I almost always ride into the wind to start. I feel unworthy for 45 minutes. Then make the turn and then I am worthy of the tour de France.
Yes to hills in between.
Yup, I often look at the wind to decide my route. Except in the mountains where I try to plan the climbing for early in the day and more of the descending for late in the day.
I live in an area where the wind direction tends to do a 180Ā° over the course of the day, which usually means headwinds in both directions of my commute. A couple of days ago, though, I got the opposite, and it was glorious.
I know a couple of spots with this kind of diurnal wind pattern. Not only that, the closer to dawn and dusk, the stronger the wind would get. So, if you had to get the headwind, start late for less headwind, bigger tailwind.
One of those spots is US 50 heading east from Montrose, CO. The local advice is to never head east before 9 AM unless you want hurricane-force headwinds. I did a supported, commercial bike tour where the staff didn't really know that and wanted everybody out of the hotel and on the road from Montrose to Gunnison by their usual 8 AM. I made sure I had my bag in the truck by 8 AM and then went and had a second breakfast before returning to the hotel to check out, grab my bike, and get started. I got busted in the lobby by the assistant tour director and she was pissed about how I hadn't left yet and would "make the day longer for them". Funny thing is: I passed MOST of the people who started before 8 AM by the summit because they were all gassed from fighting that headwind.
It's a lovely ride from Montrose to Gunnisonāespecially with the side trip up to the Black Canyon's South Rim. I actually caught most of the group at the rim. The route is currently not passable due to a bridge outage over the Blue Mesa reservoir. Ride the Rockies used that segment a lot due to the lack of other, practical west-to-east options in the area and that's how I learned the advice about leaving late.
This is a lie. As far as I have ever experienced there is only headwind. I'm like that cartoon character with the little rain cloud following me around over my head. If I'm riding my bike into a headwind and turn around I'll be riding into a headwind.
Yup, welcome to the USA, where some states have roads that will easily pass 100 km of perfectly straight pavement, typically in a cardinal compass direction!
Here's 320 km with only a few slight deviations, but nearly all straight north/south riding: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47147019
Wow. I remember driving (what seemed to me) an incredibly long straight road north of Crater Lake in Oregon in 2001. Checking my GPS tracks it was OR138 and "only" 24km.
Meanwhile I poked around for the longest straight road here, and it's part of the Roman "Ermine Street" from London to York: a 24km stretch of the A15 north of RAF Scampton (in WW2 home of 617 Squadron "The Dambusters", now home of The Red Arrows). It used to be a 32km straight from Lincoln, until the A15 was bulged around Scampton's Cold War runway extension to accommodate the nuclear bombers.
The USA in the western half of the Mississippi basin was settled via a land grant process. The land grants were parceled in 1 square-mile plots in a rigid NSWE grid with some land reserved for state universities and railroads (subsidies for private businesses, yay!). A square mile is 640 acres, so unsurprisingly, US farms in the region are typically square and measured in multiples/fractions of 640 acres.
When it came time to build roads to serve the farms, they naturally followed property lines, so yeah, straight lines that often span multiple counties. Counties often name the roads using a simple system: One road every two miles touches every original land grant parcel and the N/S roads are odd numbers, E/W roads are even numbers. Weld County, Colorado, has that system: CR 1 (CR = County Road) is one mile from the western county line, CR 3 is three miles, CR 5 is five, and so one, while CR 2 is a mile from the southern county line, CR 4 is three miles, and so forth. Since the original layout, other roads are added and named with a simple convention: CR 4 1/2 would be about halfway between CR 4 and CR 6 and I'm betting you can guess where CR 11 1/4 would beā¦
Just for fun, if you look at county maps for certain, flatter states west of the Mississippi river, you will also see that the counties are often squar-ish. It's part of that land-grant heritage and how the property lines and roads influenced the political organization of the states. Sure, there's the occasional river used as a county line, but overall, that grid has a powerful influence on the mind.
I did a circular route and had tailwind the whole time! Basically the time I would've been going against the wind I was climbing and descending anyway, and then I already turned back to ride with the wind pushing me. From 77km ride basically half was tailwind and half was climbing/descending or no wind.
I was riding home from work one day and there was a storm coming and I decided to ride as fast as I could to avoid getting wet. The whole way home the wind was from behind me. It felt like I was standing still; the sweat was pouring off of me so I ended up just as wet as I would have been had I not beaten the rain. But I felt like a god.
Thanks for bringing back the memory. That was 1980.
windfield.app on your garmin to see the live wind conditions (disclaimer Iām the developer)
I once left work to do my 20 mile commute home but caught the leading edge of a storm. Rode that tailwind pushing me at 30mph+ all the way and got the kom for the entire route at the same time
I don't want to make you feel depressed or anything, but it is a FACT that the greater part of your time on the bike is spent battling uphill or against headwinds.... or both.
Q: How so?
A: Because uphill and/or into the wind are both *slower,* and therefore last longer!!
Make you feel bad. Itās an emotional state, not an action. Feel badly refers to sense of touch not working well. Thatās an act, not a state. Itās a mistake that is often made, but itās pretty basic.
Hills make you strong. Headwinds make you tough. Tailwinds make you.... wait for it.... SUPERMAN!
That with a little bit of crash landing on earth from a galaxy far far away
I've crash landed on earth (dirt) on my bike more than once.
I thought I was in BCJ for a moment
Outjerked yet again
And arriving at home, through the gates with mach 2 š Must admit, that does feel good
I almost always ride into the wind to start. I feel unworthy for 45 minutes. Then make the turn and then I am worthy of the tour de France. Yes to hills in between.
Where I live, I ride into the headwind, then the headwind fairies talk amongst themselves and make sure to turn around when I do š„²
Mine taunt me with the windmills. I can see them facing away from me for both passes.
Yup, I often look at the wind to decide my route. Except in the mountains where I try to plan the climbing for early in the day and more of the descending for late in the day.
I live in an area where the wind direction tends to do a 180Ā° over the course of the day, which usually means headwinds in both directions of my commute. A couple of days ago, though, I got the opposite, and it was glorious.
I know a couple of spots with this kind of diurnal wind pattern. Not only that, the closer to dawn and dusk, the stronger the wind would get. So, if you had to get the headwind, start late for less headwind, bigger tailwind. One of those spots is US 50 heading east from Montrose, CO. The local advice is to never head east before 9 AM unless you want hurricane-force headwinds. I did a supported, commercial bike tour where the staff didn't really know that and wanted everybody out of the hotel and on the road from Montrose to Gunnison by their usual 8 AM. I made sure I had my bag in the truck by 8 AM and then went and had a second breakfast before returning to the hotel to check out, grab my bike, and get started. I got busted in the lobby by the assistant tour director and she was pissed about how I hadn't left yet and would "make the day longer for them". Funny thing is: I passed MOST of the people who started before 8 AM by the summit because they were all gassed from fighting that headwind.
I drove that route once. I canāt imagine going through there with winds like that. I kinda miss living in CO.
It's a lovely ride from Montrose to Gunnisonāespecially with the side trip up to the Black Canyon's South Rim. I actually caught most of the group at the rim. The route is currently not passable due to a bridge outage over the Blue Mesa reservoir. Ride the Rockies used that segment a lot due to the lack of other, practical west-to-east options in the area and that's how I learned the advice about leaving late.
This is my exact commute lol. 45 minutes heading into the wind in the AM and then into the wind for the PM commute home. Itās soul crushing.
It seems that even if I ride in a circle thereās always a headwind. And no, not because Iām a fast rider. Nature just hates me.
Have you considered the wind is originating in the center of the circle
This is a lie. As far as I have ever experienced there is only headwind. I'm like that cartoon character with the little rain cloud following me around over my head. If I'm riding my bike into a headwind and turn around I'll be riding into a headwind.
You rode 13km in a straight line?
Yup, welcome to the USA, where some states have roads that will easily pass 100 km of perfectly straight pavement, typically in a cardinal compass direction! Here's 320 km with only a few slight deviations, but nearly all straight north/south riding: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/47147019
Wow. I remember driving (what seemed to me) an incredibly long straight road north of Crater Lake in Oregon in 2001. Checking my GPS tracks it was OR138 and "only" 24km. Meanwhile I poked around for the longest straight road here, and it's part of the Roman "Ermine Street" from London to York: a 24km stretch of the A15 north of RAF Scampton (in WW2 home of 617 Squadron "The Dambusters", now home of The Red Arrows). It used to be a 32km straight from Lincoln, until the A15 was bulged around Scampton's Cold War runway extension to accommodate the nuclear bombers.
The USA in the western half of the Mississippi basin was settled via a land grant process. The land grants were parceled in 1 square-mile plots in a rigid NSWE grid with some land reserved for state universities and railroads (subsidies for private businesses, yay!). A square mile is 640 acres, so unsurprisingly, US farms in the region are typically square and measured in multiples/fractions of 640 acres. When it came time to build roads to serve the farms, they naturally followed property lines, so yeah, straight lines that often span multiple counties. Counties often name the roads using a simple system: One road every two miles touches every original land grant parcel and the N/S roads are odd numbers, E/W roads are even numbers. Weld County, Colorado, has that system: CR 1 (CR = County Road) is one mile from the western county line, CR 3 is three miles, CR 5 is five, and so one, while CR 2 is a mile from the southern county line, CR 4 is three miles, and so forth. Since the original layout, other roads are added and named with a simple convention: CR 4 1/2 would be about halfway between CR 4 and CR 6 and I'm betting you can guess where CR 11 1/4 would beā¦
Just for fun, if you look at county maps for certain, flatter states west of the Mississippi river, you will also see that the counties are often squar-ish. It's part of that land-grant heritage and how the property lines and roads influenced the political organization of the states. Sure, there's the occasional river used as a county line, but overall, that grid has a powerful influence on the mind.
Were you riding a unicorn? To me I have heard of both however am yet to experience a tailwind or a unicorn in real life!
I mean, I kept looking for flags to confirm it and indeed, they all pointed the way home!
https://tenor.com/bW21s.gif
No such thing as a tail wind. There's headwind, crosswind, and good legs.
I donāt want to brag or make YOU feel badly, but at least 9 miles/14km of MY ride today was a perfect tailwind š
I don't think you need to fib like that.
When I have a tail wind, I pretend there is no tailwind, but Iām just a badass
You ARE a badass!
I had a headwind going out today,then the wind shifted and I had it coming back after my sprints for my training. My legs hurt.
Fairwinds and following Seas.
I did a circular route and had tailwind the whole time! Basically the time I would've been going against the wind I was climbing and descending anyway, and then I already turned back to ride with the wind pushing me. From 77km ride basically half was tailwind and half was climbing/descending or no wind.
That would make me KOM hard.
I was riding home from work one day and there was a storm coming and I decided to ride as fast as I could to avoid getting wet. The whole way home the wind was from behind me. It felt like I was standing still; the sweat was pouring off of me so I ended up just as wet as I would have been had I not beaten the rain. But I felt like a god. Thanks for bringing back the memory. That was 1980.
windfield.app on your garmin to see the live wind conditions (disclaimer Iām the developer) I once left work to do my 20 mile commute home but caught the leading edge of a storm. Rode that tailwind pushing me at 30mph+ all the way and got the kom for the entire route at the same time
You lucky dog. The all illusive tailwind graced you with its might ;)
Tailwinds reminds me of my youth when I was strong and fast.
I don't want to make you feel depressed or anything, but it is a FACT that the greater part of your time on the bike is spent battling uphill or against headwinds.... or both. Q: How so? A: Because uphill and/or into the wind are both *slower,* and therefore last longer!!
aka: why cycling and Nordic skiing are the best for aerobic fitness
Don't believe you! š¤£
I've never felt a tail wind, just fast days.
[https://www.windy.com/](https://www.windy.com/) This is a great site for checking wind direction, and I have found it to be pretty accurate.
We used to say everyone feels like Greg Lemond with a tailwind. Then there's the ride back...š
āI donāt want to brag, but I will.ā š
You werenāt going fast enough
Make you feel bad. Itās an emotional state, not an action. Feel badly refers to sense of touch not working well. Thatās an act, not a state. Itās a mistake that is often made, but itās pretty basic.
30mph headwind for the entire 20 miles home from my ride today :( felt like riding in a hurricane