Well, I survived my trip to Vancouver, but I did end up at my office Christmas party with a black eye. On Saturday morning my friend Julie and I got ready to ride and noticed that the seat post of the borrowed bike was seized. We pushed and we pulled, we kicked and we screamed, but it just wasn't budging. Personally, I love my knees; they have put up with a lot of abuse, but riding for 3 hours with a fast group of women I don't know with a seat more than 2 inches too low (!!) wasn't something that sounded fun. We made the decision to miss the ride and head to a bike shop to see if the strapping young men couldn't bust the seat post free. No Dice. But it was a beautiful day, so julie and I headed out on our own with me standing to climb all hills, start from stop lights, really any time I needed some pedal power.
We had a great time, though it was certainly nothing I could call a training ride. After about 2 hours we were heading home along Cypress Ave. (St.?), basically sprinting between stop signs and having a merry old time, when up ahead loomed a very shiny roundabout. Being familliar with ice, I slowed right down but I guess not slow enough, and my poor balance on a too small bike left me hitting the pavement. Classically, Julie couldn't get around me on the ice and fell too. As there were no cars on the road, we sat there laughing for a good while. Thinking about it, that was the first time I had fallen while road biking. The black eye came from my sunglasses as I rolled a bit when I fell. We then went slowly home, saw a number of cars slidding sideways down side streets, and decided we could rush and make it to a 1:15 yoga class. Standing outside the yoga studio, we saw the group of women we would have been with blaze past us. I am so very happy we decided to ditch that ride - they were crazy fast!
Switching to Julie's bike we went for a ride on Sunday as well, but the black ice was just freaking me out. No wonder everyone in Vancouver seems to have a mountain bike as their commuter. That city is all about traction!
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