Green December

This post is for all my Minnesota cycling friends. I love you, and I hope this gives you ...hope.

Woke up this morning, looked out the window. The sky was BLUE! Here, this is very much a rarity. Seeing blue sky is like like seeing sapphires in a coal pit - so I decided to take advantage of it. I GU-ed up my water bottles, packed some food and headed out for a four hour ride. I took the normal route out of the city, riding west on Great Western Road. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing remotely western about this road, but the Scottish are obsessed with cowboys and and old western movies so I guess its appropriately named. After I battled some Sunday morning church traffic I was in the country and free to roam...


This is one of my favorite sights. About an hour riding out of Glasgow, a massive lump of land just rises out of a field. If you look closely, there are a bunch of sheep and highland cows in the foreground. Before I leave I might go and try to climb it.

So on I went, through a bunch of small little parishes and more fields and more puddles. The roads are thickly lined with hedges or ancient moss-obscured stone walls. To make things more interesting, there aren't any shoulders. But I've found that the motorists are polite and considerate, and they just wait until they can clearly see that there aren't any cars coming and pass in the other lane. Because the roads are often curvy for a very very long time, you get a pile up of vehicles behind you. Then the cars start rely on you to wave them by. I often think about what would happen if I accidentally waved a motorist into oncoming traffic... its obviously a SERIOUS situation, but somehow, it comes up funny in my head and I start giggling... revenge of the cyclists!!!

I've talked about Crow Road before, and that's where I went again today. This time I timed it, and I was climbing for 30 minutes. I started to get a little bit of vertigo on the road today, so I had to stop looking off the edge. It was great to crank up the whole thing, I was feeling fantastic. I think that all the hours in the weight room are paying off this year.

After I got to the top, I stopped to take a picture. It had snowed yesterday, but all of it was melting quickly. You can kind of see where the road winds through the glen in the distance...


Then I hit the descent. That's when I found out why all of the riders were passing me going in opposite direction. The road was practically underwater from melting snow, and the speed resulted in a nice ice cold rooster tail. Despite the water, I put on my clear glasses and totally gunned it. I was on my mountain bike and it crushed the little snow piles... I think that I had too much fun running them over. Thankfully, my Arcteryx jacket saved me from the water (that jacket is made in heaven) and my core stayed warm until I hit the bottom.

Descending...

Still descending into greener pastures... Look you can see the snow covered highlands!!!

When I finally got to the bottom I was cold. So instead of continuing forward, I turned around. I have no idea what compelled me, but I went straight up Crow Road again.

The final descent...

If you can't tell, Crow Road is my favorite route. But Scotland isn't all great riding. For one, its not the Pyrenees, and its not sunny and hot. The city center is a huge pain in the ass, and any ride shorter than 2 hours is punctuated by stopping incessantly for traffic lights and pedestrians. Good news is I'm going to Norway in a little over a week, and they don't have snow! Can you say fjord riding???

Soon, I will be back in Minnesota with the snow and cold. Although it will be bittersweet I will not complain. I am way too pumped for indoor training and all of Billy's hard sprint workouts! Bring it on! And of course, jersey-zip racing with Pat. Be forewarned, I'm going to fill my Ipod with horrible rap music and bring it to practice. Timbaland...Kanye...Rihanna... yeah!!!!!!

One more thing. I'm entering Artcrank this year! Should be awesome. I love bikes.

0x00x0x steph