Congrats to
@steverob first to post a Feb ride . I did think you were going to go through the first Sat of the month without a ride being posted
Got to admit I'm pretty surprised I'm first as well! Especially considering I usually upload my ride to Strava straight away and post on here not long after, but today was feeling a bit lazy and didn't get round to doing anything on the internet until about 6pm (having finished my ride at about 1:30pm).
As for the ride itself, I was a bit frustrated. Had been planning a 55 mile ride over a specific route for a good few weeks now, but weather (both the physical kind and the 'feeling under the' varieties) had made it not happen on all the previous weekend opportunties. Today was the first day where the rain held off AND I felt pretty good, so I headed out.
A few miles in I realised that my route was going to be problematic - the first 20 or so miles (plus a chunk at the end of the ride) were going to be roughly in the same direction, which was into a 20+ mph headwind, gusting at 40+. At first this was amusing, then it became challenging and finally, when I had to do a part on a busy main road, started to get a bit scary as I was struggling to keep the bike straight at very slow speeds while cars were whizzing by me (some far too closely).
Deciding that I valued my safety a bit more than completing a specific distance, I quit the route at 10 miles and turned on to side roads, giving myself a crosswind, although I made sure the next bit of the ride was mainly on roads where the roadside trees and bushes were quite tall, giving me a bit more shelter than I'd got on that open main road bit. By the time I'd got to 20 miles, I felt I could then turn for home with a cross-tail for company and reached 30 miles when not far from my house - a circuitous route into my estate, plus once round the block, helped me to just tick over past 50km.
