We're not in Kansas any more

So how wrong is it when you're in the middle of nowhere (about 40 miles from anything), the wind is gusting to 40 miles per hour, the thought "if it's like this all the way home, I'm going to cry" is circling through your head.. and the then you see it.... Saddle Sore Trail.

Dave, Stacy, Julie, Miller, Rice & myself drove out to Ocotillo, Ca to do the Stagecoach Century this morning. I had checked the weather courtesy of my iPhone... it was going to be a cool 88 degree F (down from the originally forecast 95 degrees, thank goodness!). There was a slight detail my precious iCrackPhone didn't tell me..... oh yeah.. little breezy today.

We open the car door in Ocotillo and nearly get our arms ripped off as the wind tears the door open. Oh crap. Uh Houston... this is going to SUCK! My concerns are belayed as the man inside the warm, comfy building states that the reports from the road state the wind settles about 10 miles down the road once you drop down into the canyon. Cool.. let's ride.

Yeah, it took 50 minutes to ride the first 10 miles. 6 of us, forming a nice eschelon, rotating & playing well with others.. just to try to maintain a whopping 10 mph. Ouch! Relentless head/cross wind from hell. Mother nature had a different plan from us.

With the exception of about 2 separate 1 miles stretches, the entire freaking 50 mile stretch was a battle of wills... the will not to turn around and go hide in the car. Even up the stupid climbs. Ugg.

But Bellas don't quit...

42 miles of battling ridiculous wind, we pass the lunch stop and still have 8 miles to go to the turn around. Stacy's pretty sure her mum would have washed her mouth out with soap by that point. That last 8 miles took about 45 minutes. It took six strong cyclist about 4:20 to travel the 50 miles.. and all we could think was "it better not be like this on the way back!"

We ate lunch, took a family picture, started off again for home, Julie pointed out the Saddle Sore Trail (just how wrong is that!), battled into 2 miles of headwind, and then flew home in a tick over 2 hours. I don't think I've ever maintained 35-42mph for such a distance ever. Even the 3 climbs we had to do coming home didn't slow us down too much.

So last week when I was whining and moaning in my blogventure over the wind at CA IM 70.3.... I had no idea what it could have been like! Oh my...

Thank goodness Shadow Tour provides such a well supplied century!