CR1402

[Keith]

Very nearly disaster in the Training Group today.

We arrived last at the cafe.

I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear that the was still some cake left.

Oh, was a good ride too.

[Antloony]

[quote="Keith"]Very nearly disaster in the Training Group today.

[Michelle]

Nice run, though a bit disorganised for the 19's due to me calling straight on at the roundabout, meaning we would have reached the caff at about 10am (sorry chaps).

Instead, after a conflab we took off down the dual carriageway by the side of the airport (the one that goes under the airport) which could have been horrendous as there was a left turn onto the M23 like there is at Hooley, and it is up to 70mph on one section. Still not too bad and nice to be on a decent bit of road. We lost a few at a roundabout including Paul on the P and others, and we thought they knew a better route. We couldn't have pulled over to wait for them in any case. No through and off though, no one could be bothered today.

Nearly first at the caff for once, had a good break and a good chinwag for a while. Then back to Oxted with Hal who was going to visit a rellie. Nice for me that this ride was in NO WAY an lbp ride, managed to max out on a number of occassions. Apparently this is all good anaerobic training and therefore the point of the whole thing

Great to be out in the fresh air, as I haven't been out since 29th Jan. Hope the weather stays milder from now on.....

[Andrew G]

Belgian kneewarmers = embrocation with the heady aroma that accompanies it keeping your nose clear in the winter months .

Good to see you again Sean.

I went A23, A25, Polhill, Garden Centre coffee, Pilgrims Way, Botley today as I think it's a more interesting route than the A roads to the Pine cafe. That stretch of A25 is a real roller too so a bit tough on the terrain front. Only joined by Brian, Richard, and Glen though as everybody else seemed to want to head in the same direction as every other week .

Was going well enough on the flats but struggling on the drags today, I always suffer on them in the colder weather as my leg muscles struggle to warm up properly. Decent ride, and a reasonable enough pace.

Ta, ta,
Andrew.

[Amy]

Sorry, Andrew, the shortened club run was perfect for me today as I was due to ride back to my parents for lunch and help with a few diy jobs. But prising people out of their comfort zone (blanket) is hard as I know from experience

I was just thinking that I wouldn't be able to do anything next Saturday because my mother wants to come over and have tea with me in Sutton but I think I might try for a longer ride on Sunday, probably lunch in Cranleigh. Will post on the slow and steady rides conversation.

[Rob Q]

[quote="Sean Hogan - 何祥"]Short ride on the A roads out of Reigate was largely incident free until big Rob not long after talking insurance decided to lose it on the roundabout when he must've caught soem diesel and down he went. No harm done then so thats good.

[thePinkDreamMachine]

[quote="Michelle"]70mph on one section.....

[mlocke]

First club run for me for a while.

Decided that the 18's was the group for me as the legs are feeling dead as am in the middle of a hard couple of weeks and the legs were not feeling great.

18's when called didn't really happen so ended with the 17's. We went on a quite mainy roady route but some of the surfaces were really good and was nice to take a slightly different route to normal.

Think the group worked reasonably well at times with some surges off the front up the hills from members then re-grouping once over the brow.

Before we knew it we were coming toward the cafe from the opposite direction. I enquired as to whether there would be a sprint?? Mike must have heard and off he went, there was my answe I thought so went after him and nicked it before the line

The ride back was the box hill route for me. Large group of us and after a short while we saw Adam coming the other way. He turned and joined us and he had soon increased the pace. 5 or 6 tried to sit on the front with him but before long the constant pace meant the group of 15 - 20 had wittled down to 5 including myself, steve, jonathon & Andy??

On the little climb before box hill i put it in the little ring to pootle over the top knowing that the legs were beginning to feel the weeks efforts.

Once over the other side caught up with the group then we were onto the race for the top of the box. Once we had turned onto the zig zags i knew immediately thi would be slow & painful and indeed at the first haripin the ony thing that stopped me from getting off and running up the bank was the fact that this option looked harder than riding up it!!

At the top the time was indeed slow - the slowest I have ever recorded at over 9 minutes!!

Then on the ride home I blew up en-route and had to stop to stuff my face with a packet of custard creams After that fealt fine.

Overall was really good ride. Fealt easy for the most part and was nic to be in a group of different people with different things to talk about (Demurrage & Freight etc) on a slightly different route

Thanks and see y'all next week

P.S the cake at the cafe can sometimes get a little bad press but I would like to say that the piece I had today was gorgeous!!

[Roy Green]

[quote="Sean Hogan - 何祥"]
remember [url=http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=PRODUCT_REVIEW&ARTICLE_ID=927&RETURN=Rapha%202009%20Rapha%20Belgium%20Kneewarmers%20page&RETURNLINK=%2Fza%2FCCY%3FPAGE%3DBUY_PRODUCT_STANDARD%26PRODUCT.ID%3D5469%26CATEGORY.ID%3D367%26MODE%3D%26TFC%3DTRUE]White is the new black[/url]

Sean

[Sylv]

I count 1,100+ words in little green man's latest post (not that I've read it)

[Andrew G]

[quote="Sylv"]I count 1,100+ words in little green man's latest post (not that I've read it)

[Sylv]

[quote="Andrew G"]Nice new TT bike, but those wheels on a CR .

[quote="Sylv"][quote="Andrew G"]Nice new TT bike, but those wheels on a CR .

[Andy E]

Well, that was bloomin hard work! My first outing in the training group this year, thankfully there were a lot of us so i didn't have to get too near the front With Paul, George and Keith around it was a pretty hot pace from the off. We stuck to the main roads (nice and sensible) and I was struggling to stay in the wheels, often losing half a bike length and having to dig deep to claw it back. Thankfully once i'd warmed up things got a bit more bearable and most of us started doing through and off on the dual-carriageway (though not all of us eh Stu ).

Almost as soon as we had turned round after Rusper and heading to Charlewood Paul and George started attacking.. Vicious they were and it really split the group up. I managed to get up to them along with Keith and thought we'd stay if it wasn't for those pesky lights Approaching the sprint I made sure i positioned myself about 4th wheel, and waited as long as possible. Keith came flying past and I waited to see who would chase. No-one did so i decided to go for it, hammering the pedals i closed the gap, sat in for a quick breather and went again to just take him on the line for my first ever sprint win in the Training A group

To celebrate I had a bacon sarnie, which was soooo gooooood

The run to box hill was a little less balls-out and I managed to hang on to Pauls wheel until the first hairpin before blowing up and then taking it easy to the top. Nice steady ride back to Coulsdon.. Great day.

[Sylv]

Very disappointed with your Box Hill performance Andy :- P