When it’s sunny and 70’F in March, you do your bike ride outside. What you should also do, is check the weather forecast for wind. Guess who didn’t do that today.
I left home for my three hour ride late morning. While leaving the neighborhood, I noticed that it was a little windy, but never thought much about it. As I rode out into the countryside, I was feeling strong and was ready for the hard 15 minute intervals, that I planned to do.
I have a favorite section of road for those intervals. It’s a quiet country road, about 7 miles long, and with only a couple of side roads where cars can enter. The terrain is rolling hills, so there is plenty of opportunity to push power, when needed. It turns out, that this was the most sheltered part of my ride today. I was able to get my intervals done, while staying mostly in the aero position. Wind was only a factor on the last interval, where it was a little in my face.
With the intervals complete, I started the journey home. It’s about a 45 minute ride. It turned out to be one of my toughest 45 minutes ever on a bike. While I was doing those intervals, the wind had picked up significantly. I later found out that winds were 25-30mph, with gusts up to 50mph.
Riding in the aero position was now completely out of the question, and I spent most of the ride home wrestling to keep my bike upright. Crosswinds were bad, but at least they were predictable. When the wind was in my face, a slight change in the angle of the wind relative to my bike, would cause the front wheel to move significantly. This caused me to react quickly, often slightly overcorrecting and causing another sudden wheel movement in the opposite direction. Just riding in a straight line became really hard work.
The good news is that I made it home without wrecking, albeit with very tired arms and shoulders. There is a great lesson here though… it is very important to ride your bike outside, and not just on the bike trainer. You have to learn bike handling skills. You never know, what the weather will be on race day, so you need to get out on the road and experience different weather conditions.
The wind this afternoon was exceptionally wild. Having ridden successfully through it however, I now have more confidence, should I be faced with that kind of wind again. This experience is huge. Should those same conditions happen during a race, I am definitely more prepared.
