Gags said:I currently have one of our nieces staying with us and she is a pretty good
cyclist and pretty keen to keep her training up (I think she has been pretty
successful in mtb and road events at NSW state level). I agreed to go for a
ride with her yesterday and we ended up doing 60km on the road bikes in the
morning and another 50km on mtbs from 8:30pm onwards (we got a good look at
the Aust Day fireworks as we topped the hill above the Burnley bridge). She
is keen to get a heap of kms up and I was thinking of suggesting the
hellride to her that starts at Black Rock on a Saturday.
Has anyone done this?? If so, what's it like in terms of pace and treatment
of newbies. I am also trying to come up with a credible excuse as to why I
can't do it as I am pretty shattered after the rides yesterday (commute to
work today was a struggle). I will probably drag her out on the BR ride on
Sunday but I was hoping to get some idea on what the hellride is like.
Ride On,
Gags
I used to do it, when I lived in Elsternwick a few years ago. I went back for a reprise recently, and maybe I'm getting old, but it seemed a lot scarier. We've had two big wipeouts in the shop, one with a trashed frame, from guys who have crashed really hard on that ride. I think, and shoot me down in lurid yellow acrid smoky flames if I am wrong, that it may be to do with the aggregate number of hours spent racing at a club level of the people participating in it.
Once upon a time, you learnt how to hold a wheel and form a paceline when you were a junior racing in smaller club rides. If you touched wheels, and went down, it wasn't at 50kph, and you didn't have 20 guys right on your wheel, so you learnt the consequences of a twitchy riding style in a slightly less catastropic way.
Now, anyone who can generate a few watts can get in a monster bunch (a la European pro circuit that they see on Fox), without the winnowing of local training bunches (i.e. you learnt what NOT to do in a bunch in order to stay upright, or got told in no uncertain terms/shunned/debarred for it) that traditionally went on when the majority of road riders rode in club races, and did their 'apprenticeships'. You didn't get to A grade until you had *all* the skills required, not just sheer power. Consideration, as well. *Really* good riders tend not to be arrogant (which many wannabes on Beach Rd. tend to exhibit: male display ritual perhaps?), or ride arrogantly or carelessly, coz they know it might be them on the deck in any blink of the eye. People who get fit on magtrainers and in tri's, or (solely) on solo training rides, or who think they've got something to prove, drop their little spraymist of venom on everyone around them, unsettling all, and making the ride a less companionable place than it might be. That's my experience, anyway. Just not enough hours in a bunch before hammering along at 50 with people all around you, any one of whom could sneeze.
M "who loved the look on the guy on the red Fondriest's face (and the abuse which came out of the mouth of) when he overtook him on the 26" commuter with a full Crumpler on Footscray Rd. at 40kph yesterday (gloat, gloat)" H
