Nor Cal Century Preview Ride with wind

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Bikeforums.net's JoelS is planning a century ride. I met with him March 29 to scout the route and check for water and restroom stops. Unfortunately for us, we picked the windiest day I've ever ridden.
We started near Joel's house in Rancho Cordova. When I got home i checked WeatherBug.com and discovered Rancho Cordova had 47.5 mph winds with Gusts to 55.3mph.

It was crazy. At one point I'm was riding down an 8% grade and barely hitting 15 mph. Then a gust almost stopped me in my tracks. But it wasn't the headwind gusts that were worrisome, it was the sideways gusts that moved me around that really scared me.

We saw a tree that blew down into the road. Palms were doing crazy dances. Large metal real estate signs were swinging madly. There were debris blowing across the roads like scurrying insects.

But it was oddly and inexplicably fun. Maybe just that we lived through it makes it good.
The hills are green and filled with flowers. The air was clean and the sky was blue.

Garmin, with smoothing in Ascent say 6024 climbing. I wish it recorded wind.


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