We did a great country ride on Sunday, leaving from the usual spot at 9:00am (hydro station at Eglinton and 9th line). Rich and Bill led us on a fairly optimistic route that included lots of climbs and rolling hills on the first half.
Coming home, it was extremely windy (I'm guessing 30-40km/h) - mainly a cross/head wind. I got word from Bill that Rich had completely bonked and could only go 24km/h in the draft... my draft (I think I'm too big for cycling, as everyone tells me what a great draft I provide! F*ck!). So I stayed back and sheltered Rich and Bill most of the way back. It didn't seem to tough, as we were going pretty slowly, but I think taking the wind for so long drained my legs. With about 10km left, knowing Rich would be fine as we were on our last stretch, I managed to catch up to the lead group and then pass them on the last climb. Later, I stuck myself at the back of the lead group of a new guy (strong), Gilles, Kelly and Rolf. I just wanted to cruise back to the parking spot.
Suddenly, Rolf drops Kelly's wheel and I did what I often do - I jumped in front of Rolf to help him out (perhaps pulling him back to Kelly's wheel). That's nice, but pretty stupid. If I was strong, I would have realized I couldn't pull Rolf because he was bagged, and I would have jumped ahead a minute later to catch Kelly's wheel. Unfortunately with the wind in our faces, I gave it a good try but couldn't catch up. Stupid! Know where you are physically before tying to be do "nice" next time, and realize that if the guy falls off the wheel in front, he's probably not strong enough to catch up under any circumstances...
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