My perspective of Saturday’s ride!
I was a little excited about this Saturday’s ride, as i had been promised that the girls would finally be out in force. The last couple of weeks had seen me either as the solo girl in Main 1 or several of the fast group riders dropping down to Main 1. End result: speed change from 30-33km/hr to a very comfortable 35-40km/hr. I have seriously missed Lennie’s “slowing” calls. Possible one of the more brutal Saturday rides was when Davina graced us with her presence. I was giving it my all and trying to have a go at a couple of roll throughs and found myself rolling through on an up-hill (not my strength). Thankfully i saw Lennie on the left and indicated that i wanted to pull in. But oh no, Davina had other ideas and very nicely instructed me to keep pushing and that i could rest at the top of the hill. I love that she knows me so well but hate it sometimes when she is right 🙂
Anyway, back to this Saturday. No rain, not too cold, summer may just may be about to arrive and i was looking forward to a nice ride with some good gossip. After rolling out noticed that the mountain goat (aka Anna) was not with us…mmmmm….spoke to Jen about this during the ride and promised to dish up some grief to ensure that this unjustified lack of confidence never ever occurs ever again! Anna you kick my arse every single week and you make it look easy, seriously, you belong in Main 1 and if you do happen to have a bad week, i can provide great references for the back of Main 1. The first half of the ride was pretty uneventful. Nice easy pace of around 30km/hr….lots of slowing to wait for people to catch up after splitting at lights….felt a little too easy….
The remaining 2/3 of the ride and things started to pick up and i loved it! I think the last few weeks may have actually helped. Tried to stick with the group that broke off the front and found myself in no-man’s land. But did notice that i was sitting on 39km/hr on my own with no wheel in front. Granted it is not anything like what the fast group etc does but its a fairly large improvement from when i started cycling at xmas (these things are all relative!). I was confident that i could not catch the front group and also confident that i could not maintain that pace on my own, but figured the trick was to not die and to not lose too much pace so that when the rest of the group caught up (hopefully quickly) i could return to my rightful position of sucking wheels.
Think Daryl has covered the good team work that took place trying to catch the breakaway group. Also need to make mention of Chris (who did not inspire me to vote the wrong way) who worked hard and controlled the roll through beautifully. And a special mention to the red light god that helped hold the front group up. Cannot remember the names of the roads, but there were some smooth bits, some hilly bits, a couple of corners, think there was a round-a-bout or two, some traffic lights a few more hills and a great sprint at the end! Mention needs to be made of Luke (aka pops) who placed i think 5th at the sprint end – its the magic red shoes.
However, the most important part of the days shenanigans was coffee. Much important gossip was exchanged principally concerning whether Asian hairdressers can cut non-Asian hair. Thankfully Lisa saw sense and accompanied Pops home and hence let the rest of us fools off an extra lap of the river. Thank you thank you thank you. And much ribbing was given to Anna who has promised to return to Main 1 where she rightfully belongs!