How ironic that I’m disappointed in this-morning’s ride because it didn’t rain. But after last night’s weather forecast… 100% chance of rain from 7am-11am… how could it miss? Kevin and I got out everything. All the nasty-weather gear, charged up all the lights (figured in really nasty conditions we’d be needing our most-powerful headlights), and went to bed thinking we’d be woken up by howling wind and rain striking the windows in the middle of the night.

Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It rained not a single drop on us. It was as if we were being protected by a “no-rain zone”, a big hole in the green (the color of rain on the weather map). It’s not as if it looked exactly friendly looking out the kitchen window as we made coffee and got ready to ride, but it didn’t look like that one epic day of rain we were expecting either.

It gets worse. Heading out on my rain bike, loaded with stuff I wasn’t going to need (like a heavy plastic rain jacket), Kevin and I immediately run into Nigel, heading up Jefferson to the start of the ride. And Nigel has his “nice” bike, the Madone 5.1 he picked up last week, the bike that makes him even faster than normal. And me, I’m feeling, well, tired & slow & old & broken. Just one of those high-gravity mornings, y’know?

It still gets worse. At the base of the climb Kevin (pilot), Kevin (son), Nigel and I are joined by Marcus, again on on light bike with no fenders, no rain gear. To say I struggled and was far behind on Kings is an understatement. I even wondered what the point was, after I lost sight of everyone, before half-way up the hill. Thankfully I recovered enough to suck wheels for the rest of the ride, and finished feeling better than I thought and much better than if I hadn’t ridden at all. But no epic conditions, no cool video to show. Another day. –Mike–