The saturday morning club rides are hopefully going to be a repeat occurence every week which will give me the much needed opportunity to put in some real distance on my bike as I go into the competition season.
Last weekend's ride was pretty epic with a really tight knit group and a fun albeit challenging course.
This week, the group was a mix of abilities which unfortunately led to the group splintering quite early on and then becoming quite disjointed on the way back after the mid-way coffee stop.
The route itself was pretty good, the majority consisting mainly of rolling flats where you can get in a pretty solid set of riding and with minimal traffic concerns and very few stop lights.
There were a few hills on the way out, particularly coming up to the 40km mark where there was a series of 5 or 6 hills that really kept me on my toes although i'm pleased to say that I found them relatively manageable, but far from easy! Hopefully this is a sign that the weekday mountain bike forays and standing sessions are paying off and giving me a bit of much needed muscular endurance, although it is still very early days!
The ride back was pretty uneventful but had some nice down hills where I could practice getting in an aero-position and develop my confidence taking corners at higher speeds. I still don't feel as confident on my road bike as I do on the mountain bike, but presumably that is because it is heavier and feels a bit sturdier.
Looking at the garmin report/strava log, I am a bit disappointed to see how stop/start the ride was as it certainly didn't seem that way at the time. There were a few times when I had to stop due to nature intervening, which is a by product of the weekly beer/pizza night ritual on a friday night with the uni group, which gave me the chance to do some chasing of the pack and pick up some real speed.
All in all, it was a worthwhile session and i'm glad that I rolled out of bed to do it, but hopefully next time the group will be constructed of a more consistent ability group and we can all stay together and enjoy it a bit more.
Garmin log: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/304083130
