TipToe Through the Tulips

A small armada of us made our way to Mt Vernon today to ride the Tulip Pedal. There were 8 of us in all.  The plan was to ride the 60 mile route. It was supposed to be a nice day but as we drove up I-5 we were in nonstop rain. By the time we got to Mt Vernon everyone else decided to ride the 40 mile route instead. Our group milled around the start for quite some time trying to get organized.  I had still hoped to ride the 60 as we shoved off.

At each rest stop, and each photo opportunity the waiting to regroup and roll took way longer than it should have.  By the time I got to where the 40 and 60 mile routes diverged, it was way too late to consider. I did get a few photos of tulip fields.

The route crossed the Skagit River a couple of times.  In my previous life I had rafted it several times, though higher up, on Bald Eagle viewing trips.

I didn't get the miles I had hoped for, but did get one good workout in.  We were riding into a pretty brisk headwind at one point.  I was trailing one of the women in our group by about 20 feet.  She came up behind a couple of slower riders.  She took a look over her shoulder, barked a "on your left", then stood on the pedals and passed them.  I did likewise, then rolled up next to her and joked, "Wow, what got into YOU?".
She replied she just wanted to get this stretch into the wind over with.  I figured that was a good enough reason.  I put the power to the pedals and brought the bike up to 18 mph (into a ~15mph headwind) and held it there for the ~.8 mile to the stop sign. That brought up the heart rate!

It was a good day, no rain as we rode, though as mentioned earlier, it rained most of the way up, and it also rained most of the way back to Seattle.



  ................road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total

Today.............40...............0.............0..........0..............40 Jan..................93..............0..............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653..............0.............0.........0............653 April..............387.............0...............0.........0............387 Total.............1547.............0...............0.........0..........1547