The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind

"The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind". That was rough, properly rough. Five of us met up at Forestside and I gave out high fives just for getting that far, although standing there in the shelter you could've been forgiven for thinking the weather was fine. With the wind, no one was planning on a long one but we at least thought it couldn't get worse - it did....

The idea was to keep between the hedges and we ended up behind one to fix Sean's puncture. Remounted we bulldozed on, trying to zig-zag into the wind. When we got caught in a deluge between Temple and Saintfield the Big Lad turned for home while the rest of us gunned it to get warm and try to outrun the storm.

By Saintfield the rain was somewhere over Bangor (the wind was that strong) as we turned back into it. At one point we had possibly the worst wind/rain I've ever experienced on a bike (the day we considered leaving two riders to die up a mountain in Gran Canaria still counts as worst overall weather - you know who you are). The rain/hail was hitting that hard it cut my lip. Looking ahead was almost impossible and "log left" was the day's most common shout.

More back roads for safety, soon brought us back to Carryduff and relative safety, although I did come close to ditching in a hedge a couple of times. Respect to the brave and foolish. Quote of the day goes to Sean for "I hate myself, but I hate you more". Sure aren't you glad you did it?!‪#‎rule9‬ ‪#‎badass‬

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/441329779

Categories: Ride, Strava