I woke up with aching muscles, saw the wind tearing petals off the potted plants outside my window and buried my head in the pillow for half an hour, putting off the inevitable. I struggled with my breakfast this morning (unheard of!) and got out on the bike.
Back on the road and back in the hills, but much more down than up today. The wind was all over the place! I had headwinds, sidewinds, tailwinds and sometimes all at once; mini tornadoes of dust swirling across the road and me swerving along the hard shoulder like a drunk. I was thankful that the little fluffy clouds of the morning had knitted themselves into a nice blanket by 10am. Still hot but bearable.
I made good progress, so I must have had more tailwinds than headwinds. The gusts from the side would push me off the road when I didn't have enough forward momentum. But the wind would also push me straight up hills at 25kmh and down them at a terrifying 45kmh, unwilling to pull on the brakes when I was making good progress.
At midday I was half way done and stopped for a burger, chips and chocolate milk (lunch of champions). At 1.30 I went past an orchard that had a shop and I filled up my empty water bottle with delicious fresh apple juice and ate apple pie.
I flew along in the afternoon with a tail / side wind and by 3pm I got to my designated stop for the day. But there was a sign saying 'Montreal 40km' and I thought 'what's another 40 when the wind is at your back?' and carried on. I was riding fast but kept having to detour on the magical disappearing cycle path and spent a lot of time on the pavement. Du-dum du-dum du-dum. It was raining hard by the time I got to the outskirts of town and I spent 20 minutes riding around a park in a rage, soaking wet, trying to find a way across the river. Once in town, I was on hotel-hunt and saw a Hilton up ahead. Yes please!
So today was good and I did 127km in total. Woohoo!
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