Holy Crap! Wind!

Taken from Weather.com:
"HIGH WIND WARNING: WEST WINDS OF 30 TO 50 MPH WILL DEVELOP IN THE FOOTHILLS AND OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN EAST OF THE DIVIDE LATER THIS EVENING WITH GUSTS UP TO 90 MPH WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS ON THURSDAY. A FEW GUSTS COULD REACH 100 MPH OR MORE IN A FEW LOCATIONS."

I did the Lyons-Boulder TT tonight, starting at 7pm. The course goes directly North-to-South... coincidentally, the wind always comes from the West. I almost died about 20 times. By far, these were the worst wind conditions I have ever ridden in...and I had my 808s on the TT bike. Bad, bad recipe. I was surprised my pedals weren't clipping the road because I was leaning over so hard. I was afraid my wheels were going to loose traction, my helmet threatened to get sucked off my head, and my cheeks were becoming inflated just like you see in skydiving videos. Hitting little cracks in the road bounced my front wheel up just enough that at times it got picked up by the crosswind and thrown over a few inches.

The last time I did this TT I had no TT goodies (helmet, wheels, suit, booties, etc) and it was cold and raining. This time around I pulled out all the stops and went full aero; my time was about 1.5 minutes slower!

I passed a friend during the TT and he said I was leaning so far over that I looked like a downhill racer going into a banked corner.

I'm glad that's over. Whew!