David Yang said:

Looks like a scene out of Star Wars. 

Shortly after the pic was taken, his bike was disabled and he crawled inside a tauntaun to survive.

Drove all the way out to glacier ridge this morning 
Seemed like good shelter from the wind , but the trails were un rideable for large section, even walking  was tough .

This Sunday looks to be quite rideable! Planning an easy Nyack and back, GWB at nine. 

Planning to be at BB beforehand if anyone riding up. 

8 am BB 9 am GWB

I confess I am 50/50 so don't wait if you don't see me. 

Looks to be a sunny morning. See you at GWB 9a. 

I’ll be there. Haven’t decided which bridge start at yet

I'll be there at 9am.  Turning back at 10am

Meet you at GWB

ill be at BB at 8:05

I parked in LIC today to get some easy extra miles to warm up. Unfortunately forgot my shoe covers. Found a cache of "sick bags" in the car (basically the same as doggie poop bags) so stuffed one each on top of each shoe. It worked just enough up to GWB, but the ol' toes were feeling it after an hour. I rolled up to the road from the bridge for a nature break and Pat happened to be parked next to the stone walls. After he cheered me on and we were waiting at the bridge he noted my lack of shoe covers, literally gave me the ones on his feet and headed back to the car to put on another pair he had. He's a scholar, a gentleman and also my hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAzMRKFX3c

The rest of the crew rolled in - Pat, Bret, Mark, Jeff C., Lennart, JP and ex-KCC Marc Bertucco - and we headed to the low roads. Zone 2 was on our minds and we kept it conversational through NJ. An absent minded driver coming out of a parking lot actually holding her phone in her hand just stopped short of smashing into us. We commiserated about the dangers of our hobby and I mentioned bird watching as a safer alternative. Pat and Lennart countered during mating and nesting season birds can become aggressive so you know, there is no safe hobby.

https://youtu.be/kkz9HI75R2c?si=v5KFhTOw8w2pamUj&t=37

State line came up and Pat was at the front motoring. Lennart moved out a bit from Pat's wheel sensing that I was probably going to go, but when I swung out from behind him he just looked at me knowingly as I ate wind. We were getting very close so I gave in and started sprinting - I couldn't even hit 1000w today, but everyone had Z2 on their minds so I ended up soloing out for the wind. I'll take it.

JP turned around about there and we kept moving. We decided to roll a bit longer so ended up in Nyack where Bertucco and Pat decided to get a little extra climbing and headed up to the orchards. The rest of us headed to the Coffee Ride Cafe - the one with the nice fire place in the old house. The place was jumping and the pastry case was emptying out at an alarming pace. Lennart seemingly got the last apple turnover (which was actually filled with applesauce, which frankly, was amazing). The counter person noted my audible disappointment (I need to learn how to keep my thoughts to myself) and told me to hang tight and procured one from the the kitchen. Amazing.

Caffeinated and warm, we Z2ed our way back through Piermont, up porn star hill (after all these years I'm honestly unsure why it's called this?) where Brett and Lennart decided to rip it up. We took a left up to Columbia and rode back up to 9W. Marc and Jeff decided to follow Pogi's training plan success and Z2ed it while Brett, Lennart and I decided to give it a little extra on the last climb.

As we slow rolled it waiting for Mark and Jeff, a fast group came flying by us and it was too tempting. We thought about it for a moment and in few seconds they were already 50m in front of us. Instinct took over and we decided to have a little fun and give it a chase. It took a bit of hard effort, but we caught the tail end as they slowed a bit up one of the rollers and asked if we could sit in and they were cool with it. We stopped on a red and when they wound back up, they were not messing around. I remembered to gear down to spin up and stuck with the wheel in front of me, hiding in the drops like a mouse huddled over a piece of cheese. Before I knew it, gas station came up and a few hit the sprint hard. I stuck to the wheel in front knowing I didn't have a chance. Everyone sort of sat up and rolled it in for the last Hudson Terrace sprint where I gave it a half hearted effort knowing I couldn't catch the big man in front of me.

I stashed the wonderful shoe covers Pat lent me at his parked car and regrouped with Lennart, Bret, Mark and Jeff. We rolled it easy back through the city where of course some impatient asshole honked at us as they were weaving through the traffic on 59th street. Lennart and I of course easily caught up to and passed them as they got stuck at the bridge traffic and we made it back into Queens.

####

TL;DR - It was a nice day out with friends and I can't wait to do it again with all of you. Hopefully I'll remember to bring shoe covers.

☮️

A first outdoors ride of the year couldn't have been better. I even managed to take two pictures, when at some point my hands were too warm for gloves.

Sunday 9am GWB?  

Sunday 16th, 9am @ GWB: Paceline practice on 9W. We'll do various paceline and attack drills, catch our breath over coffee in Piermont, and ride back over 9W with some more drills.

A suggestion for Sunday's ride: everyone set up a page on your bike computer, if you haven't already, that has elapsed time along with power, speed, heart rate and cadence.  

Anyone riding tomorrow? I’d love to do Sunday drillz, but not in the rain. Fair weather for me haha. 

my weather apps tell me it’s raining tomorrow, not Sunday!

My app shows rain Sunday night 
To quote Almeida “ cycling is not for softies”

Hmm. Mine def saying chance for rain on Sunday most of the day. But I mean who can trust NOAA these days anyway?

And Mark … you know I’m the softest. 

@BretSigler Just wear your wetsuit.

Neoprene aero gains v chafe losses: a real conundrum!!

Sorry. I’ll stop yucking yums … but also this! 

Will be at GWB at 9am but only doing the market n back. 

So...

It looks like rain starts around 3:30pm tomorrow.

Tomorrow Sunday Mar 16 8am BB, 9 am GWB. See you then.

Might meet you at BB. Looks like some gusts later in the morning but looking dry through the afternoon.

I'll be up early to get my bike back together.  Fingers crossed I didn't forget my seatpost in AZ. 🙃

I’ll be at GWB @ 9. I have to turn back around 10 to make sure I’m home by noon 

the NYC half marathon is tomorrow, it’ll go over the brooklyn bridge, plan accordingly 

Good call, I'll be at gwb 9a.