75 miles, 1588 feet climbed
Today was another day of pleasant weather. Headwinds and crosswinds again, but not too strong. We did get to climb a few relatively steep, but short, hills as we approached the Niagara area, the first after days of pretty flat terrain. We’ll have more, especially in Vermont and New Hampshire.
When we got to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, I left my camera in my pocket, knowing that I will return on our rest day tomorrow with the big camera. Look for those in tomorrow’s report.
While we entered Canada as a group and were processed by customs/immigration as if we were on a tour bus, we came back into the US individually. We couldn’t take the pedestrian sidewalk because out bikes won’t fit in the turnstiles there. So we made like cars and queued up in the two lanes going east on the Rainbow Bridge, inching along. Well, most of us. At least a couple rode along the right of the cars and joined me two slots away from the inspector’s booth, skipping the whole of the line and quite proudly. I really wish they wouldn’t do that as cutting the line in that way gives people another reason to hate cyclists. I even told them so but they were unbothered.
More often than not I ride by myself to avoid association with the discourteous (to auto drivers) and sometimes dangerous riding of some in our group. Also for some peace and quiet. Riding in a paceline or close to others means carefully watching what the riders in front are doing and keeping one’s hands near the brakes. That extra workload is only worth it when fighting headwinds or trying to get somewhere quickly. Even in those situations it is not worth it when one or more riders in front of you is constantly speeding up or slowing down, unable to maintain a steady pace or riding two or even three abreast. I’ve seen too much of that from some of our folks.
