Piling on

It was really windy on Saturday. Those who were out on the road, gravel or otherwise, were aware of that pretty quickly.

But at 45ish degrees, it was still pretty nice outside. For late January, at least. And Sunday, though it started off colder, was another great day to be out. Almost no wind until noon or so, and even then it was pretty mild.

I'm curious as to how the mild weather will affect the first month of racing. It seemed like lots more people raced cyclocross this time around and, combined with the warm weather, never really lost fitness.

If you look at the calendar historically, we're about three weeks away from the end of long-term snow accumulation. As in, if it snows, it won't be here long. The lowest high in the 10-day forecast is 39.

When the season opens at the end of March (which seems super-early), will we be riding at mid-May tempo? Or will it still be a traditional hot-and-cold early season slog? Or will we have a few people who killed themselves all winter to peak in April, and then we won't hear from them again? Or, perhaps more importantly, will we all get to enjoy another chilly, blustery day at Branched Oak Lake?

Hard to say, really. (Except for the Branched Oak part. It's always cold and windy there.) I'm guessing we won't really know until the first time we roll out for Wednesday Night Worlds. By my count, that will be March 14 — just 10 days before the first race.

In the meantime, there's still work to be done.