The wheelsucker’s girlfriend is very tolerant. So tolerant that even when the wheelsucker visits for one day on the weekend, he can go for a bike ride (the wheelsucker claims his coach forces him to do this). So tolerant that she says nothing when the wheelsucker heads out at 8:00AM when it is significantly below freezing and very windy.
The Vino Velo ride meets at the Art Museum in Philadelphia on Benjamin Franklin Parkway; of course ALL rides in the Philadelphia area start there. A small group, a surprising number of whom were first timers, followed an overly energized Bryant out of the circle behind the art museum. The wheelsucker was cold; everyone was cold. It gets worse first as the windchill takes its toll, but eventually the wheelsucker’s body warmed up, blood started to flow to extremities, and the feeling in his thumbs and fingers returned. The ride is apparently somewhat of a hammerfest in the warm season, but this was at a civilized pace. Riders joined on at some points, and dropped off at others. Though the wheelsucker was warming up (and congratulating himself on buying and wearing the ABRT warm winter jacket), it was still rather below freezing, as evidenced by the frozen-solid water in the gutters, and ice on the roads. While the group rolled through a number of intersections with the leader yelling "clear", the group also stopped at many; the wheelsucker noted with regret that Bryant was happy to jump after every such stop, forcing everyone else to jump to stay with him.
The ride returns along the river, and was partly into the wind. With only four riders going the distance, the two leaders pulled off and the wheelsucker and a still-recovering-from-some-horrible sickness Brit on a folding travel bicycle pulled through and took the lead. The wheelsucker had been careful to watch his power and his pulling all ride, but with the barn door in site, he held 240-300 to the Art Museum dragging the dying Brit with him, and somehow dropping the other two riders, without ever going hard.
This would be a great ride, thought the wheelsucker, if it was 45 degrees warmer.
High 36, low 27, WINDY, 44 miles, averages: 18.27mph, 168 watts.
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