Morning ride in Verdi

Woke up to a brisk but clear-as-a-bell mountain air morning! We've had this strange weather pattern this week. Snow blows over the Sierra's but doesn't ever stick. So you experience the beauty of the snow falling, but the roads are dry and clear and clean. In fact, one of the squalls that blew in did stick, but only to our grass. It was like some invisible man was out there shoveling the sidewalks/roads.

Anyway---the wind was already blowing this morning, but Mike was suiting up for a training ride. I was chickening out (I don't know what's come over me---I am suddenly a fair weather rider), but I really love my new bike and wanted to ride. So I geared up in all my new Campagnolo clothing (for a girl who's been selling the best for years I can't believe I never knew about this Campy line---it easily surpasses anything Assos/Castelli that I've ever used---both performance AND the way it looks---very Italian!)

Mike was heading to Verdi to do intervals. Verdi is so nestled into the mountains that I figured the wind might be less felt---so while I was certainly NOT planning on doing intervals, I'd head there as well. The other nice thing is that the wind was blowing from the West--so I could ride as much as I wanted into the wind and would have a nice tailwind on the way back home (Mt. Rose and Geiger Pass would have meant a head wind home).

There's just no traffic here. It makes such a difference to not have cars everywhere and to always have my own lane even if there were cars. I dropped a thousand feet into the Verdi-valley and just as I passed Sinclair I followed the Truckee River and warmed up in the small housing developments along the way. I ran into Mike hammering away like a skinny beast. How a skinny little body like his can go so fast is amazing. He thinks he weighs 170lbs...but I bet he's 165lbs. Anyway, there are these private roads that lead no-where...but you can climb for a mile or so and it begins to feel very "alpine". The air is crisp...and I think this time I am slowly integrating into the altitiude so my recovery is better and I am not as bothered. There's one climb that ends at Hennessy pass(?)---a dirt road that crosses into California. (You can ride the dirt on your road bike---).

I saw this little "beaver-like creature along one of the passes. I have no idea what it was, but it was cute. It looked like fat fur running across the road. It's all uphill back to our house...but this Ridley machine makes the climb up fun! I arrived home to a true Sydney Greeting (you'd think I was gone for 2 days instead of 2 hours!) and settled in to write to you. I hope your Saturday is lovely!