I was pretty pleased with my ride tonight. I felt my stroke was strong and even and I felt my riding was more even across the board. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on my GPS until the big hill. From occasionally glancing at my cyclometer I was mainly spinning about 14mph on the climbs and maxed out at 20mph climbing. The graph represents the ride from Dadu Shan along Xitun Rd. with a turn at Xitun Rd. and Wenxin Rd. I was doing ok jockeying through the mess on Xitun Rd. but I did have a close call with a cat.
As I was trying to sprint ahead and put some distance between myself and the traffic behind, I saw what looked like a white bag drifting across the road. In a split second the cat and I locked eyes triggering whatever a body in panic does when a cat is about to attempt a Japanese bike suicide. Visions of broken arms and hospital time spun through my head. Somehow there was no contact and I kept hammering away. The good thing about that road is that it is a great way to learn how to watch the road and choose lines to keep pace amid a pack of chaos.
When I was finally in the clear on Wenxin I had a little more space to speed up though traffic is never kind and it is easy to get boxed in or have cars slide over and slow down. Not too bad though.
