At last a Novice Group ride report – something to do with having (nearly) finished tidying up the garden on our new house which has been the excuse for little riding and no reports for the past couple of weeks.

Just read the Intermediate group report the ongoing debate about what constitutes a good riding group size. I can relate this back (in a micro way) to the Novice group, having got used to a typical “N” group ride of around with 6-8 – I do confess to a bit of trepidation when I saw 11 eager faces in the car park looking expectantly at Carol and myself . . . . . was this going to be like herding cats ??

Really shouldn’t have worried though – apart from the regular girls who know the ropes as well as anyone; a couple of Transitioners had brought their own ‘N’ companions along for a try-out and spent time on the ride keeping an eye on them. Nothing better than a bit of one on one guidance on this ride and its so good to see people with experience investing energy & effort in helping others to gain capability and confidence.

Whilst a couple of others were Transitioners who just wanted to have an casino online ‘easy’ one today (clearly didn’t want to get too puffed as it might have affected their breakfast demolition performance) their experience does help steady the pack in the group roll throughs.

Typically the N group rides along at 25-28 on the way down to Shelley and the slower speed makes us more vulnerable (read irritant to car drivers) – so we decided to split up into 2 groups of around 6 & re-group at the start of Shelley. With Carol leading out the first bunch a couple of minutes ahead of our lot, the cars and ‘racing packs’ had no problem getting past, and I found it easier to communicate and keep the smaller group together . . . . so maybe that could be a standard m.o. for that section of road if the ‘N’ group numbers get up above 10-12 in the future.

The overall ride was very pleasant & happily uneventful (perfect weather eh ?) – although Tyrone had a saddle mis-function just after the turnaround at the end of Shelley, which after re-tightening the bolt (so that’s why I carry that heavy multi tool on my bike) we sat on 40 for most of the return trip to try & catch the others. – who won the sprint guys???I. . . . And then of course breakfast and thanks again to Pete for (i) your endless enthusiasm for keeping the Club heading in the right direction – we’re all major beneficiaries of that and (ii) for P & K and the food army beavering away in the kitchen – and as I said before . . . . . . we’re all major beneficiaries of that – too.

See you next week Mark S