Saturday 20th April 9.30am club ride

DavidJ

Lets head north this week and do

Ashwell-Everton-Yelling-Waresly-Potton-Edworth-Ashwell

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/37854812

In a slight change to the map though we will go out via Hinxworth and then back down Northfields.

Looks like a day for sunglasses and summer bikes

DavidJ

Nathaniel Rosa

Cya there! If I can wake up

DavidJ

Huge turnout for the Sat ride this morning, with the club and intro ride we pretty much filled the Tuns carpark. As there were too many for one club ride we split into two with both doing the route above but with one group going via Hinxworth and the other Northfields/Sutton.

Pace to start off was best described as 'brisk and it pretty much just got more and more brisk as the ride went on. This was especially apparent when the chaps at the front spotted the other group in the distance and proceeded to hunt them down at 22mph+ !! A quick hello and some swapping of riders as the two groups passed as it was back to hang on in there as fields and villages passed by very quickly.

A very tidy peloton started the homeward rush down Northfields with Nathaliel doing a fine job of slowly ratcheting up the pace at the front and causing all sorts of pain at the back. Think he won the sprint to the finish too but it was a close run thing.

So final stats were a record for a Saturday club ride with 41 miles @ 18 average !!!

Thanks to TomH for steering us around Yelling and BobS for taking the other group and to all who were out for a cracking ride in the fine sunshine.

DavidJ

Susan W

Hi,
shouldn't this ride be 30 - 40 miles at 15 - 16mph?
Susan

AdamR

Was a good ride.

Having cycled over I went on and added 20 more miles on a scenic route home.
Something possessed me to go up Weston Hill...ouch.
However this did make me LOL...just got an email from MapMyRide saying I'm in Sprint King 10th place for Weston Hill...and for those that know me the competition must be pretty poor

I finished with 72 miles at 17mph and for me that's fantastic.

thanks all.

Stef

You are quite right Susan, that is how the ride is advertised. Although it does say above that these speeds and distances are approximate.
It is normal as the weather improves, and with good conditions for speeds to creep up. That is fine as long as everyone in the group is comfortable with the higher pace and no-one gets left behind. Hopefully that happened on this occasion, I wasnt out so cant comment.
It also looks like there was a split with this the faster group, and another steadier ride - not sure what their ride stats were. Again hopefully it was made clear to all at the start that there was a choice of rides, and it sounds good that the two groups passed during the ride allowing riders to review which group they favoured.

Its a good point though, we should all remember what the ride is advertised as and make sure all are comfortable if it is turning out to be significantly different.

JohnM

Just to put things into perspective, I started off in David’s group but then dropped into Bob’s group about half way round when we passed them at Yelling. There were also riders on Bob’s group that joined David’s group which was running a bit faster.

On Bob’s group we also had a 10–15 minute refreshment stop at Eltisley and, in fact, another one some while later when Vic punctured.

Bob’s group got back on about 40 miles at 15-16 mph. So as far as I am aware everyone was very happy, including the 15 or so that I saw go out on the shorter ride.

Susan W

Fab, thanks for making that clear, I only asked because shortly I may be able to hang on at 15mph, depending on the route, but 18mph is out of my league and I'd hate to ruin someone elses Saturday morning.

DavidJ

I agree that it was a bit quicker than advertised Susan, but it was just one of those days where we set off at a good pace and as we were all feeling good in the group we just kept it up all the way round. The sun shining brightly probably helped too !! Saturday rules still applied to the ride though so if anybody was struggling we would have dropped the pace and all come home together.

I'm sure that you will easily keep up with our normal pace too !

geoffg

hi folks....I am down from Durham this week so can take a club ride at the advertised speed on Saturday and Sunday......I hope to do Bob's wed. ride also but as I've lent my road bike out I'll be on fixed wheel.....all good fun.