March outdoor rides - let's drop the Lion!

[ny biker]

Two Sundays in a row now I have tried and failed to ride my bike. Last week the directions to the group ride start were wrong and everyone else had already left by the time I got there and the ride leader did not leave extra cue sheets on her windshield and I didn't know the area well enough to ride there without a cue sheet.

Today I got a late start (overslept and stomach felt not great when I woke up). Three different weather forecast sources indicated it would start to rain during the afternoon, but not until 4:00 or so, so I still had time for a short ride. I drove east to a park in a rural part of Maryland that's about 45 minutes away by car, because the rain was moving NW to SE so I figured it would hit later in that part of Maryland than it would closer to home. I realized I left the cue sheet home but unlike last weekend I was in an area that I know well, so I could ride without it. I started to ride at 2:20. Two minutes later it started to rain. So much for those weather forecasts. Then I went over a bump and the nose of my saddle tilted up. (This Bontrager saddle has carbon rails. If you use the recommended torque wrench to tighten the clamp, it will not be tight enough and will shift when you hit a bump.) While I was trying to re-level the saddle, it started to rain harder so I gave up and headed back to the park. While driving home, I mistakenly got on the highway going the wrong way. So I basically spent the afternoon driving around, with a short break for a 4-mile bike ride.

Both today and last Sunday I wore a new Smartwool microweight zip-top long sleeved base layer. I have decided this top is bad luck for bike rides. Next time I will go back to my old Sugoi base layers. Of course I don't know when that will be, since we are going to get a foot of snow tomorrow, on top of sleet and freezing rain, and then it will be below freezing for four days so nothing will melt. Even if it does warm up next weekend, there will be large piles of melting snow and ice everywhere.

On a positive note, I now know that my stylish red Gore Windstopper Ultra Light jacket is waterproof as well as stylish, and I continue to be pleased with the combination of Sugoi Subzero tights, DeFeet Woolie Boolie socks and LG neoprene booties for cycling in temperatures between 40-50F.

I usually find that I have one or two rides each year where some kind of bad luck -- unexpected bad weather, flat tire, etc. -- causes me to end the ride way earlier than planned. I hope I've now gotten all that bad luck out of the way, and that things will go well from here on.

In the meantime, I have to figure out how to shovel a foot of snow layered over ice using a snow shovel that cracked the last time we had snow layered over ice.

How I long for the days of mosquito bites and itchy eyes from tree pollen...