A Classic 4-Up Steady Training Ride
It was a different group, not a big group, but still a good group on last night's steady training ride.
Firstly we had new rider and prospective member Jason out with us for the first time, Jim was out for the first time since the pandemic. Pete J and yours’ truly made it a four up, one more than last week which is good but still not enough for a proper chain gang so we did a team time trial style 4-up; single file, short turns on the front then dropping to the back. Jason slotted in without any trouble, he was familiar with the form from doing the former Monday night social training ride pre Covid and that no doubt helped and Jim did surprisingly strong turn’s 💪 considering he hasn’t been doing much. My winsock was different than last week, a headwind going out then easing up after the right turn at Byley but overall similar.
Surprise surprise like last week we did the circuit in almost exactly the same time, 1:31 and a few seconds depending on whose strava you look at. In fact since we started the new course (segment; X Cranage Chelford X) times have always been in the same ballpark but expect them to slow down a bit when it becomes an autumn / winter ride and we change to winter bikes.
Also like last week we kept it together further up Pexhill beyond the normal breaking points but this week it was your correspondent who was one of the weaker links😤 letting Pete and Jason get away for the final undulations, more experienced Pete summiting first🎖 with Jason just hanging on but nevertheless a fantastic ride from Jason 👏.
It’s great that the ride is serving it’s purpose, introducing new rider’s to a disciplined training ride and providing a not to hard comeback if you've been out for a while. We could always do with more so please give it a go especially if you fit any of the two aforementioned categories, we still have a few weeks when we will be riding in daylight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l3cdGWD2xo