The ride with the group started off slow and easy, with everyone chatting as people slipped passed to take turns up front. Since I was new, the very friendly group wanted to know who I was. There were only seven of us at the start - which included four Brits, a Scotsman, a French guy and me being a South African. The French guy apparently always liked attacking on the hills - very funny as everyone knew him and told me to watch out for his 'attacks'.
There was also a very tall youngish guy who looked like he could kick everyone's butt, but he mostly hung off the back and kept getting dropped on climbs or into any long sections of wind. He claimed he'd just finished driving 8 hours straight from France and only had a few hours of sleep...good excuse! The average age in the group must have been late-30's, 40's...as I would find out, age meant squat here as the older guys were in scarily good shape.
I spent quite a lot of time pulling at the front for the first 30km into the wind as I was feeling strong. About halfway through the ride we turned into a road that I've never been on - beautiful countryside with a few very narrow lanes and 'gate-crossings'. This was the first time since October last year that I'd been in a group ride, but I quickly became used to all the signals and movement in the paceline.
After about 70km covered we arrived back onto one of the roads I knew and from the direction we were headed I knew what was coming - the mile-long slog of Essendon hill - a very nasty steep climb that I always avoid if possible. The French guy attacked and suddenly the race was on. I managed to hold on for half a mile and then my legs started burning badly and saw the group start pulling away. I looked behind and noticed that the tall guy was not there - he must have blown up before me. The group didn't seem to be waiting so at the top and the following decent I went into time trial mode and chased for dear life.
By the time I got to the turn onto the main road I could see them again. I fought my way to them topping 50kph with the tailwind and just managed to latch onto the back for 30-seconds before the next hill. As soon as the last hill started, the French guy was on the front making everyone suffer badly. Managed to stay with them to the top and back to where we'd started that morning. The tall guy was long gone - dropped hard on Essendon Hill, but the others said he'd be OK - he knew the way. There was another guy missing - must have turned off somewhere along the route.
Said goodbye to all and rode home in the same direction as the French guy. In total I did 93-km / 55 miles with an average speed of just over 17mph. This is about the speed I normally ride at when training solo, though this ride was a lot more broken up in pace (ie. both very fast and easy riding), whereas my own rides are usually ridden at a constant amount of effort. In all a great day's riding which has opened my eyes to the fact that I'm a good, strong rider, but could do with some more speed on the hills. Plan to start a regime of hill training twice a week to improve my climbing...also getting my new, fully built up Look KG451 this week, so I could be seeing some improvements soon.
Moving Time (h:m:s) - 3:22:56
Distance - 93.4km / 55.8mi
Moving Speed - 27.6kph / 16.5mph
Elevation Gain - 1112m / 3648ft
Heart Rate - 144 bpm / Zone 3.8
View this ride data at Motionbased
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