A lot of people have welcomed Winter with open arms in Ottawa but I just see it as the end of the cycling season. Bah! Humbug! I have been riding BlackAdder to work almost every day since I returned to Canada in September and had hoped to go into the second or third week of December before it got too messy.But Hope springs eternal! It was above freezing today and there was a whole lot of melting going on so I hope that the roads will be clear enough to ride on Monday. BlackAdder has 33 cm tires so going through the messy stuff will be a lot easier than when I used my old Gitane for commuting.
And if worst comes to worst, I can cheer up by looking at a site that my friend Will has directed me towards: it is dedicated to crazy people actually riding in ice and snow: Ice Biking! Although my favourite photo has to be the racer climbing Loveland Pass in his shorts during a snowstorm!
I may be able to eke out a few more rides before the big snowfall that shuts everything down but there will be no serious riding until April, I guess. So it is time to look into alternatives: I am going to spinning classes at the athletic club; there are lots of badminton clubs in Ottawa if I want to jump up and down for an evening each week; there is cross-country skiing, which has enough cachet that I will not lose much of my cycling coolness if I do it. Who knows--there may be new opportunities in winter yet.Still, I miss the sunny skies and the open road already!
2 comments:
Ha,
I bet that guy regretted wearing shorts on the downhill.
Uphill is easy and fun in atrocious weather, its going down that can be awful. (remember Bollon d'Alsace)
Cold weather means the road bike is retired here - black ice is too deadly, but my super warm balaclava means mountain bike season is worth risking and always worth a good story.
All the best
I actually rode my bike to work this morning. As I went past the first two streets--which were filled with ice--I was thinking I must be nuts but then when I came to what I thought would be the worst section I saw that the path had been cleared and it was smooth sailing all the way in to work. Quit pleasant but that ice makes you think hard about riding with cars around.
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