I've learned this lesson the hard way before. An afternoon training ride in the mountains can turn into a hypothermic nightmare. One of my favorite road rides is Golden Gate Canyon because of the sheer amount of hard climbing in a relatively short amount of time. The ride takes you over three big climbs . . .
. . . and ends up at Peak to Peak highway.
Unfortunately, Jen and I marched up the mountains with the slightest tail wind (which was great), but we turned around to come back down and it was beyond cold. We barely made it 5 miles to the visitor's center where we found a fireplace and some very nice people. Jen actually used the hand dryer in the bathroom for the warm air so much that it blew a fuse. After warming up for an hour or so, we had to hitch a ride down the mountain. This nice couple from NY crammed us into their small Jeep and strapped our bikes to the back.
You know it's cold when your water bottles freeze on the ride.
Next up:
I'm working on a post-race report for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo down in Tucson, AZ. I chose to run support and not do the race. I didn't know it going into the event, but one of my roles was going to be 'cactus needle extraction'.
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