A Nice Steady Crosswind

[Razors Edge ★]

...sure can make one ride harder.

Late yesterday afternoon, I headed out on a short 18 mile ride.  The wind was a crosswind out of the SE.  It gave me a bit of a push during the start but also buffeted me around a bit.  I did my normal warm-up, and picked up a passenger.  After my warm-up, I dialed up the effort a little to my normal amount, and the wind continued its thing. I hit a long straight section and bumped up my effort again. Head down for a bit until my turn around. No more passenger(s).

Started heading home, grabbed a bit of water, and felt the wind now as a head-crosswind.  A bit tougher for sure.  Anyway, my pace had dropped and I fairly quickly got passed from behind by a guy in a team kit who was moving pretty quick. That's a nice carrot(!), so I did my "sit back 30+ feet and match his speed" thing. It is part of the "ride with someone stronger" mentality, and it was nice to have him as someone to follow.  It was interesting as I waffled between pushing hard and almost coasting to keep from getting into his draft.

Regardless, it was quite a ride. I thought the wind would be the toughest part, but it was having a couple of other riders to focus on that helped me keep focused on pushing rather than just going for a spin. I always like that kind of ride. New max 20min, new normalized power, a few trophy bits, etc..

Tom