Hi Mark,
thanks for putting up this post. im not sure if youll still be interested now that it's Aug and you wrote in Apr!
i started road riding when i got into triathlon late 2002/early 2003. i ride on Sat/Sun mornings when i haven't been out/worked the night before but it's highly variable. i guess if there was a group i HAD to meet up, that would force me to rock up on time.
i think my av spd is 30kmh on a good day, and yesterday when i rode for the first time in this really frustrating headwind it was probably 27-28kmh.
on an enthusiastic day, i ride from Brighton (end of Nth Rd) to Mordy and back (35km tot) in 1hr10min, sometimes stopping for stretch/toilet at Mordy. cuz i ride to Melb uni from Bri (13km, takes me 35-40 min on MTB, incl bloody traffic lights) 3 out of 5 days, and swim and run other days, sometimes i dont quite feel up to the 35km, so i just do 20km. id love to be able to do 35km comfortably all the time. im no hotshot triathlete-- just wanting to be build myself up cuz it's all acting as a base for further years.
at the moment i dont ride with anyone, and am still pretty clueless on road riding etiquette. yesterday i rode 20-25km from Bri to Beaumaris; didnt get passed except by a pack of strong cyclists who zoomed past me. it was really windy so i sat on their tail until we hit a hill and they blitzed! another tag-along guy at (who had a nice Bianchi and looked big/strong/intimidating) lost the pack too, so we were the [censored] tag-alongs who couldnt keep up. i was surprised that i rode at the same speed as this guy. i was too scared to talk to him, and he looked up-himself, so we were overtaking each other every 2km or so. he looked like he was struggling against the wind too, and at one stage i noticed he was sitting right on my tail. i ended up being in front of him, and now dont feel so bad about my cycling. maybe he was just having a **** day??
and yeah i need some cycling mates who arent too fast, but again arent just looking at the scenery the whole time. ive tried to give an indication of my speeds-- sorry for the big message!! my max spd going down the steepest hills is probably 54kmh (but that's a little scary for me), and on windy/[censored] days going up the steepest/longest hills on the Beach rd trip i depress myself seeing the 17kmh reading on my speedo!!!!! (it's so humiliating!)
if you're still looking for people to ride with on Sat or Sun mornings pls send me an email: <[email hidden]>-- that's if you can put up riding with
(1) a girl (sorry that makes me slower/less gutsy i think!) and
(2) one of those bloody triathletes with aerobars.
cheers
Su
