Ride home for Wednesday, 18 January

After seeing a weather warning of high winds I was a bit dubious about the ride home; 50km/hr winds with 80km/hr gusts sounded a bit iffy. Starting out along Market Street was pretty painful, I was in second gear on the granny ring and it was still a real effort. Once I got over to Spring Garden Road the story changed, and almost every wind was a tailwind - most bizarre, and something that's never happened for me before. The strongest gust was probably when I got onto Bayer's Road from Romans Avenue; I went from a standing start to 40km/hr in about 35 metres as I got a massive gust pushing me along - I even managed to out-accelerate a minivan that was trying to overtake me in the other lane! The tailwinds continued the whole way, up the steep hills, all the way home - no matter which way I turned, the tailwinds seemed to follow me. I doubt it'll happen again for a long time, but I really enjoyed it while it lasted!

Muppet of the day was a woman in a minivan who tried to overtake me about 10 metres from the intersection of Dunbrack and Main; I wanted to go straight ahead, but because the minivan cut me off and stopped with the rear wheel right next to my front wheel, I continued up to the red light. As she started to turn into me I banged on her window a couple of times, which caused her to start shouting at me. Since she had her windows rolled up, I have no idea what she was saying, but I'm sure it was less than complimentary. As the light then turned green I rode across, with her leaning on the horn as if it would help matters (ie, not at all).

Distance logged: 14.140km
Time: 42:05
Average speed: 20.2km/hr
Max speed: 47.2 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, windy, damp
Cumulative distance: 289.297km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.53
Monthly distance: 289.297km
Monthly cost per km: $0.53