at least I still have the road bike

After a bike is stolen, it's a good time to be glad you had more than one bike. Although my prime commuter bike was taken from me, I still have Silver, my step-through commuter bike. I used that bike early last week, before it snowed.

More than two bikes. I still have my winter bike, Miranda. I pulled that bike out last week when it snowed.


Ahem. More than three bikes. I still have Milly, my blue road bike. I haven't ridden this bike a lot yet this year. I went for a short ride last week, when the wind was reportedly 50 km/hour. I have never had a more scary ride. It was sort of OK riding west. Hard but manageable. It was fine riding south. But when I headed east, it was as if I had an invisible force pushing me along. I did, in fact. I hardly had to pedal to get my speed up over 40 km/hour. It was a tad scary. Then when I turned north, it was all I could do to stay on the road. I was seriously afraid I was going to end up in one of the ponds that line the east side of the road. Never have I been more relived to see my destination -- this time the car windshield shop -- before me.

 And today I rode just over 30 km. It was a gorgeous day, with just a little bit of a southeast wind. After I'd started riding, I realized I'd forgotten my water bottle. Not a big deal; I don't mind riding for a couple of hours without water. But I have this fear that I will get caught out -- maybe something will happen to my bike and someone will stop to help me and see that I don't even have any water. So I always bring water, just in case. But this time I forgot. I have to get back into the habit.

I was a little over-dressed -- shouldn't have worn the turtleneck -- and my feet were just a bit cold, but otherwise it was a decent ride.

 

 It was a beautiful day, about 12 C and fairly sunny. There were a lot of other cyclists out, all guys.