Review of The Icicle Metric - Team Red's Feature Ride for March

Balmy weather leading up to this year's Icicle Metric in Newark, DE brought high hopes for White Clay Bike Club's legendary season opening ride for the Delaware Valley, but it looks like Punxsutawney Phil's curse of two more weeks of winter was holding up - as best as possible in light of global warming, anyway.  ; )

None of these were around
at this year's Icicle Metric!

There were no icicles at the Icicle Metric, but it was cold and wet.  A wet ride is OK in August, and a cold ride can be bearable, but wet and cold leaves much to be desired.  But in the sporting tradition of cycling where Paris-Roubaix riders endure the butt-bruising cobbles, and Giro d'Italia cyclists press on with stomach flu that would drop mere mortals to their knees, so too did the intrepid Team Red forge onward! 

Led by the 2012 Newark Tour de Cure's chairperson, and esteemed Team Red member Charlie Johnston, Team Red stormed the University of Delaware's stomping grounds and steam rolled the hills of northeastern Maryland!

Well... considering it was our first hilly ride, I guess perhaps we just "survived" the hills of northeastern Maryland.  And I suppose what propelled us to the finish was the overwhelming desire to get back home, get dry, and get warm. 

Since this was Team Red's first Featured Ride of 2012, we all donned our Red Rider jerseys - in lieu of  our Team Red jerseys which will arrive in a couple of weeks.  We thought we might ride 50km after we'd gauged how we felt at the 35km turnaround point, but since it started raining a few hours before the weather report had indicated, we all quickly knew that 35km was going to do it for us.

I'm not kidding, it was really raining - Larry Lukin, you made the right choice!  It was the kind of rain that stings like pellets and streams like a waterfall off your helmet.  That and Bob Carter's rooster tail in my face for most of the day and I felt like I had finished the swim leg of a triathlon!

Oh, and you know those chalk route markers on the road?  They wash away in the rain.  Zoinks!  We stopped to wring out our cue sheets more than a few times, and we still missed the turn to the 15 mile rest stop.  But that was OK, it saved us a couple more miles in the rain.

I wore my winter cycling shoes, which you'd think would be a good thing - but you know they're great for cold, but for wet... not so much.  They prevent water from entering the shoe from the bottom - but that also means water can't drain after it has run down your legs and into your shoes from the top!  That being said, it really helps your pedaling style to have feedback from the sloshing going on in your shoes - if it's not sloshing, you're not pedaling in circles - you're just pushing on the down strokes!  I had to laugh when I took them off, I dumped the water out of them like they were buckets. 

But enough belly-aching already!  We actually had a great time, and my bike got the wash it so badly needed.  All in all, it was a solid training ride - 1,100 feet of climbing and a great way to prep for the Tour de Cure.

Come out and join us for our April Featured Ride - The Horsham Rotary Ride on April 29th.  We'll see you there!

Cheers,
k