The plan for today was an easy recovery ride of about 2 hours. The forecast was calling for rain starting at mid-day so we rolled a little early in order to escape the impending precip. Temps were decent - low 60s at ride time but I rode out wearing warmers as I was confident that even a small amount of descending would leave me shivering.
We headed toward Stecoah under cloudy skies and after about 15min of riding it was clear that most of us were overdressed. I started unzipping and peeling off warmers in effort to regulate my body temp to no avail. We got to the base of Stecoah Gap and the rain starting coming DOWN. My gloves, arm and legwarmers were soaked and already in my pockets so I pulled on the rain jacket and we headed back. I would've given anything to have some minty warm embrocation on my legs for the ride back!
So it's more bike cleaning and laundry for today. We've entertained the idea heading into Bryson City later on for some coffee and relaxation but the rain keeps falling and the likelihood of that keeps diminishing. The plan for tomorrow is about 100mi - my legs feel good and I've been climbing well all week so I'm definitely looking forward to it. We'll have a bigger group tomorrow as the Cincinnati contingent will be joining us for at least some of the ride, the UW Madison team will be along, Mary's husband Jay is arriving tonight from Loveland and Kat Clark is coming in for the rest of the week.
Thanks for reading - I think I'll just go put my feet up, read and relax for a while...
We headed toward Stecoah under cloudy skies and after about 15min of riding it was clear that most of us were overdressed. I started unzipping and peeling off warmers in effort to regulate my body temp to no avail. We got to the base of Stecoah Gap and the rain starting coming DOWN. My gloves, arm and legwarmers were soaked and already in my pockets so I pulled on the rain jacket and we headed back. I would've given anything to have some minty warm embrocation on my legs for the ride back!
So it's more bike cleaning and laundry for today. We've entertained the idea heading into Bryson City later on for some coffee and relaxation but the rain keeps falling and the likelihood of that keeps diminishing. The plan for tomorrow is about 100mi - my legs feel good and I've been climbing well all week so I'm definitely looking forward to it. We'll have a bigger group tomorrow as the Cincinnati contingent will be joining us for at least some of the ride, the UW Madison team will be along, Mary's husband Jay is arriving tonight from Loveland and Kat Clark is coming in for the rest of the week.
Thanks for reading - I think I'll just go put my feet up, read and relax for a while...
