Over the winter Edmonton opened a new velodrome and I have been taking advantage of my Velocity club membership to ride it weekly. It’s great having an indoor place to get together with other cyclists and go fast with no brakes. I haven’t crashed yet.
And though it’s fun to keep riding and keep the legs working2, I’m much happier to be out riding on the road again. Our club did a warmup 70km ride to kick off the outdoor season on Saturday, and I feel like I should have gone with the fast group. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not actually fast, but maybe it’d be good to push myself a bit more.
Because pushing is kind of what I admire in real cyclists. I’m a Wout van Aert fan, and this past weekend he finally won Paris-Roubaix. I only note this here because my kiddo had to listen to me go on and on about how much better this result was than MVDP just collecting another win (even if he probably was the strongest in the race). That my favourite rider who’s had so many near misses and shitty luck could finally push enough watts in the Roubaix velodrome to win made me happy.
It’s so weird that this is nearly the end of the Spring Classics season when Edmonton is just letting the last of the snow melt. But it makes me happy that we might finally be out of the last winter and as far away from the next one as we ever will be.