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Riding in high wind
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On friday I took my bike out for a ride along marine drive on the columbia river as I live in Portland Oregon. I noticed that I was the only person on a bike as the wind was blowing very hard, I would guess 35 to 40 mph. If any of you know anything about the Columbia River and the winds we get from time to time here, you know the only other place that gets these types of windy conditions is Hawaii. A good indicator of the high winds were the kite surfers (about 5 on the river). The wind was blowing from the east to the west, so on my first 10 miles west I was going 30mph with out too much work, however on the way back I was in a very low gear doing about 12mph with a higher heart rate, and a couple of times I felt like I was going to get blown off my bike, and I weigh 185 pounds. Have any of you rode in these types of conditions? I am riding in the Kona 1/2 Ironman in May, is this what I can expect? I was glade I did not have my deep dish Zipp 404's on my bike and was riding my Mavic Kysriums.




"You're guaranteed to miss 100% of the shots you never take" - Wayne Gretzky
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Re: Riding in high wind [flytri] [ In reply to ]
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One day we had huge winds, and I do mean huge. In the sheltered bay where I keep my boat there was huge white caps, which is something that normally never would happen, but demonstrated how gale force the wind was. Decided it would be a good time to test out a disc and Hed jet 60 combo. Bad idea. I was being blown all over the road. Came to this tall over pass bridge and I almost got blown of the top of it. No kidding, I came very close to losing control of the bike due to the wind. It's not very often that I don't enjoy a bike ride but that day was a horrible experience.
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No worry [ In reply to ]
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 I wouldn't worry too much about the Kona winds as the 1/2 rides on the less windy part of the course. I think if you ride the Gorge you can handle Kona. I try to get hunkered down on the aerobars and pedal fast. If you fight the wind it wins. Just find the right cadence and effort and go. Good luck G
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