WOW: Hardcore Points

Waiting n the parking lot to begin.

Joy here...Two weeks ago, I went for my first ride with the Women on Wheels (WOW) riders who meet up in the park on Wednesday nights, and while I had to miss last week's ride, I wasn't about to miss this week's, so out I went under a blue sky towards the parking lot where we would all meet.

The day was hot - around 25C - and while there seemed to be a storm system moving all around Ottawa, I didn't even think that there might be a threat of rain.  I didn't bring a rain jacket.  I didn't bring a change of clothes.  I didn't bring a towel.

Big mistake.

All of them.

As a few women gathered around in the parking lot, the sky began to look gloomier and gloomier as dark and threatening clouds rolled in.  When the starting time (6pm) came, we decided to give it a shot, and so 8 of us headed out in two neat rows of 4 rotating in a line and practicing group riding techniques.  All was going well so far.

The blue sky staring to be edged out by
the incoming rain clouds.

Then as we approached Pink Lake, one of the more experienced riders - an ex-bike racer who actually sped past me in this week's Time Trial, finishing an impressive 5th to my 9th place - said to the group, "I'm just going to ride at my own pace; meet you at the top," and off she went.  Well, like a bull seeing the flapping red cape of a taunting matador, I was off after her.  I chased her up that hill and stayed about 200m behind her the whole way up, but just wasn't able to reach her before the climb levelled out.  Nonetheless, the two of us were quite a bit ahead of the rest of the group behind us.  When we all regrouped at the top, 2 of the original 8 decided to turn around and head for home.

They were the smart ones.

The rest of us carried onwards.  Then, the rain started.  At first it was just a little sprinkling, and we figured that we weren't made of sugar, we could just keep on going.  Then it started to rain a lot harder, and we all began to have second thoughts.  And then as I was tearing down one of the descents, the rain was pelting me and hail began to ding off my helmet and pelt my face and legs.  As I got to the bottom of the descent to wait for the other 5 riders, the first loud crack of thunder broke the charcoal sky to bits and lighting lit us up, giving us the very clear message that our ride was over for the day.

That sky should have been a clear warning
to us to cut our losses and just go home!

4 of the other riders met me at the bottom of that hill, and we decided to ride back safely to the parking lot, not worrying about speed or time, but just being safe.  1 never made it to the bottom of that hill, because she wisely turned back as soon as the rain began to pelt.

So 5 of us started our painful ride back, with rain falling in sheets and flooding the street in rivulets of flowing water and spray coming off the wheels of the rider in front of you, you could barely see where you were going.  If I kept my sunglasses on, I couldn't see because they were fogged with the humidity and splattered with rain, but if I took them off, I couldn't see through the rain, and my bare eyes were getting pelted with water and grit from the road.  It was a lose-lose scenario, and so I just did my best to swap between glasses/no glasses as we rode along.  Then as we passed under a bridge and gained the brief shelter accorded by the overpass, one of the riders decided to wait out the worst of the rain there.

Out of our original 8, we were now down to 4.  Onward we trundled:  wet, cold, covered in goosbumps, unable to see properly, and afraid of crashing out.  But we made it back to the parking lot, waved each other off, and huddled in the warmth of our cars.

All in all, we pulled off a 27km ride (only 15kms shy of what our original aim was), earning some serious hardcore points along the way!

Over and out,
Joy