by JayneToyne » Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:29 am
rob, i can't believe you've never done a reliability ride!
Basically, it's down to you to choose the time you think you can complete the ride in, usually its a 100 or 110km distance route with a shorter one usually around 65km. Mostly they are taxing with a few hills and the weather at this time of year helps to make them harder.
you have options to complete the 110km it is something like 3.5 hours, 4 and 4.5 hours but depends on the course and its difficulty
when you start you say what time you are aiming for, they write that down on a time sheet, you then follow a route map/ course directions.. or someone who's done the course many times before... get your card stamped or signed at each checkpoint, ride like the clappers and get back to the start point for tea and cake... and to get your little certificate to say you completed the course in the time you said you would.
guess its a bit like an audax
i dont do them anymore because they are too far for what i want to be doing at this time of year, but have done them in the past and they can be .. er intersting. i remember crying on my own at the bottom of star hill one early feb in the snow and ice being too tired to even push my bike up the final hill... but i had only been cycling again for 4 weeks after several years off...thats my only excuse. i havent pushed my bike up any hills since then.
character building is what im told it is called.
they are also a way of helping promote clubs to other cyclists... its the old fashioned way of cycle networking... each club hosts its own reliability ride
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