Week Fourteen - Day One

BIKE: Mike
TIME THERE: 29 min.
TIME BACK: 35 min.
WEATHER: partly cloudy, 1C (-3C with windchill), 13km/hr wind there; cloudy, -1C (-7C with windchill), 24km/hr wind back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, turtleneck, waterproof shell, double gloves (missing one on the way home!), scarf
NOTES:
It snowed this afternoon. As I was leaving work, a co-worker warned me, "It's awfully slippery out there. Be careful!" Shit. I pulled on my double-gloves and noticed that one of my running gloves, which usually has a powder-blue cotton glove tucked inside, was all naked in there. Somewhere along the way between locking up my bike this morning and getting into my office, I lost one of the "double" parts of my double gloves. Alas! My left hand would have to be a little bit chillier than the right on the way home from work today.

The terrain on the way home was a combination of slush, fresh snow, and ice, which made for some pretty cautious riding (hence taking 35 freakin' minutes to get home!). On the way to work this morning, the roads had been largely cleared between the rain and the mild weather last week, leaving only half-block patches of ice cover to contend with on some of the side roads and nothing to slow me down on the main roads. On the way to school, I rode slowly and cautiously over ice, and even on clear turns I tended to slow down just in case there was any ice I couldn't see. So when I hit a run of clear pavement, I pushed myself to pedal hard, telling myself repeatedly, "make it there under 30!!" By making up speed on the dry pavement that I lost on the ice, I managed to get to work in 29 minutes - wahoo, yay me! But the ride home, with the added new snow, was slow, cautious, and loooong.

The crazy thing is that as I was riding home, slowing down dramatically to cautiously wince my way around a curve in a residential road in the neighbourhood of Oliver (just north of the river valley and the High Level Bridge), I looked up just in time to see an oncoming cyclist whip through the turn and speed past me. Really, Mr. Tight Pants, was that necessary? As much as my first inclination is to mutter "jackass" under my breath whenever I see better cyclists than me, this time I was just truly confounded. How the hell did he make that turn so fast without wiping out? The turn wasn't really icy, per se, but there was definitely some snow cover that may have melted and may have turned into ice in that general area. Is it that he had a speedy combination of studded tires and confidence, so he didn't feel the need (like some people do) to practically stop his bike and walk it around the curve in case there might be ice on the road? Seeing this guy got me thinking: maybe I don't have to be that cavalier, but perhaps I could stand to be a little more confident on the bike, especially when riding with studded tires.

I think what I could really benefit from is to try goofing around with Mike and the Studs sometime. I should just find a calm, car-free piece of road or sidewalk and practice making hard stops, speeding up and dramatically slowing down, making sharp turns, etc. If I do that, I'll be able to determine the limits of the studded tires: what I can get away with and what I can't, at what point I fall over, etc. That would be remarkably helpful to know. I'll then be better prepared to make the combination of the fastest safest ride I can have, and that's exactly what I need as a daily commuter.