the road a bit, next to a cemetery of all things, in case anyone froze to death, but it is pretty well marked. Either he set a record for fastest sandwich stop, or he had ridden right past and missed the food. Later we learned that he somehow got the idea that I was ahead of him instead of behind, and he kept trying to catch a phantom. SBC ride confusion incidents are kind of legendary, and this was another one.

As Kent and I rolled out on the gravel path back to Milton Road, we saw our SBC buddy Steve just arriving. He had come to the start late and was behind us but made good time to get to lunch. It was too cold to wait any longer so Kent and I said hi and goodbye in one sentence and hit the road.

The turkey sandwich revived Kent and he rode much better after the break. We rolled along and even caught some people at the Sheldon Road climb. I got a little ahead of Kent but I was going to take the hill easy, until in my mirror I noticed a racer type trying to catch and pass me. So I put whatever post flap power I have into the pedals to try to stay away. He did manage to catch me at the top, but he had to work for it.

I waited for Kent at the Sheldon Road/Weimer Road ‘T’ intersection. Suddenly here comes a rider going the opposite direction from the course and whistling ‘The Surrey With the Fringe on Top’ from Oklahoma. Surreal…but he stopped and I realized it was Dr. Rose, out doing some afternoon miles. More irony: the Doctor had participated in the morning text storm about whether to ride or not, and who was in or out. He posted a picture of his stocking feet toasty in front of a fireplace. Now here he is getting cold and wet like the rest of us. But only for 30 miles, not 66.

When Kent arrived the three of us set out for the Belota rest stop, and then the final 10 miles back to Linden. The temperature finally got above 40 degrees, barely. Dr. Rose went home and Kent and I headed to De Vinci’s for the post ride meal. Steve arrived soon after and we all tried to warm up with pesto and chicken and coffee, with limited success.

There is a book called “The Rules”, a semi serious and hilarious set of do’s and don’t for road cyclists. One of our favorites is Rule 9: If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period. Yesterday 4 SBC riders (5 if you count the Doctor and his 30 miles) qualified for certain.