Cheated by the weather forecasters

This Ride: 21.3 miles
Month: 391.8 miles
2011: 1,875.5 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 7,995.2 miles

Last night, I had a very late meeting. I got home around 10:30 pm and was not asleep until nearly midnight. Before going to bed, I checked the forecast and saw a very comfortable 60-62° F prediction.  With a very short night, I decided that a 60° start was not something I could sleep through, and so resolved to get up less than 5 hours later.

I woke up to 50° F, and felt lied to.  It was hard to believe that the weather forecasters conspired to drag me out of a comfortable bed just for me to get a 20 mile ride in, but that’s what I’ve decided happened.  Right now, 50 degrees is tough.  I haven’t been able to find the right clothing options to stay cool enough without getting too cold, and so grumbling at the conspiracy against me I rolled out to meet the group for the morning ride.

The conspiracy caught others too, as they affirmed what I saw as the forecast last night.  Ours was a fragmented ride this morning.  Five started at the Rusty Bridge, including Bryan (one of the Flèche hard men).  We picked up Ben at the Ranger Station and Dan just appeared from nowhere while we were on Jennings Road.  Jeff was feeling frisky and dashed off pulling Dave and Ben with him on a fast ride, while the rest of us accompanied Bryan on the Fixie.  We wanted to hear his stories about the epic ride.

We really did take it pretty easy.  We avoided the hill at Round Bay, but saw Jeff far in the lead.  He must have powered up the hill.  Dave and Ben joined us from there.  Later, when we met Jeff on his return from the south end of the trail, Dan couldn’t take it any longer and he did a quick U-turn and chased Jeff down.

Our ride was generally uneventful.  I clearly overheated with my clothing choice.  It was great to hear Bryan’s stories.  This Flèche was his longest single ride to date and part of the story is how he overcame the mental limits he imposed on his ability to ride this nearly 400 k ride.