La Vie Velominatus: Rebirth
Wind is an asshole. I have no patience left for it. It has all of it been used up, gone, finished. It is the only force that I’m aware of (with the possible exception of gravity) that is more stubborn and less willing to listen to reason than I myself am. It blows me around on my bike, it embezzles speed from my Magnificent Stroke. No matter how emphatically I lose my temper with it, no matter the unprintable curses and insults I hurl in its direction, it just keeps on blowing like a big stupid blowing thing.
The weather systems that move in and out of the Puget Sound Convergence Zone are accompanied by a gale and, and as every Cyclist knows, gales blow exclusively against the direction of travel. With the changing seasons come the frequent storm systems and the unreliability of the meteorologists is amplified by the complexity of the weather patterns. Taking Bike Number One is a gamble during any of these times, but sometimes living dangerously feels better than it is sensible. Every now and then, taking #1 when you really shouldn’t can offer a bit of much-needed redemption.
Fall winds steel us for the arrival of colder, darker days. Winter around here comes with less wind, but with annoyances of its own. Our friends in more harsh climates than mine will agree: we have had a dark Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. Seattle is a mild place to live, but even here the damp, cold, short days have taken their toll. The sun is down when I arrive at work, and it is down when I leave for home. With vitamin D in short supply, our moods sour, the chickens stop laying their eggs (there is no creature more entitled than a clucking chicken who refuses to lay an egg), and alcohol, food, and sloth start looking like viable plans of remediation.
But as Winter makes its slow exit, the winds begin to blow once again and Spring starts to dot hints that she is about to make her entrance. The redbud trees are in blossom, and the Earth is letting loose the green stalks of tulips and crocuses. The work we did over the winter was supposed to make us feel strong and fast; instead, trees bow to our arrival as the wind pushes against our face and robs us of the free flight that a Cyclist in form works so hard to achieve.
Nevertheless, this weekend I rode with bare legs, the strong headwind filling my senses with the fresh smell of damp, life-giving earth and budding blossoms. Rebirth is infectious and like the trees and plants around me, so too have I been reborn.
Wind might well be an asshole, but when it signals warmer, brighter days it somehow seems more tolerable. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
Ha! Lovely.
This weekend I rode in Gabba and Nanoflex, into the wind (both ways), wind that was filled with water. But I’m glad someone was made to feel reborn.
Maybe today.
Wasn’t it bloody brilliant? Just the novelty of the sensation of fresh wind on the knees was enough to keep me entertained for quite a while. The sun was warm but still on the weak side — I have to peer pretty closely to find a tan line. It’s only ten days since it was miserably dark and sleeting, which at least had the redeeming feature of reassuring me money spent on good gear is never wasted.
The glory of a bike ride with bare legs and on Bike Number 1 was mine yesterday, and looks like again today, and perhaps even a club ride on Saturday. (Vancouver, BC, just up the road from you).
I have been doing 4-5 days a week on the trainer, so getting outside has been fantastic.
Exactly frank
You had me whince a bit as you started this article out, like you could hit the refresh button on Rule #5, but you pulled it out nicely by making it clear, spring is here and we are back in full saddletime. Winter this year in the Midwest has been a ball busting MoFo. One for the records no doubt and I have been chomping at the bit like a rabid rotweiller to do an early 180k this year as I have some graveur races coming up. However, I still have the belgian socks on, the knee warmers and such, but knowing our weather originates from the great NW, I am holding it to you that your sending us warmth
Tomorrow, I go without arm warmers and bare knees and this weekend will be 150k days
and will rub on Rule V til it hurts
Ahh, Seattle. The Flanders of the US. Almost moved there once upon a time.
This weekend was glorious in Belgium, but two weekends ago it was all about the wind. One long solo ride nearly all kanaal work. 110km and all it did was get worse and worse until you end up meeting the man with the hammer while going the wrong way on the wrong side of the Albertkanaal. If that is where, and in what, Tommeke grew up training it…it is no surprise to me that he is who he is. The headwind was so bad in the end that if I had stopped pedaling I would have instantly come to a complete stop and fallen over. I have to admit, the grass did start looking comfortable. I effing hate that kanaal.
Did the same ride this weekend with the LvdK with just a light wind and blue skies….what a difference!!! But I still hate you AK!
Spring is here as well as the classics! All is right with the world again!
Frank, I think you can read my mind. What an appropriate and timely article. We’ve had a very, very long cold winter here in WI and this past weekend continued the trend, albeit with a hint that better days are around the corner. Saturday was 27/28 degrees but with little wind and what there was was NNW. 80 kilometers in generally bright sunshine was great and the furthest this year. Sunday was a bitch. 33 degrees but with a nasty SSW wind that took the windchill to Merckx-knows-what. Almost all my rides head north then south. the last 40ks were brutal, despite me using every back road I knew to get a bit of relief. Totally shagged at the end, but felt good.
Today is around 50 with bright sun and some real warmth in the air. It would have been a 100kms Don’t you hate it when the weather is one day out of sync with the weekend? The hour has gone forward giving us light until almost 7pm. That means after work rides are on the cards. Spring is finally here!
Frank,
Cry usa river. The PNW does occasionally have a breeze, but on this side of the mountains at least, there are very few places not somewhat protected by terrain or trees. You’re from Wisconsin aren’t you? Remember the times where it just blows and blows uninterrupted across hundreds of kilometers and always in your face.
OTOH, congrats on riding on the right day this weekend. Saturday’s ride for me was 110 Km in unrelenting rain. I should NEVER trust NOAA…
@wiscot
You used the only word I could come up with to describe the back half of my ride yesterday: brutal. Going out was a breeze (no pun intended…I don’t think it was at my back…just not in my face) yesterday but coming back in was a nightmare as I experienced ‘the teeth’ of the wind all the way home. But I made it. I just kept thinking of the hot shower and nap I was going to take when I got back. Plus, it builds stamina and strength…at least that’s what I keep telling myself.
p.s. My gf (who rode her new commuter across town to her yoga class and then back across town to her Mom’s) texted me and asked if I would come and pick her up (from her Mom’s) because of the wind. If I was struggling on my more aero road bike, I can’t imagine what she was enduring on her (almost upright) commuter.
Blame fluid dynamics too. Isn’t only a straight on tailwind the only thing that’ll not cause some sort of drag (maybe up to a few degrees either way)? At least that’s what all those aero guys yap about. The freakin’ deck is stacked wind wise.
Quite timely for sure. 50km commute this morning into a fierce headwind. But it was blowing from the South, so temps were mild. This was the first day of the new year I felt overdressed. With a tailwind home, I don’t even mind the prediction of rain. Tomorrow, we should get 2 inches of snow. That’s Spring weather in Utah. Woohoo!
For some, Spring is ushered in by blossoms and beauty. In my world, it is ushered in by rapid thaws of the inches thick ice on my street. Nothing like crossing 3 inch deep rivulets that create square shaped speed dips on your street to indicate that spring is here. Just a few more days of melt and the roads will be safe to traverse (ignoring of course all the pea gravel/sand placed on them by the winter road crews).
@wiscot
I was desperate to get out for a ride yesterday. Was looking forward to it all day. However, my ongoing kitchen renovation had other plans. I was very upset about it at the time, but maybe it was the universe’s way of letting me know that I am still a fat ass and too out of shape to be riding in that kind of wind.
Today on the other hand is fuckin gorgeous and i go straight from work to a five hour class. Between work and school, I won’t get to ride until at least Thursday, but I’m hopeful that it begins the commuting seasons (finally!).
Timely indeed. The wind was a cruel dominatrix yesterday. I remember riding into the wind along miles of beach and high plateau and I think of how right I wish Jamie actually was. Sadly though, the terrain that should shelter us from the wind usually only serves to make it blow in every direction at once. This does have the happy effect of turning an 80k ride into almost a real workout.
@Jamie He’s from MN.
Spring is indeed in the air. Today is the first day above 40 degrees here in central Wisconsin(been here 2 months now). I took the opportunity to go explore a park that has about 12 miles of trail I plan on riding. The roads there are basically covered in sheets of ice, no telling what the trail looks like. But the end of winter and beginning of my riding season are just around the corner.
We had a beautiful weekend here in the south of England. I rode with the guns on show for the first time this year and it was fantastic. The only problem is that they look much like two sticks of white chalk. Tan lines need work!
Rebirth indeed – physio to be booked up to sort out fucked hip, sportive to be booked up as a goal. Nothing like the signs of spring, and the start of the racing season proper, to get you fired up…
@ChrissyOne
How I feel about it. Jamie, we made the same mistake you did this weekend. Saturday was so gross.
Did you know that “Quilcene” is Salish for “place where old, filthy furniture is left on the side of the road in the wind and the rain to test the emotional stability of Cyclists with Seasonal Affective Disorder”?
What sort of witchcraft is this article? A hard head wind kicked up today just as I started to ride — a wind that was unlike any other wind. It was a good fight though and I abused the hell out of the heavy gust at my back finishing the last 11 km. Timed the one lighted intersection with no loss of wind — I mean speed!
The winter has also transformed nice potholes into horrible potholes for the Spring group rides. May have to refer to these as “grave diggers” — they appear to be dugout over night.
@Mike_P Likewise up in the North – first ride of the year in shorts and a single shortsleeved layer today. Happy days, although it still seemed ludicrously windy at points!
Oh. My. God. I just realized why my eyes are itchy after the ride I just finished.
Spring is coming. Pollen is coming.
@cyclebrarian
Then we embrace the wind — rejoice in thy suffering? I’ll have to remember your words “stamina and strength” to tell myself all season.
@Ccos
I always refer to wind as a vector component.
This is my second ”winter” in SoCal. while I have never ridden more or have been as tan, I miss ”Springtime” in Portland. Never ending days of sunshine are just as depressing as never ending days of rain, who knew?
First days of autumn down under, heading into the dark. But your dark is darker than ours. Still 30 degrees (Celsius!) here. cry about it. Is it a truism that wind is invariably never a tailwind?
@Ccos
And I think that a block headwind will take more from you speedwise than the same block tailwind will give you because of your frontal surface area and speed squared and all that math crap that goes into it.
Wind is an asshole.
@TheVid
Just sand and no salt? That’s a good thing at least. MN thaws also came with the painful reality that I couldn’t ride #1 until after the first street sweeping in order to avoid the cursed salt from getting into everything.
@Jamie
You know how to piss a brother off. Might as well suggest that I’m German while you’re at it.
You obviously don’t ride to Edmonds much, or out to Mercer from Seattle. The I90 bridge in particular is a doozy. But yeah, you can avoid the wind if you really want to, but avoiding it doesn’t make me hate it any less.
@ChrissyOne
Not to mention amplifying the intensity as it howls through the valleys.
@Mike_P
You mean like this?
@frank
Agreed. I was quick on the way out yesterday (well, for me at least) and was all full of myself…then the wind. I didn’t even look down to see how fast I wasn’t going on the way in…the gusts were demoralizing enough. My grandmother was right: pride does cometh before a fall.
Quote of the year right there. Love it.
@Jamie
Happened to me earlier in the week. I love how the meteorologists around here usually lead with, “One of these three things might happen to the weather today…”
@withoutanyhills
I’ve probably had my laziest Spring for years – mostly because of the lack of a Keepers Tour to have my dander up about training properly.
But I have a goal of doing well in The Heck of the North with an early carrot of The Hour for Festum Prophetae, along with a handful of other races over the year – not to mention the Cogals planned.
Shit just got real.
@PeakInTwoYears
Is Quilcene where you lot are at? I thought you were both more Port Angeles than Rain Trench. We have good friends who had a cabin there and it was rainy as fuck all year. Then they got a place in Port Townsend and its fucking sunny all the time.
Its like 25km from the old place.
Beautiful part of the country though – the rain just keeps the twats out.
@unversio
Its been colder here than usual – with several heavy frosts throughout the Winter. Seattle loves their concrete roads which means frost heaves are not heaves so much as jumps.
I am not an elegant creature when I am not secured to the ground.
As for the witchcraft, I intervened to ensure that anyone who has no disposition against wind to be dealt a nasty one today. You’re welcome.
@frank
Another quote of the year — just happened.
@anthony
Having 360 days of sun doesn’t help when the sun is only out while you’re at the office.
That said, we also skipped our usual trip to annoy Gianni and his VMH and as such noticed the Happiness Delta for sure where we didn’t have a midwinter dose of Sun and Awesome. The Four Pillars of Awesome need a reunion!
@frank
WTF I thought Dutch cyclists love the wind. Or at least hate it less than the rest of us.
@Brianold55
On the shortest day of the year, the day in Seattle are a full hour shorter than were where I grew up in Minneapolis. For Gianni on Maui, I think the days are a few hours shorter but not really that much. It makes a fucking difference.
@Nate
Being good at it and loving it are two different things.
I should think a lawyer would understand such nuances.
@frank
No, we’re between Port Townsend and Sequim–kinda at the east end of the center of the rainshadow. PT kicks it. There’s some beautiful rides in the valleys and on the ridges south of PT. We ride over that way from the house a lot. Got a quiver of routes over there.
PT, cute little town. Decent beer. Okay food. Good little farmer’s market. Good bookstore. I could live there. You have to own a sailboat, though. That you built yourself. With hand tools. It’s the law.
@Optimiste
Note to self: Reconsider commuting with teammate nicknamed “Soul Crusher”.
AM ride into the wind: Max heart rate for my age – 175. Actual max heart rate – 179.
PM ride with tailwind: Had to use top gear (53×12) to keep up while drafting. Took pulls to recover.
P.S. Okay, we’ll do it again Thursday.
@frank
Frank, nice to make your acquaintance. Perhaps not quite so bad as London in winter where I lived for a while and it would start to get dark at 2.30pm. You’d come home, go for a run, come back, eat, think about bed, look at the clock and its 7.30.
So it appears even a tailwind can suck? There goes one of the few assists I look forward to, along with rests (sorry, stops) for flats, coffee, and roads leading vaguely downwards.
We have nothing to complain about winter-wise compared to our northern brothers, tho the Dutch wind experience reminds me Melbourne planners in their wisdom designed city canyons the wind can howl down.
Had my first outdoor ride today. I thought about the route for a bit–off to the hills or stay on the flats? Against my better judgement I went for the hills. Felt terrific on the way east. Thought to myself that the hard work this winter on the trainer is really paying off.
Then I turned Left and headed up Seven Hills Road. Let me tell you, there’s a lot more than just seven fucking hills. That plus a decent breeze had me dogging it for the latter half of the ride. Still was happy as a clam when I pulled into the driveway. Nothing like a baptism by fire to get the riding season started.
This past weekend here in the deep south meant Rouge Roubaix XVI with 100+ miles of racing on roads in various stages of destruction plus plenty of gravel thru parishes in Louisiana and in to Mississippi and back. Maybe as close to a spring classic in North America as any other race… I don’t know… except the weather which was perfect. The only thing that wasn’t perfect was getting dropped at 65ish miles but minor detail…The rest was perfect. Cheers from the deep south, RC
Ha ha, coming into the cooler months here, after our very hot summer, and not only will the temperature be awesome, there is typically little wind on most of my rides. On some stretches of a particularly fun motorway, the trip south is sheltered by roadside foliage, and the return trip north is exposed a bit to the southerly tailwinds typical of autumn and winter. Tends to rain a bit, but refreshing showers, not Rule #9 conditions.
It’s a great life. Slumming it at Jackson Hole at present, bit slushy for nice riding here in the spring thaw. Good ski-ing today though.
I too rode with bare legs and arms today and it was glorious. You are correct, Wind IS and asshole, but you just must make the wind your Bitch, and lay down the V.
@frank
I really want to salt you for not having a more clever rejoinder. Hello? Lawyer jokes have been old since Shakespeare’s time. Unfortunately I understand your point not only because I am trained to do so but also as I am am good at it but often don’t love it.
@Optimiste
Top marks. Especially about taking pulls to recover. Strong work, we await your reports on progress.
@Brianold55
Anything can suck. A tailwind feels good but the point was if you have to ride back into it to get home, the benefits don’t outweigh the gains.
Although on the PDX Cogal many moons ago, we had the fortune of riding into the wind on the way out and spinning out our top gears on the way back at the end of that crippling ride. It was beyond glorious in that particular context. (The road was along the Hood River – one of the windiest places on Earth, I would think.)
@The Oracle
However hard you ride the trainer, if you’re not also hitting the roads there is no comparison. Welcome back!
@wilburrox
I have a niece in New Orleans. We might just have to visit her for that event next year. Awesomeness!
@Ken Ho
Ok, we get it, you fucking asshole. ‘Straya is fucking heaven. But even paradise means you still have to share a continent with @Marcus and @Minion. So we still win.
You just missed the good snow; we had a shit winter, really, but then crushed the second half of Feb. It was glorious.
The VMH and I timed it perfectly to Whistler, where nailing the weather means the difference between the trip of a lifetime and skiing in rain from top to bottom.
@Nate
Lawyer jokes are only “old” to lawyers. Everyone else still thinks they’re hilarious.
We’ll call it a draw because at least you had the sense to post one of my favorite videos of all time.