All crosswind or head/tailwind - which route?

Training
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I’m planning 2.5 hour endurance pace ride outside today. Have 15-25mph and higher gusts wind forecast. Would you all choose a route that gives headwind out and tailwind home? Or pretty much crosswind all day? (Goal is to try to keep the power low throughout)

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Headwind out, tailwind home

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Just guessing here based on my experience: if more a climber/sustained/slow twitch person I think it would be easier to keep power lower with headwind out tail home. If more of a sprinter/flatlander/fast twitch person do tail out head home. If you don’t know cross.

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Always that way.

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5

I’m that for sure @KorbenDallas. Plus a meager 135 lbs! So raw power for lots of crosswinds? Not so much :joy:

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@dbf I was thinking more how you apply power to the pedals vs. a weight/w/Kg thing. For example, less torque but applied longer throughout the arc of the pedal stroke (climber). As opposed to someone who applies higher torque but for a much shorter burst on the downstroke (sprinter).

Just from experience I end up losing a little cadence and power into a headwind I think for the same reasons as climbing…inertia or a lack of it.

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Headwind then tailwind. That is my goto when i am alone. About keeping power low, that can be hard if there is a hard headwind, going 20km/h kan be frustrating :blush:

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Did this for 3 hours yesterday, although the last 20 minutes were unavoidable headwinds

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Just to be a contrarian here… haha. If you have a climb to start and finish downhill, I might go with tailwind for the climb and headwind for the downhill, especially considering you want it to be an endurance ride. Enjoy the day!

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10

Headwind all the time

At least that’s what it feels like in the Isle of Man, no wonder this place breeds good cyclists

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11

Living in a very exposed and windy area; headwind out, tail home.
At least that way if you smash yourself to bits you can make some attempt at a soft pedal home. There is nothing worse than trying to limp home and doing 15km/h and 300w and hearing nothing but howling wind in your ears. It is soul crushing.

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same.