After yesterdays effort at the gym I kinda knew the legs weren't up to much but looking at the weather report on In-ACCuWeather there would be lots of dark cloud, very windy with sunny spells but NO rain. Nice recovery ride weather ish. So when the sun came shining out from the darkest depths I was all prepared and set off on my merry way.
After 10 mins, on my way to Edenfield Rd, I was glad to be wearing my wind proof/'water resistant' Aldi jacket and bibs. Drizzle was being repelled admirably by my cheapo stuff but someone somewhere wanted to test my gear to the max and after the wind picked up even more entire oceans were emptied on top of my head in the space of 2hrs+. After an hour and half at the bottom of Tod Road I was starting to get a little cold ( the Aldi jacket acts like a wet suit and kept me warm but there's only so much water it can take) so had to put my rain mac on which does wonders to keep in warmth. NO point in going home yet as I couldn't get any wetter, literally, so I went to climb Cragg and what a mistake that was. Howling head/cross wind on the tops meant the rain was 'sand' blasting my face whilst speeding along at 9mph - surprised I could go that fast. Descent down Blackstone edge was worse as you might as well have stuck a blind fold on me, double figure speeds just about attainable. Believe it or not I was enjoying the ride until the last half hour as I was aching, my feet were cold and I had no energy left. At every set of lights home I wrung out my gloves which became saturated after a couple of minutes. It stopped raining 10 mins from home. 'nuff said.
On a positive note 'Super Jamis' was great. She wore her new Crud Racer MkII mud guards and the drive train remained shite free generally. Only the crap from my brake blocks spoilt the carnauba waxed frame. I had the 'mis' fortune of testing the Cat eye micro computer's water resistance in the washing machine 2 days ago and today it was working fault free. Looks like 'Scottie' is going into hibernation for a few months.
ROUTE
Distance 50miles
Average 16mph
Ascent ~4000ft
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