The joys of cold weather bicycling

An article in today's Springfield News-Leader tells about the benefits of cold-weather riding:
As fall turns into winter, Patrick Winstead doesn't put his bicycles into hibernation.

As the season changes, Winstead is at least one area cyclist who will change along with the weather.

He'll brave a bit of cold weather to discover the beauty of winter sights and sounds on the road or the trail — not to mention to enjoy a ride minus summertime spoilsports, such as roadside poison ivy and bugs that zoom in on exposed skin.

"This time of year, you get to see all the trees changing color, all the leaves on the trails," says Winstead, sales manager at A&B; Cycle in Springfield. "You don't have the bugs to deal with, or poison ivy or mosquitoes." . . .

"You can a lot of times have almost the whole Greenways trail to yourself on a winter's day," Winstead says.

Who's in a hurry, anyway, in the winter? Not Weston, even though the 45-year-old Springfieldian likes to race in the spring and summer.

And that's one thing that makes cold-weather cycling special. In the winter, Weston says, "I'm not trying to beat anyone. It's bicycling for the sheer enjoyment of bicycling."

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