After all the positive comments on the couple of posts on main group raison d’etre and ‘rolling through’ I was hoping for an outstanding ride. I think the Main Group had about 30 in it when we rolled out on Saturday. A number of the stronger riders who had been with us for the last couple of weeks were missing – maybe they went looking for a harder hit out with the fast group.
The group was well coordinated all the way to South Street (except for Doug diving off into the bushes at Canning Bridge for a comfort stop – just like the Tour, and the front 3 or 4 wanting to get to south street via the hill in Palmyra). But on South Street we sort of fell apart. An early puncture caused confusion as some stopped to help, others eased up and called into the service station, and other carried on as the puncturee group said not to wait. We tried and tried to get an efficient roll through happening, but with 30 people it was just too many. Also I think variations in skill, fitness and confidence became evident. Overall speed of the bunch was low, gaps opened on the pace line and weren’t closed, and the pace line was barely faster than the recovery line. There were some better spots, but I don’t think too many of us were really proud of that ride along South Street. Communication though was much stronger with more people talking and trying to get it happening.
Turning off South and on to Nicholson, Nev and a co-rider took the initiative and changed the format. They jumped to the front and set about cranking the pace up, with two riders rotating off the front together when the pace faltered. Resulted in much better coordination and speed, more like what the Main Group is capable of. However some did start to struggle and had to hang on at the back. Cross Albany Highway and onto William where we agreed single file as it a narrow road. Once again this worked much better with the leading rider pulling off when they had done the work and allowing others to come through and share the load. Saw some elements of the fast group mobile casino wiz past in the opposite direction – closing speed of about 80km/hr?
Then onto Welshpool road for the run home. The higher speed work probably started a bit early here (I was guilty of arcing it up) but I sensed that there was a fair bit of frustration in the group with roll through on South Street and a bit of hard riding was needed to work it out and let everybody feel challenged. Normally we might want to wait to Leach highway or Shepperton rd to wind it up? But anyway up it went and it stayed up with ~5 doing the work and another 10 – 12 of us hanging on. Welshpool and Shepperton rd went in the blink of an eye, but we did see Doug doing a pavement manoeuvre (illegal or at least underhand) to get around the bunch at the lights and maintain his momentum. Over the causeway and on to Riverside Drive, I did a long lead out – going way to early, and i think Toby and Snuggles fought out the finish (at the big blue sign) with Toby taking honours. At the end there were ~15 riders from the main group hanging in together for the finish. Special mention of the return of Will who must have been in secret training somewhere!
So as a summary, distance was good, roll through average, and last half fast. We will try again next week.
Russell
The puncture group (Lenny, Carlos, Colin and myself) had a gr8 ride. We did roll-throughs that would have brought tears of joy to the eyes of anyone watching, just like a professional unit. The pace was good and steady, forcing one of our group who likes to spin her heart out, into the big chain ring.
Just a thought, Maybe on the long stretches where roll-throughs are possible, you can split the group. It will give people more opportunity to get into a rhythm and practice all phases of the roll-through. It worked for us.
Thanks to those who asked if they should wait up.
Lenny don’t forget to take the money out of your tyre, on second thoughts maybe you just found a good place to hide money from Johhny so you can afford more ‘Bling’ for the bike.
I think that after all the discussion throughout the week everybody was riding on eggshells this week. People were too scared to roll through too fast – resulting in a jerky, slow and frustraing ride.
Frustration turned to speed – speed and more speed. Definately the fastest last 20km the main group has done for a while.
Good write up Russel – see you next week.
To my lovely boys Carlos, Collin and Daryl who WAITED FOR ME – particularly Daryl, who succumbed to my tears and screams of despair and had my puncture fixed for me in a jiffy. (Of course he knows I’d have mangled his head if he hadn’t of stopped to help ..) Sorry for spoiling your ride boys, but what with the jokes flying around and the strong roll throughs and pace we set all the way back in that wind, I had a really fab ride. And yes, I did managed to find the big chain ring once or twice. Gutted that my BRAND NEW white bling bling conti tyre was trashed – but Jonny kindly donated me one of his for Valentine’s Day (“ahhhhh”, I hear you say – but not so – I had to threaten him big time before he’d give it up). C U Saturday ..