Windy but good

We finished a good, strong 49-mile ride this morning in spite of a very stiff wind.  The club had planned a ride out toward Altamonte Springs today using a couple of roads (including North Street) that are typically kind of notorious for traffic.  As soon as I saw the map for this ride (earlier in the week) my first thought was “I don’t know about that—that road is very much a 1-out-of-3 road.”  Yeah, the road surface may be good, but there is absolutely no shoulder, and even early on a Saturday morning I was pretty sure there would be way more traffic than would be safe.  So Brenda and I said starting about Tuesday that we weren’t going to do that ride.  Several other people felt the same way, but in the end, only Brenda & I, and one other guy opted for something safer.

The three of us left from the same shopping center parking lot that the rest of the group would leave from, but we left about a half hour ahead of them.  We went out on some very familiar roads, going in the exact opposite direction—out toward Oviedo.  There was a very strong wind out of the north for most of the day, but otherwise the weather was pretty nice.  Temperatures were in the low 60s, and it was a little bit cloudy, but not rain clouds, and we had some sun too.  We went out with no specific plan in mind—we just wanted to stay on roads that we were familiar with and felt safe on.  At about the 18-mile mark we pulled into a coffee shop with outdoor tables and sat and talked about it for awhile.  This is one of the really fun things about non-club rides—you get to go out and just kind of make it up as you go along.  After awhile we decided on a route, and headed back out. 

We had a great ride, and Brenda had some really strong, 17 mph pulls against a very stiff cross-wind toward the end of the ride.  I love being able to bail out of the lead and know that she is not only comfortable with, but fully capable of taking over.  (In fact I think she even picked up our pace a little.)  When we got back to the start-finish parking lot, the other group was there.  I was curious to find out what they thought about riding down North Street, and out under I-4 on 434.  Before I even got a chance to ask, they jumped all over it—“We’ll never do this ride again!”  Ok…I had a feeling that was going to be the case.  I’m glad we went out on our own.  Bike clubs are a great thing, and I’m a big fan of clubs in general and this one in particular.  But you still have to use your own judgment.