Today’s weather was a bit better than two weeks ago. It wasn’t raining as hard and it was quite a bit warmer, maybe mid-fifties. And we started with fairly dry roads. So, it was a pretty good day to learn how to ride two feet behind the rider in front of you.
We’d already covered the basics, so we just hit the road at a steady 15 MPH to warm up. Team Kristy consisted of our coach, me, Mark and Scott. We had a really good groove going right away and wicked it up to about 18 MPH fairly quickly. Of course, Cañada Road has some gentle hills, so there were times we slowed to 13 and accelerated to 22. But at the end of the ride, my bike computer showed we averaged 15, so that was pretty good.
I’m still getting used to my bike and the jump between the small and big chain ring is significant. So, there were times when I had to shift to the small ring to climb a hill, but as soon as I did, my rear deraileur was on too big a sprocket and I was spinning madly and slowing down. Not good. But as the miles pile up, I’ll get used to that and hopefully the transitions between shifts will be smoother.
On the last lap, Kristi had us chase her down. She’d break away from the paceline and we’d practice catching her as a group… just like you see in the Tour de France. That was fun! Then, at the very end of the lap, there’s a little hill that leads up to where we park. Rick joined the group on the last lap (he was riding solo to take pictures of everyone else). He said, “Okay, everybody click down two gears and finish strong out of the saddle.” So I did. And I found out I was the ONLY ONE who did! Pretty funny, Rick LOL. I didn’t mind, though. I had plenty of “gas” left in the tank and contemplated going out for a fourth lap. But no one else was going, so I decided to save it for another day. Still had a blast though!
Things I learned:
I tried to focus on the water bottles on bike in front of me. That gave me some view of the road and the rear brake caliper of the bike ahead. I managed to stay within five feet of the bike in front of me at all times and when I was following Mark or Kristy, I tried to stay even closer.
I also noticed the benefit of being in the draft. On a day like today, it was noticeably warmer in the draft. There was much less air moving over you, so you warmed up quickly. And once you rotated to the front, you got cold just as quickly. On downhills, I had to feather the brakes to avoid getting sucked into the bike in front of me. This led to people thinking I was slowing when I really wasn’t. So I tried pedaling softly while feathering the brakes, which was a little smoother, but still led people to think I was slowing. I’m going to have to find a way to manage my speed better.