We had a decent turnout for our team ride of the Emmett–Horseshoe Bend loop today. This morning we woke up to fog so I was afraid the it wouldn’t lift by our start at noon. So I was happy to see it break up at around 11 AM. We started out with about a dozen or so riders. Even with the hazy sun, it was was fairly chilly on the way out…the air was pretty damp. We took it easy for the rollout and then up Hwy 16 we fell into single-file. There was a decent draft so in order to keep my wattage up I just kept a gap in front of me.

Up the two small rollers the pace, or at least the effort level picked up. For me with a pretty pathetic anaerobic work capacity, it felt downright hard! Then it would ease right back up when we leveled off. As we neared the top it was finally my turn to be in the wind so I figured I’d make the most of it. Other than the two risers, I wasn’t really getting much of a workout. So I pushed it for the few minutes it took to reach the top, giving me a decent 3.5 minute VO2 interval (350 watts). We then cruised down the hill and took it easy through the east side of Emmett.

When we got to Black Canyon we started a rotating paceline. Interestingly, we had a head-/cross-wind at first but then changed to a tailwind! Klaas kept it spirited towards Horseshoe Bend as he attacked a couple times forcing a concerted chase. We got to Horseshoe Bend where I stopped with a couple other riders while the rest rolled through. After our stop we headed up the “Old” road.

I did a nice LT interval up the hill and it was tough. There was a stiff, cold wind making for one of my slowest times. But thankfully the PowerTap tells the Real Truth™ and I was happy with my wattage up the hill (297 watts), especially for early February. Then we descended into that headwind and finally made our way back to the shop. It was one tough ride and I was totally wasted afterwards. Even though I was cold most of the time, it was nice to be riding outside. It’ll hopefully make the warm weather feel that much nicer when it finally comes!