Real winter...

...  usually has some snow and today we got to ride in plenty!

Sunday Ride

Friday Ride

It felt a bit like a real winter group ride when all of a sudden Dave and crew (Dave from Hardcore) showed up at Cadence. They were out for a coffee shop to coffee shop ride for his birthday. It was tempting to join this ride as it was snowing and blowing pretty hard at that time. But since I rode coffee shop ride yesterday it was time to explore today. So Craig and I stuck to the plan (sort of, skipped north and went west). The neat thing about winter riding is that the same routes never feel like the same ride; we did the same Friday loop but more than doubled the time to Cochrane, the challenges was different than any other time going to Cochrane. The snow deeper and wetter than before. It was mostly ridable but grinding pace and some train tracks to make distance. It felt like a hard work, and when we got to our coffee stop almost 3 hours later I was ready for a break and food!

No ride goes without good coffee!

On our way home we stuck to gravel roads but ended the ride with some fun single track back to Valley Ridge and the new shortcut into Bowness. Had a minor crash when a big hole in the sidewalk (dug on purpose but not marked) was hidden under the snow and I rode into it. After a whole day in deep snow and slick trail I had to crash on the sidewalk! Lesson learned, never loose focus!
There was times today when we for a few minutes would touch nice packed snow on gravel roads and the sun tried to get through, it reminded me of what to come :)

A few clothing notes;

First, I finally found use of the fancy number mounting buttons we got in Spain a couple years back. I new I kept them for a reason. They are a perfect accessory for my too large outer pants. Now I fasten my bib shorts to the outer pants and there is no hanging bum to catch on the seat!

Second, winter boot update. Not sure it was much colder today than yesterday, maybe slightly, definitely a longer ride and usually after a stop, little tired and your feet are moist, I struggle to get warm when we go again. Today I never event felt even slightly cold. At times too hot! (Garmin says average of -3, wind was definitely from the north so felt colder). Walking on the floor in the coffee shop they feel like hikers with a nice soft rubber sole (and yes, I guess they really do look like it too...), hiking up some hills today they seem to have much better grip than any of my other riding shoes. So far so good, but if you're never riding much colder than today, I'd suggest looking at the model just down from this warmth as they do feel bulky when pedaling.

Lastly, poggies! Happy to have them back on! hands are nice and toasty, yes, a bit tricky at times when on single track and yes, they are terrible in side wind as we had plenty of today. But worth it!

Next, work week in Calgary! Feels like a treat, a few mid week commutes should be in the plans.

Happy Riding!