Everything’s growing in the yard, including
the amount of time I spend mowing it.
Yesterday was one of those days when you stare into the kit drawer thinking, “Fuck it, I’ll just take it all.”
The temperature was 33 degrees when I first checked in the ayem, and topped out at 74. That’s quite a range. Had it been a song, not even Roy Orbison could’ve sung it.
Steelman Eurocross No. 1 on the high side of Tramway Lane.
Oddly, it never felt quite that warm; not to me, anyway. El Rancho Pendejo is a dark house, lodged at the bottom of a cul-de-sac, and cool morning air drifts down the hill and surrounds the joint like bad news, delivering an inaccurate perception of the actual conditions outside.
Thus I whiled away the morning serving the cats, performing domestic chores, and shouting at various websites, and didn’t start my ride until noonish.
I set out with arm and knee warmers. But while I pulled the arm bits off toward the end, the knee ones stayed on, in accordance with the Bostick Rule, which went something like “Cover your knees under 65 degrees.”
What a beautiful day for a two-hour ride on a cyclocross bike*, though. A little pavement, a little dirt, a lot of laughs. You won’t catch me crying on a day like that.
* Batteries not included.
Mad Blog Media 
April 15, 2019 at 9:08 am |
As per my email to the Mad Dog, topography counts for somethin’
On Saturday I added a bit of climbing to a recently discovered short loop in Fanta Se and headed up Hyde Park Road towards the mountains. It was high forties in town. I climbed Hyde Park until I was just past Thousand Waves and hit a wall of corn snow, so in the words of Monty Python, “Poor Sir Spencer ran away, bravely ran away”. Interesting. Riding downhill at 35 mph while being pummeled by 1 cm. diameter corn snow was a new and not altogether great experience but at least I didn’t drop the bike when the road turned white.
Got home soggy and cold, but it was fun. Fun in one of those “gee, that was awful but it was fun” ways.
April 15, 2019 at 11:27 am |
We always call those kinds of rides a “hard slog.” First time I heard that phrase was when Stuart O’Grady used it about a cold and wet mountain stage in the tour. And, I am a firm beleiver in the Bostick (whoever that is) rule. That’s why they invented knickers.
Good on ya for getting out! The longer I have to wait to ride, the smaller the chance I will ride at all. And, I really like that Steelman. Must have stopped for the pic at the top of a climb.
April 15, 2019 at 12:16 pm |
Sunday in Napoli the weather played tricks on us, so it was Paris-Roubaix on the boob toob with some grocery shopping thrown in during the early kilometers. But today we got out to mix it up with the chaotic traffic – I think they should go back to making car doors like they did originally. That way when the dolt inside fails to look and opens it in your way you can just bounce off the thing, slamming it closed. Too bad about whatever part of the motorist is sticking out and gets smashed – next time LOOK before you open the damn door! Then there are the scooters! But then there’s the pizza when you get back….we have barely a month left here now.