• An abbreviated Oval Ride

    Sketchy weather in the forecast for the Oval Ride.  High of 45F with rain and snow.  I woke up to cloudy skies and warm temps (36F).  While fueling, drinking coffee, then doing Core Performance....the skies turned dark and the snow began to fall.  Meh.  Though for sure that would kill the ride.  Nope.

    Oval Ride - Feb 5At 9 AM it stopped.  I suited up and spun over to the CSU campus on my mtb decked out in fenders thinking nobody would show up and that I would be heading out on a solo mission on sloppy roads.  Well, about 20+ riders showed up and it was 'game on'.

    Oval Ride - Feb 5With ominous clouds rolling off the mountains, the route was changed up today.  We headed north into a nasty headwind.  The mtb was OK....as long as I kept my butt out of the wind.  Riding in the wind pegged my redline.....no bueno. By the time we got to our furthest point north of town out group was cut in half.  The wind was brutal....and was hand picking riders mile by mile to send home.

    Heading west past the Rawhide Powerplant....the group still battled the wind...now coming from our right side. This section didn't last long...then it was time to head south back to Fort Collins.

    This is where I got into trouble. Rolling south we had a 20 mph tail wind. To keep up with the group....who was rolling down the road at 32 mph....I had to turn over my SRAM XX 39-11 at like 120 rpm. Needless to say, it didn't last long.  POP!

    I was simply under geared.  I rode hard the rest of the way home and over the dams.  Mission accomplished for the day.  I wanted a good hard effort today....as the weather is going to throw a wrench into the training over the next week.  Sunday looks so-so.