Sunday I decided to hit the Fargo up for a ride with my fresh set of Geax Barro Race tires on. Since there is a perfect mud storm going on down by the creek, I decided to hit that first to gauge the mud performance of the Barro Race tires. Well, Im here to say that they failed miserably! But then, so do most tires with our sticky, leafy mess.
After swinging back by the house, I headed out for a little ride. I figured that I needed to get some training miles in on the gravel roads. Heading north out of town I hit Wagner Road, but in the spirit of ol' Mr. 24 I stayed on the shoulder all the way out to Mt. Vernon Road before turning East.
On the way out I was thinking, "These tires are rolling great on this shoulder." Well, I finally figured out that they were rolling too good. Yep! I rode out with a tailwind. I was actually too hot too. I had a regular jersey, a wool short sleeve jersey, and a pair of tights on, but I was pretty toasty. At least with the wind I was.
Then Mt. Vernon Road kicked in with some rollers. In a cross wind, they hurt a bit. I stopped once to take a pic of an old dilapidated barn for Gnat (Sorry! No good graffiti yet!) Then I didn't stop for the rest of the ride. (With the exceptions of crossing Hwy 63 and some busy city intersections.)
I turned full on into the headwind when I made a right on to Moline Road. Boy! Was there some steep rollers out there. Surprising, and with the wind, painfull. Then I saw a couple sitting by the side of the road several yards from their car. The guy gave me that look that said "keep movin' on", but to be honest, unless they had waved me down I wasn't about to give up the groove I had going up the hill. Whatever was going on, she didn't look like she was very happy.
I suppose they didn't sit there a whole lot longer since I came up on a car headed their way shortly after and was passed by another after that. Whatever, I was deep in the pain cave now and was just wanting the hills and headwind to end.
I decided to roll it all the way up East 4th street on the way home. You'd have to know a bit about Waterloo's history, but suffice it to say that there is a lot of misconceptions and bad feelings out there. I don't bother with that, and I just ride right down the busiest street there. I get lots of strange looks, but lots of folks are nice too. No worse or better than any other part of town, but my cycling acquaintances here think I'm nutso. (But that is besides the point now, isn't it?)
Anyway, I made it home in one piece. Tired, hungry, hurting, but immensely satisfied.
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