We hear about “fight or flight” all the time: we sense that things aren’t right; and our nervous systems rev up for either knocking someone’s lights out; or running like a pack of hellhounds is pursuing us.

Wind (oh, that LOATHSOME word!) seems like fight or flight, too. All too often it’s fight, fight, fight against a headwind.

My rides are out-and-back almost every time. I\’m sure it\’s easy for anybody to advise cyclists: plan your rides so you have a tailwind on the way back home. Fight or flight — I mean, fight and then flight, with a following breeze. If only it were that easy, I would have been doing it for years.

The bike path that I use ends about one mile East of home, and the wind here tends to be easterly. If I had a car, maybe I could drive my bicycle to a place where I could park the car; do a ride that would let me have a tailwind on the way back; and then drive home.

As to flight, that\’s what it can feel like when you pick up a stiff tailwind: flying! When I have the wind behind me, and shift that road bike into hard gears, I\’ve reached 25+ mph! Even when I attain 18-19 mph, it starts to feel like the bicycle is weightless; almost like it\’s not touching the ground any more!

But climbing Mont Ventoux? That\’s a flight of fancy for a run-of-the-mill cyclist like me.