only about 5 of them turned up! it seamed alien to me after only riding the addiscombe club run.
they had one super strong rider called steve dennis who was crazy strong. hes a really good time trialist, and he looked it. his pedal action was so smooth, and even up the big hills he looked like he was puting in no effort at all.
when we started off my legs were still tickleing a bit from yesterday, but once i got going they felt fine. within about 3 miles we had halved the group of riders... i say we, i mean steve.
the route was a really pleasant one with lots of nice roads and hills, although it was ear crunchingly cold. there were a few big climbs during the ride and i managed to stick with steve up them all, though only just. a lot of the time it seamed like he was testing me or something...if i was riding beside him up the big climbs he would slowly increase the pace so i would have to draft behind him...then he would look round every so often and ramp up the pace slightly...i was never sure if he was going as hard as he could, i certainly hope he was on some of the occasion! but his bike would never wobble on the climbs, whether mine would be rocking violently from side to side, or my back would be bobbing up and down.
funny moment when we got to a massive hill but paul thought it was a small one, and half attacked it, i stuck behind steve and he slowly edged too, and then passed paul, and then dropping him
towards the end of the ride it was just me paul and marek left, after splitting with steve and the others to head home. we kept it nice and fast, and marek had enough left in the tank for a little sprint into east grinstead.
nice ride, about 46 miles. im going to try and go out with them some more on sundays if i dont have other offers...is that dis loyal of me!?
cheers,
stu
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