Ride Saturday, September 14

The rain and winds will clear and we’ll have good weather for our group ride Saturday. We’ll use our 56-mile route south to Cannon Falls and follow the route counter-clockwise — the opposite direction from a few weeks ago. The weather will be a bit cooler Saturday (54–66 degrees), light SSE winds, and a mix of clouds and sun. Arm warmers and/or a vest may be good kit to include on your ride.

Did you see what the cross winds did to the pros at La Vuelta on Stage 17? When the pros have trouble following wheels, and make big time gaps, you can see how hard it is to stay on the wheel in front of you in the cross winds, and that’s why I try to avoid cross winds for our rides. We want to keep everyone together, while they were trying to gain time, and they did.

If you’re interested in racing or watching cyclo-cross, the season is starting now. The Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup starts this weekend in Iowa City with more U.S. races next weekend in Madison. The Yorkshire 2019 UCI Road World Championships are also coming, September 22–29. All of these races are shown on NBC’s Olympic channel and online. USA Cycling has selected a powerful women’s team for the road race, and we have many other top riders for the other races.