I love a challenge

As we head into summer it’s getting harder and harder to get on the bike as much as I would like. For starters I now need to divide my leisure time between surfing and cycling and on top of this even when I want to ride it get’s a little masochistic once the temperature is above 25 degrees. You can either wait for a cool dry day, which at the moment are few and far between, or get up in the wee hours to beat the heat. Not being a morning person I need to set goals that will lure me out of bed. This morning I found my challenge.

I have been thinking about riding with a club for a while and a few weeks ago I took the first step. I called Bike Addiction to see what the go was with their club rides. I was told the Wednesday social ride averages about 30km/h and the Tuesday Thursday and Saturday A grade hit outs average 45km/h. We normally average about 30 – 35km/h over the same Manly to Church point coarse so I joined the BA crew for the Wednesday morning social ride. It was pretty good fun but after 20 or so kms I hadn’t even broken a sweat. We averaged a dismal 23km/h. Based on the overestimate of the social average I decided the ridiculously fast 45km/h average of the A grade rides must have been similarly over estimated and therefore well within my grasp. I was wrong.

I rode with the A grade guys for the first time this morning. About 50 very toned looking cyclist met at BA in Manly at 5.30 and headed off at a leisurely 30-35 km/h for the first 5kms. Somehow I started in the 3rd pair and by the time we reached the top of Long reef hill the 1st and 2nd pairs had peeled away leaving me at the front. It’s down hill (my speciality being a big, heavy boy) for the 2kms to Collaroy and as the leader I decided to raise the tempo a little. The guy I was riding next to started to drop back, foolishly I thought it was because he wasn’t up to the cracking 45km/h pace I was setting. What I didn’t realize was the first 5 km’s was the warm up and the top of the hill was when they really started to crank. It wasn’t until I got overtaken by a long line of cyclists at 55km/h that I realised we had transitioned from a peel off when you’re bugged formation to an anti clockwise rotation formation. The heart rate was maxing out at 190bpm as I got spat out the back of the Peloton for the first time. At this point I started praying for red lights. Everyone came back together in Narrabeen and over the next 10kms or so I managed to cling to the tail of the bunch. Keep in mind it’s 30% easier riding on someone’s wheel and I was pulling myself inside out to stay in touch as we mached along in the high 50’s. By Mona Vale I had to sit up and let go, fortunately there were a number of other riders in the same boat. We got most of the way to Church point and as the first riders started zooming past up in the opposite direction the guys I was riding with told me to swing around and jump on the tail. I held on for a while but once again I got munched and spat out the back. On the return leg everyone does a slightly different route depending on how they’re feeling. I took the most direct route and found myself hooking up with and getting spat out by different bunches most of the way home. By Narrabeen I gave up and limped home at 20km/h.

It was a pretty awesome way to start the day.