The forecast for the weekend looked good; Saturday 84 degrees with significant wind but from the WNW; Sunday cool with wind from the ESE. So much for the accuracy of weather forecasts!
Saturday morning Team Squash met at 6:15 for our team photo and eight of us taking the 100-mile route pedaled off into the morning. It was comfortable, 68 degrees, but we soon discovered that the 16 MPH winds were not at our tail, but headwinds; that makes for a lot more work. As it warmed up my thermometer kept climbing reaching a high of 95 degrees. Despite the wind and heat we kept a blistering pace. The incentive that kept me going the last 20 miles was a cold beer waiting form me in a cooler at the finish.
Great day riding with good friends! Team Squash always has the largest and loudest cheering section at the finish line and this year it looked even larger; even Wayne and Penny were there (word is Wayne took notice of a tandem…).
Sunday morning it was a nice cool 62 degrees, perfect for cycling! The nine members of Team Squash that were riding today met for breakfast and then headed out of town for the 75-mile ride back. The route out of Ocean City has two bridges and after the second bridge, there were only four of us together. Again, the wind was in our faces but today only 10 MPH, the group of four kept going as we expected to keep a more rigorous pace to finish early.
Today the clouds kept the temperature down, my thermometer never got over 69 degrees, and we were able to work comfortably. As we neared the finish we caught a large peloton of very fast riders; we sucked onto the back of that pack and raced into the finish, exhilarating! Two miles from the finish we could feel drops of rain; but we finished dry (route on RidewithGPS).
Another great event; Team Squash raised over $27,000 and the event over $4.5 million for MS! Thanks to all that supported me.
