RAB Training Ride - the Manchester Team together

Yesterday I organised a ride for all of the Manchester riders, although unfortunately not everybody could make it.  The main purpose was to give those riders who haven't had much experience of group riding the chance to ride with other people of mixed abilities - admittedly it was never going to be like the RAB itself, but we managed to get 12 people out in total, which is pretty good.  The weather was fantastic - about 20 degrees Celsius and not a cloud in the sky, although there was a bit of wind every so often.

Fred would lead the ride as he mapped out the route and I asked three friends to join us - Rusine and Dave Heald and Rob Wilkinson (who rode out to the ride and rode home, doing a total of 109 miles!) - with their job for the day helping those who hadn't ridden in a big bunch before.  We managed to go off course a couple of times, but nothing major (one being my fault) and we stopped at a cafe for lunch, which everybody enjoyed.  There was only one puncture and one person fell off near the end, but apart from that the ride went by quite well.  The roads were really quiet considering it was a sunny Saturday - even the main road into Middlewich was quieter than what we're used to riding through Carrington and Partington.

Rob, Fred and Dave all did a sterling job helping those who got a bit tired near the end, as did Jo Green but everybody was more or less smiling at the end of the ride.  We managed to ride 60 miles without too many problems, so I have no worries for those guys who are riding the RAB - bring it on!

Unfortunately, my Sportypal wasn't very helpful yesterday - it didn't start until after I had spoken to Fred on the phone - I think it's about 12 miles short in total as the battery ran out before we got to Knutsford so it didn't record the whole ride - the wonders of modern technology! I can't bear to part with £200 to buy a Garmin though....  Anyway, here is the link to the part of the ride that it did record:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/1044835

I also had my bike computer, however the magnet was proving to be less than powerful - at one point it was reading 0 mph whilst I was going downhill - how does that work?

The good news is that despite me not riding that distance for over 10 years, my legs weren't aching too much today - maybe I'm finally getting better?  Who knows?  Only time will tell.

Congratulations to everybody who took part on the ride yesterday - you were all great!

Before...

...and after!

Single file? Says who?

Fred and I now have VC St Raphael team kit, so the dream of racing again is slowly becoming reality!  I suppose 'racing' will be a bit of a loose term on my part as I am sure everybody will be that bit fitter and stronger than me however, it sounds like being out of the back of the bunch might be a good thing if today's Team Series race in Windsor is anything to go by (there were a number of crashes by all accounts).  It sounds like nothing has changed much since I was last racing!  My thoughts go out to all of those women who were caught up in the carnage - I wish you all a speedy recovery...

What is becoming more and more obvious to me the more rides I do is the number of ignorant drivers out there - both today and yesterday we had people winding down their car windows to shout 'Single file, it's the law to ride in single file'.  Err, since when?  Get your facts right, people of Manchester!  The best one was last week when we were in Cheshire and a bloke drove past us, saying 'Single file, that's the law, I should know - I'm a cyclist!'  Yeah, right, in your dreams, mate!  Maybe it isn't the fact that they don't know "The Highway Code" rather instead that they are so unskillful at driving that seeing a cyclist panicks them into shouting obscenities at the cyclist to cover the fact that they are such a pathetic driver.  Oh, it is sooo annoying!  I can see why there are so many horrific accidents, leading to so many people dying before they should - life is so precious, give cyclists space, car drivers and quit with the road rage!

And, breathe!  Right, rant over for the time being!  I went out both yesterday (with Fred) and today (with Fred and Yvonne) and despite what I have been told in the past, I can tell you that the wind definitely was not my friend this weekend!  Today was horrible - we rode for more than an hour into a headwind, which is very tiresome indeed!  The links for both rides are below:

Saturday 2 April 2011

Sunday 3 April 2011

The good news is that the time trial bike is coming together now and is nearly finished - it just needs some handlebar tape and I think it is nearly there.  Of course, it will be a different matter entirely when it comes to trying to ride it, but hey, I am a firm believer in the idea that if you persevere you will succeed.  I have got a skinsuit now, so I am more or less ready for my first time trial on 7 May 2011 - if I can ride the 10 miles in less than 30 minutes I will be happy, so the fingers will be crossed for that!  In the meantime, we have a training ride for the Deloitte Ride Across Britain next Saturday, which should be good!  Bring it on!