I was dying to ride my new Windsor Tourist that I bought a month ago from bikesdirect.com (I’ll post pics soon!) So yesterday, I set out with tlp to do McCammon and back. The temperature was a balmy 45 degrees or so, but the wind was blowing steadily from the south at about 15 mph. This made the trip to Inkom and McCammon terribly slow, but this gave me time to tinker with the Tiagra STI shifting on my new bike.
We stopped in Inkom, refilled bottles, and then cycled the hilly Marsh Creek Road to McCammon. About 5 miles before McCammon, tlp and I started feeling pretty fatigued and hungry, so we ate nearly all my granola bars (you owe me big time, tlp! ;-p), and kept going. The part I love most about this leg of this route is the steep decent on Merrill Road; however the wind totally ruined this for me. Sigh.
We stopped at the Flying J in McCammon and relaxed for a bit. I pondered whether or not I should buy some food, but just ate my last granola instead. On the way back to Inkom, as we had predicted, the stiff wind made 25 mph very easy. We were able to sustain 30 mph at some point and it felt very good after the slow southward ride.
Stopping off at the Inkom gas station on the return trip was very welcome. I was feeling pretty damn fatigued and my ass was sore. I either need to get used to the new saddle, break it in, or get a different one. I bought a bag of munchies at the gas station and scarfed a few handfuls and then we began the ride home. Going east to Pocatello from Inkom wasn’t very thrilling; I was tired and the south wind was blowing our left side the whole way. Yawn.
Ah, well, not a bad first-long-ass-ride-of-the-year. Can’t wait to see how much better I can do next time. I still have to put my front fender on and some SPD pedals. Oh, and I’ll probably readjust the front derailleur.
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