I went for two great group rides this weekend - one formal, the other accidental.
On Satuday I headed out with the LBS roadie group ride. This was the typical organized ride with a rotating double pace-line. A faster sub-grouping of about 10 emerged after 30 minutes and we rolled off the front. Everyone was very polite and we kept the speed up at 35k/h for the 90 minute outbound trip. We backed off a bit to wait for a few that had been dropped on some climbs, but the group wanted to work together and it worked well together. Felt good to be part of this group. It was nice to meet some new people and chat about, cycling politics and life.
On Sunday, I was passed by a triathlon group( 4 guys actually). I saw them coming up so picked up my pace as they came up behind me. They blew right by me, and I had to do a massive jump to get on the wheel on the guy at the back. I don't ride with a bike computor these days, but I looked down and I was easily turning over 52/13 so we were moving. And it just stayed like this. This was clearly a take-no-prisoners ride. Finally the guy ahead of me blew and there was a gap forming. I came around him, and tried to bridge, but was absolutly red-lining it by this time and could not. The other three disappeared into the distance. So much for a friendly ride with some nice chit-chat. I was maxed so backed off, but chatted with the dropped guy for a bit before going our seperate ways.
Epic weekend for me with 2 X 100 k of riding. It was my first time riding in about 10 days and my two longest rides this year by far. No time to ride for the next two weeks, so I figured I'd get distance, tempo and speed work all rolled into to big rides.
Fleck
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
On Satuday I headed out with the LBS roadie group ride. This was the typical organized ride with a rotating double pace-line. A faster sub-grouping of about 10 emerged after 30 minutes and we rolled off the front. Everyone was very polite and we kept the speed up at 35k/h for the 90 minute outbound trip. We backed off a bit to wait for a few that had been dropped on some climbs, but the group wanted to work together and it worked well together. Felt good to be part of this group. It was nice to meet some new people and chat about, cycling politics and life.
On Sunday, I was passed by a triathlon group( 4 guys actually). I saw them coming up so picked up my pace as they came up behind me. They blew right by me, and I had to do a massive jump to get on the wheel on the guy at the back. I don't ride with a bike computor these days, but I looked down and I was easily turning over 52/13 so we were moving. And it just stayed like this. This was clearly a take-no-prisoners ride. Finally the guy ahead of me blew and there was a gap forming. I came around him, and tried to bridge, but was absolutly red-lining it by this time and could not. The other three disappeared into the distance. So much for a friendly ride with some nice chit-chat. I was maxed so backed off, but chatted with the dropped guy for a bit before going our seperate ways.
Epic weekend for me with 2 X 100 k of riding. It was my first time riding in about 10 days and my two longest rides this year by far. No time to ride for the next two weeks, so I figured I'd get distance, tempo and speed work all rolled into to big rides.
Fleck
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog