Chain Gang 13 Feb

[Paul H]

Who is up for it?

A must for all those who want to race in March.

George and Myself will be there.

[Sylv]

Spinning at lunchtime, so someone else will have to pick up the bits that come off of your bike.

I will probably enter Woolly Minger though

[Dominic]

Yes, I will be there. First race is in less than 2 weeks so I need it

[Sylv]

Am coming now, will go directly to CSS

[Stu Merckx Man]

i shall be there

[Sylv]

do you have the stats for last week's ride (distance, average speed)? I'll be on road bike

[George]

Real fast chaingang tonight, only trouble was you guy's kept dropping me

I sure didn't have the legs tonight, after the Mersham drag I fell back on my own and froze all the way back to Addiscombe into the headwind, it was freezing coming home tonight.

[Sylv]

It was a bit more manageable on a road bike

Although when I looked at my computer at the first red light after Redhill we'd been averaging close to 25mph

Tonight it was Paul's saddle bag that decided to part company with his bike.

Paul and Stu were the strongest on the way back and managed to open a small gap on the hills before Redhill, I was behind Dan who then got dropped, so had to work unbelievably hard to catch up those two who were working well together. I was trying to recover as we hit another hill and they got away again, luckily there was a red light not long after,we finished the ride at three.

In Redhill I drafted a bus and as we hit a greasy roundabout I put a bit too much power down and did a nice rear wheel drift in tribute to Stu

I had 22.8mph back in Coulsdon where we began to feel the cold wind down the bypass, then Stu tricked me into taking a hilly route back to Croydon, thankfully my headlight died on the way so I could hide behind him.

60km in 1h45

[Dominic]

I knew I was going to have a hard time tonight because my legs felt tired on the way to and from work today. However I was not impressed to find myself dropped by the M23, even a 30mph chase got me anywhere near the rest. Carried on along the A23 to the roundabout by Gatwick and turned round.

Got picked up on the way back and managed to hang on for a bit and then managed to take George off the back when I let the wheel in front go. Sorry George!! Another frantic chase with George ensued to find myself dropped on the drags up to Redhill.

I am sure there was something on the roundabout in Redhill because I had also had a slide while going round it.

Still good training, which is what it is all about.

[Daniel Gee]

Sorry about that Sylv.

I just run out of fuel at that point and it wasn't until I got back to croydon that I rememebered that I had a bottle full of drink I'd barely touched

However I think it only seemed unbelievably hard chasing stu & paul because up until that point you were getting a disproportionate amount of shelter from my great fat arse!

excellant ride last night and i'm looking forward to making it all the way back to croydon sometime soon!

[Stu Merckx Man]

last night was great fun.

it was a really fast one this week. kind of just like a training group ride on the club run, but in the dark

paul was strong again this week, getting noticeably stronger, doing some really strong turns on the front. i couple of times after i had done a turn and paul was next in line i would find myself giving it everything to get back ontot he group.

sylv was also doing tons of work towards the middle of the ride. as soon as the group got jumbled up at a round about sylv would be at the front again, even if he had just done a turn!

as sylv said i managed to persuade, not trick, him into doing a hilly route into croydon

at one point i had been on the front for ages, and was feeling rather pleased with myself as i thought sylv was too tired to come round me- but then seylv told me his light has broken

[Sylv]

No worries Dan you did well to hang almost all the way, there are not too many people in the club who could.

It's great to have a blast at warp speed in a small group at night, I could never replicate such a hard effort on my own or on a turbo.

Loved it when just before the tunnel on the way back Paul went "only 30 seconds at the front now and try upping the pace" whilst we were already over 25mph

I'm still not too familiar with the peeling off method though, practically every time I splipped my way down I seemed to struggle to keep the right pace to getting on the last wheel without getting dropped.