Originally Posted by
andrewclaus
That's cool. For every rule there is an exception! I'd love to have that attitude about wind. It's kind of funny, the other day I was a little upset with a tail wind! I was climbing the same speed as the wind and I was getting too hot with no breeze. I enjoyed the hill, but still complained about the wind!
I agree with you about not liking the descent. I'm usually the last one down, being very cautious and not so young any more. But I love climbing, maybe because to me, hills mean scenery and excitement (and welcome cooler weather here lately).
I'm of the opinion that I can see the scenery just fine from the bottom of the hill looking up.
The main reasons I don't mind the wind are:
a) I've only every been off the bicycle and walking in a wind once that I can remember. The wind was clocked at 160 km/h and I was knocked off my bicycle and ran for shelter.
b) Even in a fairly strong wind (let's say 50 or 60 km/h), I can still maintain something over 10 km/h.
However, on hills, I've been off and walking so many times I've long since lost count ... and when I cycle up a hill, I'm usually crawling along somewhere between about 4 and 7 km/h. I have discovered that 4 km/h is as slow as I can go without feeling in danger of tipping over, and I've done that speed up a hill more times than I can count because it was all I could manage.
So at least with wind, I'm usually managing something over 10 km/h ... that's twice what I'm doing up a hill.
Plus, after all those years in wind, I've learned to ride the wind (like how people in hilly areas learn to climb hills). Wind is never 100% consistent ... it gusts and shifts. And if you're really paying attention to the gust patterns and to land features (even a lone tree), you can use those things to make a sudden surge ahead.
I also ride wind differently than many people suggest ... what I've found works for me is to ride hard every time there is a slight break in the wind. That's not the time to rest, that's the time to cover some ground. You can knock off a decent distance in even a short break from the wind. Then when the wind really starts blowing again, I relax and rest into it ... waiting and watching for the next little break from the wind.
It's almost a game!
We rode the 7 Peaks Challenge in Victoria in 2011/12 ... 7 really good climbs, long with decent grades, some quite steep. I was very surprised I could make it up each one (there was a little bit of walking) ... so when I really psych myself up, I can climb ... very, very slowly. But because of a bad accident on a descent in 2007, I did not enjoy the descents. In places I was slower going down than going up.
