Ready for some wind?

AccuWeather's current forecast for Saturday in San Jose calls for afternoon northwesterly wind gusts up to ... get ready ... 45 mph.

Don't panic quite yet, though. Our 87-mile route won't hit actual headwinds until about mile 57, when we turn onto Santa Teresa Blvd. Once we reach Los Gatos and head toward Saratoga, we should get a bit of a break; the headwinds will resume as we head back toward Mountain View, but most of that stretch is gently downhill.

The biggest cause for concern is our giant 1.4-mile downhill on Silver Creek Valley Road around mile 52. Because it's a twisty descent, the wind might come at us from several directions, making a high-speed descent dangerous. Please, please: Use caution, and don't ride beyond your abilities.

And if the wind is simply too much, you can hop on VTA light rail around mile 58. It'll bring you all the way back to downtown Mountain View, and it costs only $1.75, but it's sloooooooow. Count on about 90 minutes for the trip.

Here are some tips for riding in headwinds. Some of them are written for competitive riders, so ignore those. But here's an interesting statistic that I hadn't considered:

Think of it as a form of hill climbing (at slower speeds, each 5 mph of wind speed equals ~1% of grade i.e. a 20-mph headwind would equal a 4% hill).

So a 45 mph headwind would equal a 9% hill -- in other words, Quadbuster.