Chain Gang tonight 6 Feb

[Paul H]

Anybody going out tonight?

[-Adam-]

Nope

[Andrew G]

No bike today as I needed to get something done to it so you won't have my wheezing company for 5 minutes .

[Stu Merckx Man]

i am

[Dominic]

Yes

[Paul H]

see you there

[Dominic]

Found that the hardest yet. Made the fatal mistake of eating too close to the ride so consequently was feeling sick as I was being dropped through Redhill. The one consolation was that I found your back light Paul It still works but the bracket is broken. You might be able to get another one or bodge another bracket on. I will bring it with me next week.

[Sylv]

Didn't get time to switch bikes last night, so rode straight to CSS, was way early so went for a lap of the bypass as it was getting pretty cold, returned and it was still early, Marcus was there though so we went for another lap, we caught up Stu on the way.

Have had good legs this week so decided to try and keep up a bit longer than last time on the mtb, I think there were 8 of us at the start. Oh boy. The pace was frantic. No wind, perfect. I was just about ok except on the downhills - I would have to completely bury myself to keep up on the 46*12, then would have nothing left on the uphills. The small descent after the M23 almost did me, but managed to hang on for about 16km - the long downhills after Redhill finally snapped my elastic, despite Marcus giving me a push from behind. There were only 5 of us left by then.

Stu is absolutely flying - on his old bike. Get yourself a powermeter, a coach, whatever it takes because you are worth it; if you can keep improving at this rate for the next few years as Huw said you will make big damage. Paul H must have got the hang of his new pedalling technique too, he was impressively fast. Sorry if my own pedalling was a bit wobbly, I really felt like I was dying before I stopped, at the Jaguar garage 5km after Redhill.

Recovered quickly though and after a banana had a real fast solo ride back - my avs which I hadn't reset since leaving London, and which must have been about 27 at CSS, and had jumped to 31 when I stopped (which meant we must have been doing around 38km/h for 16km!) actually kept increasing to 31.3 on the way back. Something is happening - those last couple hard rides I've done this week, my legs have actually felt stronger, not fatigued, the day after.

[Sylv]

..

[Stu Merckx Man]

its because you shaved your legs sylv!

i enjoyed last night as usual. i was not feeling good for the first few miles, but then i warmed up and was fine. i made myself suffer, but in a good way. i would go as hard as i could on the front, pull away and hope paul wasnt next in line because he was going very strong, and when he was next in line i would be 5m off the back trying to get back on after my turn, but it was great fun.

i was impressed sylv stayed with us for so long.

when we got back to coulsdon i went and did another 45m to make it a 2 hour ride. i went up towards croydon, then around the hills in the purley area, then back home, feeling like id dont a club run.

stu

[Paul H]

Thanks for that Dominic. Its lucky (for me) that you were feeling sick