Rule #5 of the Rules of the Cog (https://www.velominati.com/) is quite simple – Harden the Fuck Up.

But what is not written is Rule #5a – Listen to you Wife.

I went out for a ride today. Nothing new about that. I wanted to go for a good long ride from our home in Marseille to see how far off my Strava Personal Best segments I had become. As it turned out, quite a bit. But that is not the story.

I left the house early and proceeded to go to, up and over Mont La Gineste toward Cassis. There was only one or two moments of panic with cars and scooters as I proceeded directly east into the blinding sun. Glare is not my friend. At the best of times, I don’t see so good.

It then became cloudy, which helped my vision, but the wind then started to pick up. I hate the wind as much as I hate blinding glare. I am going to tell myself that the wind accounted for my horrid performance climbing La Gineste, but the truth is that it is probably my limited physical abilities. It was my second slowest assent ever, only seconds faster from an even worse performance this past April 1.

But I was having fun, right? It was incredible the number of cyclists and runners out this morning. And I can assure you, I passed not one cyclist and even a few runners gave me a challenge!

I went down the other side of La Gineste and was about to do the second climb of the day toward Carnoux-en-Province when my phone rang. It was Janny. She asked how I was and were I was and reported in that the sky over our house was looking quite ominous. I reported back that the sky where I was in fact was somewhat blue and that the Google was not expecting rain for three more hours or so.

But then something happened. It was a bit like, and I quote, “The Grinch’s heart grew three sizes” and I stopped and listened to my wife. I turned around to come home back over La Gineste (with an again dismal performance) and home. And of course, within minutes of me getting home and putting the bike away, the rain and thunder started. While not a deluge of biblical proportions (that was a few hours later), it would have made for a white knuckle descent back into town, something that I did not need.

Listen to your wife. She knows. She knows you better than you know yourself. And so yes, while we can all respect Rule #5, live to ride another day. Respect even more Rule #5a.