Got caught in the full-blast of the Santa Anas one morning. Simple river trail route I've done dozens of times, just a hair under 20 miles each way, usually get finished in around the 2 hour mark, give or take a little.

Got virtually no tailwind, it was almost windy for the 20 outbound miles. The wind started up shortly after I made my turnaround, and got progressively stronger as I got further north. By the worst of it, winds steady at 25mph, gusting to 50mph, and I was riding directly into the wind, and absolutely straight-on headwind. The return leg, which routinely takes 60-75 minutes, took two hours. My arms and back were sore for several days afterward. Just the absolute worst.

Wind doesn't have to be that strong to be bad, IMO. Monday this week it was quite windy, around 12-15mph, and Tuesday it was dead calm.

Monday: 27.5 miles, 1.45.41ET, 15.7mph, 239W avg. pwr, 135bpm avg. HR
Tuesday: 32.8 miles, 1.55.09ET, 17.1mph, 225W avg. pwr, 131bpm avg. HR

I got virtually no tailwind on Monday as well. The direction the wind was cutting from, the shortest leg of my route had the wind at my back-- less than 2 miles out of the 27.5 mile total. You win some, you lose some. We've got a full red flag warning today-- areas near the passes will have gusts 60-80mph. I'm taking the day off.