The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain…

The rain in Tantalus falls only on Chris and Root. I think Chris is of the opinion the whenever only he and I ride together, it will rain.  I think he may be more right than wrong, but if it’s not 100% then its not a fact. I hadn’t ridden for a week and the weather has been pretty clear, and today was even more so. As work was finishing, I stepped outside to take a look. Beautiful blue skies over town, toward Manoa it was gray and looked like some sprinkles. I called Chris and we decided to get out and go.

By the time we geared up and I rode out from my office, it was dark enough to require lights already. Felt a few raindrops as I turned up the road toward the Board of Water Supply park. Met up with Chris, exchanged pleasantries, and Chris commented on that it was dark and raining, all we needed was it for it to be cold. It was really only sprinkles and we headed up the hill. Like usual I struggled to keep up with Chris, and even before reaching the Museum of Arts I’d blown up and was feeling pretty lousy. I eased to a sustainable pace and trudged my way up. Didn’t get passed by the kid on the white road bike, twice, this time. In fact saw only one rider coming down, and the crazy downhill skateboarders going down with no lights.

Interesting thing with riding at night with only the cone of your headlight lighting the way, you tend to lose sense of distance. Landmarks just kind of pop out of the darkness and quickly disappear. And so I spun along and eventually made the happy landmark, the one lane road. Noticed the road was wet, but no matter, the road levels here for a breather. Felt a little better with this chance to recoup. About three turns away from the parking area we consider the top, it started raining. When I reached the stop Chris was waiting, the rain eased. I looked at my time, same as last week, about 3 minutes slower than pre Whistler. Dang.

After catching our breath, we headed to Round Top to go down the frontside and complete the loop. It was now a proper rain and with the downhill and increased speed, it actually got chilly. As we neared Round Top park, it got downright silly and started pouring. A tour van turned around in front of us and I was having some difficulties getting the brakes to slow down enough. When we hit the lookout straight I had the levers near bottomed out to slow when the van pulled over. This was getting a little freaky! Finally when I got back into the residential area, through the s turns, and then the sharpest hairpin, I knew I couldn’t make the turn. Fortunately there was a street that split off on the outside that goes uphill that saved my butt. The rest of the ride down I spent seriously dragging the brakes and making sure I could stop. This was the first time I’d experienced this. Wow! Looks like the cantis on the Fat need an overhaul. I think new cables, pads would help. Discs of course would work great, but those newfangled things won’t fit anywhere on that bike.

Anyway, managed to finish the ride intact but with sloshy shoes.