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Monday Motivation: Wind- A friend of mine remarked to me after I had told him what I thought about the weather for the day by saying, “You cyclists are pretty sensitive about the wind, aren’t you?” I had to admit that he was right on the money there. But hey! You might be too if there was a wind advisory with gusts over 35mph forecast for the afternoon.
The wind is a constant presence here in the Midwest. There are only windy days, and really windy days. Another old friend of mine would often say the following about the wind in the Midwest: “The wind is our mountains.” So, we go out on purpose in this wind, be it gentle 10-15mph breezes or full on 30 plus mile per hour blasts. We ride into the wind on the way home- on purpose- to get stronger. We ride into the wind and laugh, because we are getting mentally prepared. The wind is motivation to move despite the obstacles.
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Great post! Winter has finally loosened it’s grip on us here in MN…today we are supposedly going to flirt with a sunny, 70 degree day…and breezy as the forecast put it. Winds picking up to high teens to low 20 MPHs.
Your old friend is spot on with the wind / mountain analogy.
One day Aussie Bastard and I will come up from Florida to sample some of your legendary 70,000 miles of dirt road.
Sounds awsome.
In Florida we have no mountains…only occasional hurricanes so we toughen ourselves
with shin deep sugar sand and sticky clay roads that ride like velcro.
Keep up the good work and find more ways to exhaust your friends.
K-Dogg
Up here in Duluth (Northeastern MN) we have the typical Midwest wind and lots and lots of hills. All is good unless the wind comes from the Northeast, and then we have temps that can drop from the 60’s to the 40’s in a few minutes. So then we have wind, hills and cold. When I returned to my home in MN after growing up and racing in Southern California in the early 1970’s, before mountain bikes made their appearance, road riding was a serious challenge. Those old tubulars on my Rickert racing bike did not like gravel, and I lived 4 miles from the nearest paved road.
I’m an old man, and though I’ve ridden mountain bikes a lot on the road (trails not my cup of tea), I have to say that gravel “racing” has opened up a whole new horizon on cycling for me. I picked up a Raleigh Tamland 1 this spring and am loving it – registered for two gravel events so far this year. What I especially love about the gravel races is that they are open and only competitive if you want to make it so.
Guitar Ted is destined for immortality!