Yes! I did it! I actually rode my bike!

Yesterday (not to mention today) saw temperatures suddenly hit an unlikely (for February) 16-17 degrees centigrade and suddenly… it’s BIKE weather!

A group of “freebikers” from Belgrade decided to come over to our stomping-ground, Novi Sad’s ‘mountain’, Fruška gora, those being Aleksandar, Natasa (on her city bike, who did just fine, except for snapping a gear cable which forced her into single-speed mode) and the ninja-like Igor on his recumbent, who drew MOST of the stares as usual, such machines being unknown in Serbia. For me, this was the first proper ride in a very cold and unattractive 3 or 4 months and I certainly felt it in my legs.

An unlikely bunch we made, but Fruška gora did not disappoint. You can see a few pictures here - if you didn’t know better you would think it was May not February.

Nothing too adventurous, but we managed 35 kilometres (actually 60km for us Novosadians, since we had to climb up from Novi Sad first) and had a very pleasant day’s riding, with some quite demanding sections. I even got slightly sunburned. Here are some lessons I learned:

1) Your bike doesn’t have to be in perfect condition, just get out there!

2) Invite some riding friends from another town to your local patch and let THEM take the lead - you get to see your familiar territory in a different light, and even see some bits you had never seen before

3) Winter training IS worth it - it was all pretty painful, but I could tell that all that swimming and running HAD had a positive effect. Wonder how things would have been if I had used a trainer all winter.

4) Don’t wait around. Temperatures could plummet in two days’ time. In fact the meteorologists say that is exactly what is going to happen to us on Wednesday. So when you see the sun, ON YOUR BIKE!

If you think others might want to read this post, don’t be selfish, click above to AddThis to Digg, Del.icio.us or just about any other bookmarking service and share and share alike!

Popularity: 28% [?]

Posted on February 25th, 2008 by markowe
Filed under: Biking - general, MTB Serbia (All)