Cold? Milwaukee is Cold!

As I got on the bike this morning, a fading moon hung over one horizon while a big orange sun was climbing out from behind the other. It was a few degrees below freezing--with iced-over ditches and small canals--but most regular, transportation-type cyclists of all genders and ages rode around without anything on their heads, and sometimes also without gloves. Headwind the whole way to Lage Vuursche, and on several stretches the low bright sun was right in my face. In short, an absolutely beautiful morning (and nothing like the snow-bound, single digits Milwaukee survival tours). In Loosdrecht I passed several Eendracht guys on the way to their weekly off-road date, and on the pretty road by the Hilversum airfield the guy I always see there with his dog nodded for the first time. The roads and bikepaths were dry almost everywhere, but you still had to look out for little patches of frost, or for frozen puddles. At the Vuursche Boer most of the regulars were there, also among the waitstaff. The Utrecht delegation had chosen the off-road option, which meant that I did more of the second leg on my own. Tailwind almost the whole way, which in Westbroek helped me stay ahead of a tractor pulling a big flat thing. I passed him in the middle of town to be done with the noise and the smell, but then he started picking up more speed. On the crosswind section before Tienhoven I actually had to put my head down a little and work to maintain the required speed of 23 m/h to fight him off. That it doesn't have to get too much colder for lake and canal skating to become feasible I realized along a canal in the Polder Bethune: the canal was only partly frozen, but on one section the ice was strong enough to support a swan. What can I say about the tailwind section home along the Vecht river? The same as always: these coffee rides are really something.