Hmmm, looks like I beat Beets to the Blog. So, I have to cover the details of this past weekend. He can do the embellishing/exagerating bit.

We rode both Saturday and Sunday, conditions were a bit disappointing on both days, and our ride lengths were adversely affected.

Saturday: Beets' turn to come into Toronto. We planned to ride a mid-distance mid-pace trip on the bike paths, maybe 60 to 70 km. But, it was grey, damp and cool, + 3 C, so we decided to do hill repeats to stay warm. As I bogged earlier, there are several short and sweet climbs along the path, mostly 50 or 55 m vertical, and 300 to 700 m long, plus my favourite on the way home, the Bayview extension, 100 m vert. over 1.5 km. Basically they all range from 4.5% to just over 10%, and are quite short. We did eleven of them, probably while Sud was mopping up his Foi Gras and Sauterne. It started pissing rain on about the 7th climb, which was actually fortunate as it washed all the wet snow off the hill, which had fallen over night. It made the descents very slow, and so we only averaged 20 kph for 35 km. Still, not bad with all the climbing.

Sunday: My turn to go out to Beets' end of the lake. The plan called for hill repeats on the escarpment. Sud and Slocolnago's old stomping (and I mean stomping, as in pedaling squares) ground. It looked good to start, sunny and clear. But it never got over - 3 C, and the wind howled out of the North West, Sud will remember that that means it was a head wind for all the climbs. It blew steady 45 kph, with gusts from 60 to 70 kph, per the news channels. 3rd gear on the flats upwind at 15 kph, 16th gear downwind at 42 kph. Except we didn't do any flats, we climbed, climbed and climbed some more. Five times up the escarpment: Rattlesnake, Steeles, Bell School Line (twice), 14th Side Road. With the head wind it was all I could do to keep 36/24 ticking over. My front wheel was lifting off as I had to sit right back to keep the rear wheel from slipping. It was just too windy and cool. We only did 32 km, and we were absolutely knackered. It was actually a bit discouraging as we only climbed about 375 meters, mostly at 10 or 11% (Rattlesnake is 13%). let's hope it gets easier in the warmer weather. I did not have another 3000 m of climbing left in me.

This Saturday, we plan to do a longer ride, hopefully at something quicker than the 18 kph we averaged on the escarpement.

Slowcolnago